Why Beyond First exists
I grew up in Haymarket, Virginia, as the son of Mexican immigrants.
Because I was in ESL, I was regularly pulled out of the English classes my classmates attended. I found it embarrassing. I didn't understand that learning differently had nothing to do with my intelligence. Without role models who looked like me pursuing higher education, I compared myself with the people around me and quietly began believing that I wasn't as capable — that college simply wasn't meant for someone like me.
Eventually, I tried to leave school. My mother gave me a difficult choice: return to college or begin supporting myself completely. At the time, it felt harsh. Today, I recognize that she was fighting for a future I couldn't yet imagine for myself.
I went back and earned my bachelor's degree in Business Analytics.
Years later, I visited Mexico for the first time. We returned to my mother's childhood home, where I watched my parents stand together on the second-floor porch and look out over the city. Seeing the conditions they had once considered normal, they became emotional. They could finally see how far they had come — and what they had escaped to give our family another possibility.
Standing there, I understood their sacrifices differently. My parents had spent much of their lives in survival mode. That sometimes made growing up difficult, but everything they did came from a deeply selfless place: family first. They worked relentlessly so my sister and I could inherit opportunities they never had.
But opportunity doesn't always arrive with instructions.
Beyond First is the community I needed when I was younger — a place where being unfamiliar with the path is never mistaken for being incapable of walking it. A place to find role models, ask the questions your family may not know how to answer, and recognize that you belong in rooms no one in your family has entered before.
Your family's story may have brought you this far. You don't have to navigate the next part alone.