First generation Americans face a host of struggles, especially when it comes to financial literacy. Alejandra Campoverdi, former White House aide to the Obama administration, provides a poignant account of this first-generation journey in her latest memoir, 'First Gen.'
She candidly explores the highs and lows of her career, shedding light on her personal encounters with financial insecurity, and how she navigated it all as a child of immigrant parents. Campoverdi joined TheStreet to discuss her new memoir, her relationship with money and the resources young first generation Americans need to succeed.
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: Talk to me about the process of writing this book, Alejandra, and what you want readers to take away from really this incredible story that you sought to tell?
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI: Well, it is a memoir, but I keep saying that it's more than that because the idea is to have a broad examination of the emotional toll of social mobility on first generation young people. And what I wanted to do with this is really catalyze a conversation around this topic and normalize the first-gen experience, which is so much more nuanced than we give it credit for.
J.D. DURKIN: So what did your relationship with money look like at a young age? I mean, some of those values or conversations sort of instilled to you in terms of even things like basic financial literacy in your household and how you think maybe that might have been a little bit different from any of your peers in school or in your friend groups who maybe were not first generation?
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI: Well, I love the diplomacy because, as from reading the book, my...our relationship with money was trying to find some and hold on to it for as long as possible. You know, my family immigrated a few years before I was born from Mexico, and there were times we were on public assistance when I was a child. And I talk about it in the book, you know, opening the fridge and there was only food in one little section marked with my name on it, right? Because it was very much trying to pay the rent and then stretch the rest of the money for the rest of the month.
Right so as I went through my career and I went to college and I started having a different relationship with money, it still was something fraught. And when we look at the relationship that first gen young people have with money, it is one of financial trauma. This is not a cozy conversation around the dinner table kind of thing.
J.D. DURKIN: What are some of the kind of cultural expectations on your own view of finance that you think might surprise someone else who is either learning about your journey in the form of the interviews that you're doing, or really maybe picking up your book and learning a lot more about you and your story for the first time.
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI: Well, the idea of investing, right, that isn't something that there's a lot of fluency in. Right and so it's hold on to money. You know, find get a good job, hold on to that job. Don't necessarily move around. And you know, the idea was in a scarcity mindset. I guess that's the best way to put it. And as you know, you know, the scarcity mindset is not how you're going to be able to build generational wealth for your families. And that's something that's uniquely put on the shoulders of first generation young people.
One thing I talk about is the breakaway guilt of coming home after going to these institutions and places and getting these degrees, and you make more money than anyone in your family. And the feeling of, oh my god, my life changed and no one else did. How am I going to help them? 50% of first generation students while they're in school feel responsible financially for their family members. Think about that and think about your own college experiences. Was that the case. And what kind of burden is that?
J.D. DURKIN: One third of all college students in the U.S. are first generation students, yet only 27% of first gen students finish college within four years. What do you think needs to change in order to get more students the support that they need?
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI: Well, the number one thing in our poll that students asked for was not academic support. It was mental health support. Right so there this is an optimistic, almost blindly audacious group of high achievers. Right but they get to these systems and they don't have the support emotionally to be able to navigate through this. And this may sound like soft skills. And so on, but as we all know, you can be getting straight A's. You can be the top person at your company. But if you don't feel that you have the community and the resources around you to be able to succeed, it's really difficult.
And so I really think and not even beyond what I think the students told us, that what they need are mental health services that are culturally competent on their campuses. And what that looks like is some schools that I've talked to actually have this - have a dedicated psychologist on campus for their first generation students to help them navigate this, have integrated mental health therapy sessions integrated into their college campus. This is, again, maybe a holistic way that people don't think about this topic, but this is what they're saying that they need.
