{"id":1346,"date":"2022-03-11T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T23:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2022-03-11T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T23:22:09","slug":"anahi-urias-pratt-institute-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/anahi-urias-pratt-institute-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Anahi Urias, Pratt Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anahi Urias is a sophomore photography major at Pratt Institute. As a first-generation college student, she struggles daily to navigate college with little guidance on the process. These struggles are especially prevalent when figuring out how to pay for school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy father works in sanitation in Santa Monica. Every day he leaves for work at 7 am and doesn\u2019t return home until 8 pm. He does that every day for 7 days a week, and it\u2019s still not enough.\u201d Anahi said when asked about her biggest inspiration for attending Pratt Institute. She goes on to explain that even though in the \u201ceyes of the government\u201d her father is well off, her family struggles to make the necessary expenses needed to live comfortably. Resulting in her beginning her first job at 15. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would go to school – which would end at 4 \u2013 I\u2019d have worked at 5 or 5:30. Within that time frame, I would make the commute to work. Then I would work till 9 or 10. That\u2019s a lot to put on a 16-year-old. I was literally a kid, you know.\u201d Dealing with customers and working in such a strenuous environment from a very young age revealed to Anahi that she had to pursue higher education. It was the only way to ensure that she would be able to provide her family with a life that would be worth living. \u201cWhen I decided to go to Pratt, I started to pick up extra hours to save money on top of supporting myself. I would wake up, go to work, wash dishes for 8-10 hours, and then go home, and repeat that for 6 days a week. And on days when I had off, I had to choose between resting my body or doing something (creatively) productive.\u201d Anahi makes the point that while attending Pratt she is going through the same environment that she started at 16. Except now she is doing it for something she loves. Though she is happy and grateful for this opportunity, the mental energy exerted between beginning a career and working just to make the next tuition payment is impossible to maintain. \u201cI have to do it (working and going to school), but it\u2019s hard when not only am I trying to stay happy – I\u2019m also trying to figure out how I\u2019m going to afford to eat the next day. It\u2019s a lot,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a lot when you don\u2019t have your parents sending you 500 dollars every week. Or every other 2 weeks. Or just 500 dollars in general.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anahi struggles through tuition, food insecurity, and maintaining her mental health every semester. In combination with the limited support from her parents, it is impossible to truly feel secure in her identity as a student. \u201cEven with the financial aid awards I’ve received, there\u2019s still a good amount of money I have to pay. And I have to pay for the materials on my own and that itself is a lot of money. I still have a balance to pay, and I can\u2019t register for classes until I\u2019ve paid my balance. And it\u2019s not like I can just write a check – that check will bounce – and I can\u2019t get a loan, and my parents can\u2019t get a loan.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worry about that (paying off loans) all the time. You know because college isn\u2019t a guaranteed thing. Even if you get a high-paying job \u2013 you still have to figure out rent and water bills, and then you have the student loans that you have to start paying for six months after college. And to even get the job in the first place? It\u2019s difficult because there\u2019s a lot of people fresh out of college and they\u2019re doing the same thing you\u2019re doing.\u201d This struggle has begun to seep into pre-graduate life. Anahi currently works a work-study job on campus. She is grateful to work on campus. It frees up time in her schedule and eliminates the commute. However, she is only given one shift because her peers also need to be scheduled. \u201cThere are so many students that need a Work-Study that there aren\u2019t enough hours for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite it all, Anahi\u2019s passion for her art remains. \u201cPhotography is what I love doing. The actual action, being in your own zone, holding a camera, just choosing where and how you want to make an image appear that in and of itself is relieving to me. I find a lot of joy in it. Being able to do something you love doing, and getting paid for it? Sign me up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anahi Urias is a sophomore photography major at Pratt Institute. As a first-generation college student, she struggles daily to navigate college with little guidance on the process. These struggles are especially prevalent when figuring out how to pay for school.  \u201cMy father works in sanitation in Santa Monica. Every day he leaves for work at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,44,30],"tags":[16,27,19,89],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assembly-district-57","category-senate-district-25","category-pratt-institute","tag-financial-aid","tag-food-costs","tag-student-loans","tag-work-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1358,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}