Soon-to-be graduate goes beyond first-generation expectations

(Ashland, Ore.) — To describe Nansi Cortes simply as a first-generation college student and soon-to-be Southern Oregon University graduate would ignore both her personal history and her family’s unwavering support.

Nansi’s immigrant parents, whom she said had “lower than a grade school education,” were nonetheless aware of education’s potential impact on their children. So they were all in when Nansi was in eighth grade at Medford’s McLoughlin Middle School and became eligible for the SOU/McLoughlin Bulldogs-to-Raiders partnership, a pathway program designed for first-generation Hispanic students to learn about higher education and receive extra help with coursework.

Nansi, a senior in the SOU Honors College, will receive her bachelor’s degree at the commencement ceremony in June. She has served as a student mentor, a teaching assistant and a lead student assistant in the university’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. And she already has been accepted into the SOU master’s degree program in Clinical in Mental Health Counseling.