Leaving home to attend the University of Delaware wasn’t easy for Saray Lopez, a first-generation college student and human relations administration major in the College of Education and Human Development.

Born and raised in Frankford, Delaware, a rural town with more farms than traffic lights, Lopez is the third of four children with loving parents who each work two jobs to put the kids through school. Lopez adores her big family. She has fond childhood memories of playing in southern Delaware’s state parks and beaches, and she cherishes the community she grew up in.

Lopez was thrilled upon hearing she had been accepted to UD. She wanted to go to college and make her family proud. But moving to campus also meant giving up that support system at home, having to explain a problem over the phone rather than over the dinner table. It’s just not the same.

“I remember being in your place,” Lopez said to UD’s incoming class of first-year students on Aug. 26 at the annual Twilight Induction Ceremony, for which Lopez was the featured student speaker. “I was one of the dreamers: a first-generation student, the first person in my family to attend college.”

When Lopez, a natural born citizen, refers to herself as a “dreamer,” it’s in solidarity with her undocumented peers as well as the wider Latinx community. Going to college remains out of reach for nearly two-thirds of Latinx families, according to the Department of Education. For those students who are able to enroll, just 54 percent will finish a bachelor’s degree within six years.

Lopez knew that she would need a support system if she was going to succeed. She joined the First Generation Network at UD, volunteered as a Blue Hen Ambassador and, by her sophomore year, she was serving on the executive board of HOLA, UD’s registered student organization for Hispanic and Latinx students. 

“HOLA is a great resource that connects Hispanic classmates and provides a supportive place where we can get involved,” she said.