College News
First-Generation Grad Celebrates with Extended Family
Like most graduates, Leocadia Mosquea walked across the stage to receive her bachelor's degree during May's commencement ceremonies to the sound of cheers from her friends and family. Unlike most of her fellow grads, Mosquea's family actually comprised a substantial part of that crowd; more than thirty-five members of her immediate and extended family traveled to Altoona from the Dominican Republic and the Bronx to watch Mosquea receive her Science degree.
Mosquea is a first-generation college student who has lived in the United States for just eleven years. Her family came to the United States from the Dominican Republic to provide a better life for their four children, and they have been eager to watch their eldest fulfill this dream.
"My family is very excited because they are hoping that [my education] will lead to more opportunities. Everything they've been through has been so that we can graduate and have a good life for ourselves and our families."
When Mosquea speaks of her "family," she uses the term broadly.
~Leocadia Mosquea
"I'm very blessed to have my family. To me, my family does not consist of a mom and dad only. My family is my godmother and godfather, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, my second cousins. They have always been there for me emotionally and are very supportive of me, no matter what I do."
In addition to her extended family, another person to whom she is very close was in attendance—her priest. States Mosquea, "He announced in church that he would be coming to see me graduate, because not a lot of kids in my community go to college and not a lot of kids even manage to graduate from high school. It was a big deal in our church."
As she enters the next phase of her life, Mosquea reflects upon the role that education and Penn State Altoona have played in her life.
"I live in the projects in the Bronx and my family provides the best they can for me and I'm very thankful for that. My parents would always say, 'This is not it; this is not the world. The world is so much bigger and better, and you can be so much better. We want you to go out there and see the possibilities; see that if you work hard and try, you can get there.'"
"I actually see that now. I don't think people at Penn State Altoona know how much they have touched me. I found that there are people that are going to love you no matter what, and people that will support you no matter what. By stepping outside of my comfort zone in college, I became another person. I will go back home and know that there is much more to the world than just your comfort zone. I'm a person that I'm really glad to be right now."
Editor's Note: Mosquea has been accepted into Penn State's Huck Institute of Technology, where she will study biotechnology or bioengineering to reach her goal of becoming a doctor and cancer researcher. She is also interviewing for jobs with pharmaceutical companies to defray the costs of her graduate education.