Student Spotlight: Yesenia Garcia

Jul. 24—ROCKINGHAM — In a world of instant gratification and self-absorption — social media, selfies, and tik-tok mirror dances, it can look like altruism is a dying trait amongst the younger, burgeoning generation.

Yesenia Garcia, a recent Richmond Early College graduate, certainly dispels any such sentiments.

Born and raised in Richmond County, Garcia, a first-generation American citizen has achieved a tremendous amount of academic success, but more importantly, has always had an eye towards philanthropy.

After middle school, Garcia had a tough decision to make. While her friends were off to Richmond Senior High, she decided to take a chance and apply to Richmond Early College. "A lot of people do apply, but it's a very small school; only about 65 get accepted to the program," she said. For Garcia, it turned out to be a life changing decision.

"It's honestly an amazing experience. You get a more personal connection with your teachers. I feel like since we are a much smaller school, we are able to actually have conversations with the professors, and we learn more about college life," Garcia said.

Despite being remote for half of her ninth-grade year and all of her tenth-grade year, Garcia gave high praises to the Early College faculty and staff.

"They were really invested. A lot of people gave up in a way, but they really pushed us to keep going. It was really hard; I'm more of a visual learner so being home on the computer was tough."

Being a first-generation college student, Garcia leaned heavily on her guidance counselor, Sandra McDonald.

"Oh my gosh, she's awesome, she was like my second mom to me. She's just so caring. She treats you as her own child, gives you so much advice. I bothered her like every day because of college applications and scholarships. I keep annoying her, but she has helped so much," Garcia said.

Garcia graduated with a high school diploma and an associate in arts last spring, and while she could have stuck around to finish another associate degree, and ease into the post-high school collegiate experience, she decided to make another difficult decision.

"At RCC, they have a lot of business degrees, so they were like, why don't you just stay an extra year, and I could have, but I feel like I need to get out of my comfort zone. I've created a little box, so I need to get out. I love Richmond County, but I just need to find myself."

Garcia continued, "I'm just excited you know, obviously it was really hard at first because I didn't know if I wanted to go to college. Like I said, I was going to stay at RCC and do real estate or something. I would have done it for free and not had to pay anything, but I'm so thankful I got these scholarships and I want to do something that at least my family can fall back on."

Garcia is headed to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the fall, where she intends to study international business and minor in political science.

Before leaving, Garcia made her mark on the county by helping future Hispanic American college students apply for school and scholarships.

Garcia described her background and her desire to help students in similar situations.

"I came from an immigrant household, so it's like a different country first and foremost, and there's all these barriers, like financial and language. I didn't learn English until I was in second grade, like fluently," she said.

Accordingly, Garcia sought out other Hispanic Richmond County students.

"Back in January I collaborated with another early college student. She came from Scotland County, and we advertised this thing, where we created two sessions, one in English and one in Spanish, where we talked to tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders on how to apply to college — the different apps, fafsa, scholarships, all of that, and we did it in English and Spanish. I feel like, especially coming from a Hispanic community, there's a lot of barriers. I didn't have anyone that came from that perspective," Garcia said.

After college, Garcia intends to continue assisting students in Richmond County.

"I want to start a nonprofit that helps a lot of the Hispanic community here in Richmond County when it comes to college applications, because I'm thankful that I speak Spanish fluently — I can read it and write it. I'll be able to help families translate stuff and be able to talk to them in both Spanish and English and be able to provide them resources that I didn't have growing up. That's my goal," Garcia said with a proud smile.

Garcia urged future students to invest in Richmond County.

"I've put my community first; I've done a lot of volunteer work. I feel like when you become involved in a community, you see things, that's when you see things that need to change, and people that need help."