Celebration! Everybody’s favorite part of any gathering and achievement — a moment to share joy, success, and togetherness. November is the month in which a lot of big things happen; it has elections, honored Veteran day, and remembering the dead. This is the month that’s filled with laughter, celebration, and honor.
The first week of November is the time when we celebrate being the first in our family to attend college and university. Being a first-generation student comes with a lot of things to prove to yourself, family, community around you, and this is the time when we get to celebrate our achievements and share our accomplishments with all the people.
First generations Monarchs have always celebrated by connecting, having dinner together with faculty and alumni who were first during this week of our celebration. This year’s first-generation celebration started on Wednesday, November 5 with a creative “brain break,” by creating a new artwork based on this year’s theme, which was stars. They created origami stars for the purpose of symbolizing first-generation monarchs are stars and be hanged in the KC Pathways office hoping it will help to make their wishes come true in their educational journey. On Thursday, November 6, we had a leadership panel which featured four panelists, Kelly Lettieri, Dr. Sean Blinn, Dr. David Sosar, and honor student Mann Patel. This event was a success; a lot of the first generation, the Holy Cross community and faculty come out to be part of this great opportunity of hearing from people who are also first generation. President Thomas Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D., joined us as a first generation himself to show support and celebrating together. On Friday, November 7, we had a celebration cake, Crocs Jibbitz, and treats in the lobby of Campus Center.
On November 8, first generation Monarchs went over to New York City—a dazzling crossroads of culture, ambition, and possibility—to conclude our celebration after completing the Monarchs on a Mission program which is overseen by the KC Pathways office. Monarch on a Mission program was established to help guide First generation Monarchs through a seven-week course in which we reviewed social awareness, self-management, decision making, and relationship management.
The bus left King’s College at 7 a.m. and got to New York City around 10 a.m. The first thing we did was to have breakfast at Jack’s Wife Freda restaurant together then headed over to the Museum of Ice cream which we reserved for the celebration. We got to the museum, checked in, and had an employee give us directions before we got into the exciting part of the visit.
We headed over to the first stop which was picking an ice cream name to be our names while in the museum, our next stop was getting ice cream before heading to the celebration room. The celebration room has one rule: you cannot be open unless you have something to celebrate. The first-generation Monarchs had to say “we are celebrating first generation” all together on the count of three. Then the doors opened for us, and we saw a beautiful room filled with colors. In that celebration room we had a “knock-knock” game station dance floor room with music on, and got another ice cream serving with a new flavor. Afterwards, we went to the next station to get a sticker tattoo of our choice, visited the “Banana Room,” filled with hanging yellow and pink bananas, wrote encouraging words on a statement board, and then jumped into a sprinkle-themed ball pit. The last stop on our journey to the Museum of Ice Cream was getting an ice cream sandwich.
After the museum we all enjoyed some free time then met up for dinner before heading back to King’s College.
This celebration would not have been possible without the KC Pathways office and King’s College as a whole supporting us as first-generation monarchs.
