First-Generation College Graduate Has a Hunger for Learning

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George Washington University staff member Edlyn Rochon is a first-generation college graduate times three-she has three undergraduate degrees already, and at least two advanced degrees to come. She is completing her master's in public health while working as a program manager at the Gill-Lebovic Center in the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

The center focuses on community health in the Caribbean and Latin America, which holds a special connection for Rochon. Her parents, each having completed only a couple of years of elementary school, came to the D.C. area as young adults from their native El Salvador. Rochon was born here a few years later, and has always felt hungry for knowledge.

After earning dual degrees at Georgia State, she received another bachelor's degree from University of Maryland. This summer, she will complete work on her master's degree, and then-after a brief trip to Cancun for some much-deserved rest and relaxation-will return to GW and begin work on her Ph.D. while continuing to work at the Gill-Lebovic Center. She will celebrate the completion of her master's degree at Commencement on the National Mall on May 17.

"The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn," Rochon said. "It's kind of like when you take just a bite of something and then realize how hungry you really are. I'm just becoming hungry for more knowledge. I wasn't necessarily expecting that. It has been a humbling experience."

The idea that education can be a ticket to a better life was endorsed by her late father, a construction worker and truck driver, and especially her mother, who cleans houses for a living. None of her three siblings-two older brothers and a younger sister-has a college degree. While the family is supportive of her educational pursuits, she isn't sure they completely relate to her desire for more learning.

"They're always asking when I'm going to finish or saying things like, 'Oh, you're always in school.' But they understand that it is a goal of mine to achieve these milestones. They're proud of me and happy for me."

Being a first-generation college graduate meant needing to figure out her homework on her own in grade school and high school, and when the time came to apply for colleges, to navigate her way through the necessary steps such as filling out financial aid forms.

After earning a dual degree in business (marketing and managerial sciences) from Georgia State University, she moved back to the D.C. area to be closer to her family and enrolled at the University of Maryland, intending to focus on nutrition. "That's where I found public health," she said. She switched programs, earned her third undergraduate degree and then started working at GW in the spring of 2023.

Within the Latino community, Rochon said, there is a high prevalence of diabetes, and she had long hoped to help people combat the disease with improved diet and nutrition. But her lens widened from nutrition to public health when she saw that dieticians help individuals one at a time, but public health workers can have a greater impact by affecting policy and reaching large populations.

"It's better to prevent than to treat," she said. "And I like having different options. You can really make an impact on a lot of different things. It could be something with food access and security, or it could be preventing adolescent pregnancy or working in infectious diseases. There's a lot of different things that you could work on. That's what really drew me into public health-being able to have a greater impact on people and their quality of life."

When she entered the master's program in community health and prevention science the following fall, she discovered that many of her classmates had come straight from earning a baccalaureate degree. She had to adjust to being 10 years older than her peers.

"Understanding that everybody has their own path has been a learning process for me," Rochon said. "But I like being able to work and learn with people of different ages and experiences, from different parts of the country, with a common goal of wanting to improve this world through public health. I've been able to make friendships that I feel like will last a long time."

She hopes to pass along her hunger for learning to her four children, currently ranging from 2 to 10 years of age. She is teaching them that higher education is expected, if not exactly required, of them.

"I'm trying to teach them that this is just the next step," Rochon said. "I've been trying to show them that 'Mommy's in school and one day you're going to go to college, too.' I'm trying to instill in them that whatever they decide-and it is their choice-it's going to be expected of them."

Her family will be cheering her on as she participates in GW's upcoming Commencement exercises.