SOME OF THE OBSTACLES ROSALÍA Zárate encountered in college had to do with her experience as a Latina math major, being a first‐generation college/masters/doctoral graduate. Mathematics has always been an integral part of her life. Mathematics was a subject where her parents could provide assistance despite their language barrier; it became their common language. Many students grow up fearing math, but Rosalía grew up loving it; she found it challenging and exciting. However, while applying to undergraduate programs, she never considered majoring in math, although she excelled in the subject. She was unfamiliar with professions in mathematics; she neither had role models nor understand how it could be applied to the real world and, furthermore, her sisters (who also provided much guidance) did not know of others who fully understood the U.S. educational system (e.g., what different universities had to offer, how to get into graduate school, how to study, what research was, the importance of office hours and building a relationship with professors).

Arriving at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was overwhelming and a culture shock. As a Latina growing up in a more conservative household and community, going off to college far from home was beyond her parents’ expectations. Rosalía grew up in Delano, in the California San Joaquin Valley, a place where many students have limited access to formal education. As long as she can remember, her parents would tell her and her sisters, “The key to success is education.” Rosalía took her academics very seriously, knowing that whatever she learned could never be taken away from her and would only help her get to college and career pathways. Rosalía’s parents, who immigrated from Mexico, have always worked in agriculture as farm workers and did not earn enough to live above the poverty line. The lack of accessibility and resources that her community of Delano had to offer became salient once Rosalía got to college.

On the first day of linear algebra, she noticed that she was the only Latinx student in a class of 30 students and one of only four females. Having been in predominantly female math courses in high school, she felt intimidated, discouraged, and underprepared. This affected her performance. Fortunately, a Profesora encouraged her to continue to pursue mathematics. She struggled her first year, and as time progressed, she grew accustomed to university coursework and her performance steadily improved. The resilience from her previous years began to resurface. This resilience helped her through undergraduate program, to gain admission to the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Masters in Statistics program. Given her experience, Rosalía understands the struggle of being a first‐generation college student, what it is like to be a woman in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), balancing family, culture, and ambition. Rosalía continued to experience the emotions and challenges that numerous students share within our educational system as she transitioned into graduate school and then into the workforce in tech.

Rosalía’s county (Kern) has been recognized as one of the most illiterate in this country, one of the most impoverished, and even the county with the worst air and water quality. However, it is also home of the United Farm Workers’ movement, of some of the most hardworking, humble, and generous people she knows. Rosalía’s community has so much corazon (heart) that they “make it happen” regardless of what cards are dealt to them.

Gracias a Dios (thank the Lord) and her parents’ selflessness and determination, Rosalía was motivated to be a role model in her community and to continue to always move forward, para adelante. They motivated her to go on to graduate school and to pursue her dreams, whatever they may be, “tu puedes.” And so she did.

When Rosalía thinks of the digital divide, she thinks of the lack of accessibility to technology, to understanding technology, to accessibility to computer science and engineering curricula. Rosalía thinks of rural and impoverished communities like her hometown of Delano, where one can only imagine what the digital divide looks like and how it has been exacerbated at this time, when students are struggling with logging in to class (where guardians at home may not know how to log them in to class or the guardian is an older sibling) and lack access to stable internet connections.

It is a divide that exists not only among our younger generations but also among older generations. Rosalía thinks about the divide that exists in understanding how a smartphone works, how email and computer software works. How our society has left older generations behind and out of the conversation about “technology” and the use of technology in our current society, and how our generation at times seems to be left out of the discussion regarding the creation and use of machine learning and artificial intelligence–related products. Rosalía thinks about her parents’ generation and their anxiety in trying to understand how to maneuver a smartphone, not understanding how to set up an online account, and the challenge in trying to explain her data‐related work to them (a heartfelt challenge).

How do we diminish this gap? In one of his interviews, Professor Yuval Harari is asked about what he foresees occurring in the space of education and what might need to change in the upcoming years if we want to move forward as the human race. He touches upon the importance of interdisciplinary work (e.g., checking in with one another as we bring in technology such as artificial intelligence into the healthcare system), and the need for empathy as we continue to live in this digital world, building and advancing in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Rosalía agrees that Latinos/Latinx need to be interdisciplinary and work with one another as we try to address problems and provide solutions. There is no other way for us to move forward. Technology is present in all aspects of our lives, so if we want to move toward a more equitable and just society we must work together and we must do so with empathy. Rosalía advises that as we advance in technology, we have to make sure that technological creations do not negatively affect our Latinx community. All creations and advancements should be made with the most vulnerable in mind.

When Rosalía thinks of the digital divide in terms of lack of access to computer science courses, for example, she thinks of companies that are assisting by providing communities of color with more resources and exposure to coding. But there are not many who are investing in actually building culturally relevant computer science curriculum, helping teachers develop the curriculum, and training teachers to teach such courses. Rosalía worries about the divide between researchers, companies/investors, and practitioners.

How do we encourage Latinx students to pursue higher education? By reminding them that their stories, their perspectives, their talents and skills are valuable, powerful, and very much needed. In order to make sure that the needs of our Latinx community are being discussed we need to be present at the highest levels. As Rosalía’s parents always remind her, education is power.

In order to ensure that we are represented, that we are considered, that our community issues and solutions are at the forefront, we need to be educated. We need to understand the issues our community faces, we need to continue to build our skillset to address these issues in all sectors, and we need to work together and share our knowledge to progress as a community because, sadly, if we are not present our community may continue to be overlooked (as can be seen throughout history and currently).

Having a PhD, for example, can open doors that one may have never even dreamed of or knew existed; it serves as a key to create change. Rosalía’s doctoral program not only taught her about the educational challenges this country faces but also enabled her to work on some of the most critical issues our Latinx students face in their educational trajectories by providing them with the skills needed to find solutions. As a doctoral candidate, Rosalía mentions one is responsible for and looked to, to create something new – a new method, a new theory, a new perspective or way of analyzing a problem. As a PhD you would have the skillset to be able to do that, to see your vision through from inception to completion and to serve as a voice for those who are most vulnerable or do not have access to the privileges of a doctoral workspace. Also, think about the impact of seeing someone from your background with a doctoral degree or as a professor. How many Latinx professors did you have in college; probably not many? Think about the impact that had on you, and how you can now get to be that person for another student.

Rosalía promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion by making sure that it’s on every agenda that she has access to. Whatever groups you’re part of, whatever project you’re working on, make sure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the forefront.

Rosalía promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion by taking action. Whenever she is on any job, she will make sure to ask questions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion – what are the goals, milestones related to achieving a diverse workforce, what does diversity look like, what does inclusion look like, and how will success in these areas be measured? Rosalía promotes it by making it a part of her everyday life – general conversations, sharing knowledge from the books she read in relation to diversity in tech and the effect of biased algorithms on communities of color, including the Latinx community: Rosalía makes it a part of her daily work and research. Rosalía also makes sure to speak to younger generations about college, graduate school, and the need for their skills and talents in STEM fields.

Rosalía promotes diversity, equity and inclusion by having conversations highlighting how now, more than ever, our perspectives are needed.

If we want to make any advances in tech and we want to make sure that our technology is unbiased, then we need to make sure that our workplaces accurately represent the communities they are trying to serve. Individuals developing technology need to be aware of their unconscious biases and how those biases may be reflected in the products they create – hence the need for a diverse talent.

Also, it’s important to consider that machine learning works by utilizing historical data. If the historical data is biased, then the outcome will be biased; the results or output are simply a reflection of what has been input. Thus, if we want that to change we need to make sure that the data we collect is representative of the community we are trying to serve. The data should make sense; this can be checked by making sure that our research or product designs are correctly piloted with diverse populations, that survey items are tested, that we work with the communities we are creating products for. Researchers and companies, for example, should work with practitioners and their local communities to confirm that their interpretations of particular instruments make sense. Those collecting data need to check in with one another throughout their data‐collecting process and take note of how different people may be responding to a product or survey of interest – do all participants understand the survey questions, are we capturing the information we actually want, who is/is not being surveyed, who is responding as expected/or differently than expected, and why might that be? Thus, we also need to ensure that we have a diverse set of eyes analyzing and utilizing the data.

In order for individuals including Latinx students to succeed in higher education they need to build a community of support because one cannot achieve success by oneself. This includes building study groups, connecting with a community that they can relate to where they feel that they belong (for Rosalía, that was Los Ingenieros/MESA organization in undergrad), finding mentors and role models across different areas. Rosalía was a math major who was interested in education, so she sought out mentors in those fields. It was challenging at times to approach professors/professionals, so it is helpful to remember that the majority of the time, people want to help and that it does not hurt to ask.

One of the greatest challenges for Rosalía in graduate school was feeling like she didn’t belong and that she did not have much to contribute, at least not compared to her peers. “How could she possibly be Stanford material?” Rosalía would ask herself. She was the youngest in one of her cohorts of about 30 doctoral students, and one of maybe two, if not the only, first‐generation Latina in her PhD program and masters (in statistics) program. Building a community of support, finding mentors, and realizing that you do have much to offer helped her to feel as though she did belong at Stanford, in the research space, in academia, and in all spaces. Her voice matters.

It is important for students to take care of their health – mentally, physically, and emotionally. Undergraduate and graduate studies, and now the professional workplace, come with their challenges. Some may include dealing with imposter syndrome, cultural dissonance, fear of failure, comparing yourself to others, being too hard on yourself, being impatient with your growth, and managing multicultural worlds. Having a community of support definitely helps with this, as does reaching out to a therapist or counselor to help you process these experiences that many encounter. Also, it is okay to take a break from school if needed, but work on having a plan and having a person(s) to hold you accountable to your plan/goals.

In regards to funding, in addition to seeking scholarships and grants, if one needs to work they should look into work study, and for research assistantships and teaching assistantships that may be available at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This also highlights the importance of building relationships with professors/professionals and other students – build your network. At times professors/professionals may offer contract work; reach out to those you may be interested in working with! Ideally, students should seek opportunities where they can develop/apply skills in their field of interest. Students within our community might not know what they’re interested in or might not have been exposed to different fields; therefore, networking, reaching out to individuals for informal chats on LinkedIn, for example, can help in learning about different fields and opportunities/career paths.

It is important for Latinx students to step outside of their comfort zone, which might need to happen often, because in many instances they may be in uncharted territories because not many Latinxs may have walked a similar path. Additionally, because we are still underrepresented at the undergraduate and graduate level, it is critical that we all work together, look after one another, focus on positive impact, and find the allies.

At times we are scared of failure, one should remember that this is part of our growth and that we are not expected to solve all of the problems in our community, nor do we represent all of the voices in our community – take that weight off of your shoulders. Don’t shut your own doors – sometimes we are our own worst enemy – instead, apply to the job, to the internship, to the college of choice.

And, most important, in order for Latinxs to succeed we need to remain humble, grounded, continue to help others, remember where we come from, be kind, and do our work with integrity. This all can help us make real progress by staying true to ourselves and our personal and communal goals.

Bryan Osorio grew up in Delano, California. He was born in Orange County, but his family moved a few hours north to the City of Delano when he was around seven years old. Bryan went through the public schools in Delano, and he really owes his opportunities of applying to college to his parents, then‐girlfriend, and high school counselor. Because his parents immigrated to the United States at a young age, they did not finish high school, but they always wanted him to excel in school so that, when the time came, he could be eligible for college.

Bryan’s mom, especially, was very supportive and pushed him to do the best that he could. His girlfriend, during his senior year of high school, was a bright, successful, and ambitious student. She actually motivated him to apply to UC Berkeley, which he had never heard of. And his high school counselor connected him to SAT waivers, designated a time for his class to start applying for colleges, and helped him with FAFSA questions. With their help, he ended up successfully applying to college on an iPad that his parents had won in a raffle.

So, in the fall of 2014, he began his studies at University of California, Berkeley. It was very tough being away from his home and dealing with imposter syndrome. It is not the norm for Delano high school students to go away for college or even finish college. Bryan believes the latest statistic for Delano is that only 7 percent of students have a bachelor’s degree or higher. On top of the academic rigor, it was difficult focusing in school at times with the presidential election and administration of Donald Trump, who vilified people like his family. In time, he found a community of friends and colleagues who were interested in public service that helped to mold him into an advocate. By the end of the spring of 2018, he was the first college graduate in his family.

The digital divide is an incredibly significant issue in the Latino/a/x community and is one that continues to be highlighted during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In Bryan’s city, where poverty and unemployment rates are relatively high, broadband access is a luxury that several families sometimes choose to not have for the sake of saving money. Moreover, the knowledge of how to use technology is not to be taken for granted. Retroactively, Bryan believes we should have changed the narrative by bringing in different stakeholders who have seen and heard of the digital divide in Delano, in order to strategize how we will lessen the divide. Now, he believes it is time we highlight the stories of kids whose pandemic‐year school hotspot is the first time they had broadband access at home. Bryan thinks it is time we raise the concerns of pricing. And, Bryan thinks it is time we prioritize tackling the digital divide within our city.

Bryan ran for office because he wanted to see representation that championed social justice and advocated for our marginalized communities. Bryan was not seeing that locally, especially in such a politicized time. So, a few months after graduating from college in 2018, Bryan announced his candidacy for the Delano City Council. With the help of volunteers and friends, especially his campaign manager, Angelica Rodriguez, who was a senior at UC Berkeley, he was able to win the most votes in his election at the age of 22.

Bryan is currently the mayor for the City of Delano, California. In his first year on the council, he asked his local government to make city council meetings more accessible online, especially as larger cities have been streaming their meetings online. Since the pandemic started in 2020, their city of 53,000, as well as many others, has meetings that are accessible through Zoom and viewable through Facebook. Moreover, he wishes to make sure they can grant more technological and broadband access to their youth by further utilizing their Technology Center, and he has made it a goal to accomplish this by the end of his term. Ultimately, they have a lot of work to do as local leaders in ensuring their community can be educated and provided technology access.

Bryan strongly believes that as a Latino/Latinx community, they can succeed when they see and realize that there is more that unites “us” than divides us. As cliche as that statement may sound, he truly believes in it, because there are so many issues impacting marginalized communities, including the Latino, Black, LGBTQ+, immigrant, and other communities. Yet, sometimes, in our own community, we clash with each other on different issues. Bryan understands we are not a monolith. But, at the end of the day, we have to remember our history and how our ancestors fought hard against systems of oppression in order to pave the way for us to continue paving the way for more inclusivity and change for future generations.

Our Latino community continues struggling through structural inequalities that not only impact Latinos but also other vulnerable groups. Bryan believes that through understanding our intersectional struggles and uniting as a collective group we can mobilize and we can achieve success.

Leeanna Chipana grew up in Central Islip, Long Island, New York. She is a first‐generation college graduate. Her father was born in Peru in the mountains. He was an indigenous man and spoke Quechua. He went to school only up to the sixth grade. After that he had to work to support the family. When he was older, he made his way to Lima and learned to speak Spanish, saved money, and immigrated to New York. This meant that while growing up, Leeanna’s father actually looked to her to know the correct thing to do here in America. As a child she had to be an adult right away to help her parents. She struggled in school because, essentially, she had to figure everything out on her own. There was no parent to say, “Hey, looks like you need tutoring in math.”

There was no parent to help with her homework, and schools do not teach kids basic life management skills. She was totally on her own. She could see her father had a lot of pride. “He would never ask for help or show people he really didn’t know how to do something, so there was a pride with me as well.” Leeanna did not ask for help or did not know how to ask for help in school. She didn’t understand she even could ask for help. Leeanna did not plan on applying to colleges as a teen because she assumed it was for other kids who had parents with money to help them. The concept of a loan or a grant was not in her sphere of knowledge at all. Leeanna had a guidance counselor who pushed her to apply. When she got to college, she did not know basic things like time management, how to prioritize what to work on or how to study, how to pay bills, and so forth, so she struggled a lot in college. She recalls thinking, “Okay, suddenly you are supposed to be a complete adult and automatically somehow know all of these things.” Leeanna also had undiagnosed ADHD, so her studies were very difficult.

As a teacher, she can see the stark difference between those students who have always had access to a knowledgeable, educated adult and those who are trying to figure it all out on their own. She sees these traits mirrored in her own experiences; having been completely overwhelmed in college, she failed courses her first year. It was not until her final year that she felt she had a good grasp of her studies and was able to make straight A’s.

In her academic experience, teaching at various colleges in New York, she still does not see enough diversity. You need diversity to change the culture within an organization to be more equitable. Some are trying, but more is still needed to reach parity.

Leeanna feels that when a person is starting out as an adjunct it would be nice if there were a community specifically designed to help him or her navigate the academic community. She imagines that in this community, you are assigned a mentor and you meet with them monthly online and can reach out to them any time. Then Leeanna can see them getting into decision‐making roles more quickly.

Leeanna only recently became involved in “Hispanic” online communities. Growing up, her father refused to teach her Quechua or Spanish because he wanted her to be as “American” as possible. She believes you may find many Latinx individuals who are disconnected from any sort of Hispanic Community. She personally has never felt comfortable calling herself Hispanic, Latina, or Spanish. Leeanna identifies as Quechuan‐American, which makes her Native‐American, not Native American (there’s a difference). She would like to see a change in the wording of these groups to be something more like LNSCA (Latinx, Native South and Central Americans). Much like the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community is extremely diverse in how people identify. The words “Latina” and “Hispanic,” in Leeanna’s view, have too many ties to colonialism. Leeanna thinks this acronym would include more people, and establish a foundation on which to build more mentorship programs that will lead to academic and career success.

Leeanna has gotten into art also to show inclusivity. However, Leeanna believes the problem is when immigrant parents hear the word “art,” they think their children are fingerpainting in an art class. The word has a bad reputation. They may not understand that it is used everywhere, is part of every product they buy, and furthermore is integral to their students’ brain development. Numerous studies show how the arts help students learn to become better problem solvers. Leeanna would suggest incorporating art that uses technology, like classes in product design or 3D sculpture, and digital drawing and painting. So, every art class incorporates tech. This way, students are still creating and ‘“making,” which teaches them problem‐solving skills and at the same time learning the tech used in the real world right now.

With art one can create a visual representation of what they are thinking about, what they are struggling with, or what they are currently investigating. Through social media platforms we communicate to one other with our art. We tell each other pages of information without saying any words. The social media posts say, Hey, this is what Leeanna is thinking about. Right now, she sees a lot of Latinx artists investigating their identity and reclaiming their ancestry. Leeanna sees strong indigenous women in Brazil and Peru fighting for their land against developers and winning. There is a sense of empowerment that comes with art when we see ourselves represented. When she sees activist Nemonte Nenquimo as a heroine on the cover of Time magazine, or actress Yalitza Aparicio winning awards, Leeanna is more empowered herself. To Leeanna this is crucial for the future of Latinx people. She has spent a long time trying to be what she thought a “Latina” was supposed to be, and so she played into stereotypes seen in media. Now, she looks up to real women, like Nemonte and Yalitza, and through her own art she unearths more and more of who she is, and feels that her identity is in “my hands now, no one else’s.”

There is a lot of colorism and racism in the Latin community. Leeanna states that it’s really obvious when you go to Peru and see all the men in their business suits at lunch. You can clearly see the divide between the men with Spanish ancestry in power positions and the indigenous men in the laborer roles. Her own father’s self‐esteem was greatly affected by this. He always felt very small when he was around other Peruvian men of Spanish descent. That kind of thinking is very pervasive in the home and will affect the children of these immigrant families. It took many, many years for Leeanna to simply be okay with how she looked and to shake away the shame she always felt. Leeanna paints against the battle of racism, and the self‐hate born from it. Leeanna hopes to empower women of Central and South American indigenous ancestry. Through her art she wants them to hear, Hey, I see you, you are important, and you are not alone.

Leeanna believes Latinx professors can go to their diversity administrators and open up a discussion about Latinx students. In her required diversity training workshops, she has yet to see thorough discussion on the specific needs of children of immigrant parents.

Leeanna imagines official pdf packets from high school principals that explain in Spanish small but very important things parents can do, like requiring their child bring them their grades on paper and not only tell them their grades. They may not know this is an option. Or perhaps a group that does home visits to discuss with parents important study habits they can help their kids with. Parents may be working too much to actually be that involved, but if they learn some strategies on how to teach their children accountability or roles they can take on in the home, this would make an impact.

Elizabeth Kukka was born and raised in San José, California – her parents still live in the same house today, in a working‐class community on the west side. She and her sisters were not only the first in the family to graduate from college, but also the first in the neighborhood. There was an expectation that they would go to university – no matter what. Yet, they also had no idea how they would get there. The application process, SATs, and internships were a mystery. In 1998, in preparation for the “big test,” she remembers asking her mom to take her to Barnes & Noble to buy an SAT prep book. Today, a teen is likely to be enrolled in prep courses and have tutors lined‐up or study groups to meet with. In addition to practicing on her own, she attended a free college‐prep workshop. It was there that she learned about scholarships, how to fill out a college application, and took a mock SAT exam – it had a dozen or so questions on it, far fewer than the number of prep questions most teens use for practice.

When deciding which schools to apply to, the ones closest to home were prioritized – keeping the family close together was important to her parents. At the time, she evaluated a school by its numeric ranking, and where she thought she fit‐in based on her average GPA. Never did I think to inquire about opportunities like internships, letters of recommendation, introductions, or networking.

College was fun – Elizabeth made new friends and loved learning at San Francisco State University. Yet, she was also floundering a bit. Changing majors four times, visiting school counselors, and taking advantage of office hours – the idea of commitment was terrifying. For example, did she want to do the same job for the rest of her life, and what if she didn’t like it? She was unsure of which questions to ask, or how to ask for direction and guidance. What was she going to do after graduation? She needed a mentor, or two, without knowing it, and didn’t know where to find one.

Fast‐forward eight years: Elizabeth had graduated from SFSU, became a successful public‐school teacher, and then decided to go back to school for her MBA – against her parents’ wishes and to their horror and trepidation. Why couldn’t she just be grateful for her stable job? Why shoot for the unknown and take on a large financial risk? For a solid two years, she was met with uncertainty and doubt, and her parents suffered regret, felt on her behalf. Finishing her MBA in 2016, she successfully transitioned from education to tech, while having just as much fun, by facing a new type of challenge. And her parents are finally proud of her, once again.

Sometimes you need to believe in yourself when no one else will, individuals, companies, institutions, and policymakers, and just be your own champion. She believes there are five keys for Latinos to focus on to continue to progress in Latino evolution.

1. Early exposure to digital career paths
2. Teamwork
3. Relationship building
4. Go the extra mile
5. Company hierarchy and negotiation