Revolutionary Tales: A First-Gen Journey
Revolutionary Tales: A First-Gen Journey
After an uncertain start to his college life, first-generation senior Justin Liu found a home at GW—forging a community and a sense of belonging.
Story // John DiConsiglio
Video & Photos // Cara Taylor
The night Justin Liu stepped onto the Foggy Bottom campus of George Washington University as a first-year student should have been the culmination of a dream.
It was the next chapter in a story that began when his parents immigrated from China—leaving behind a stable life and business, along with the grandparents who helped raise Liu as a young child. Liu was just 8 when his world was uprooted. Landing in Southern California, he lived through years of shifting addresses. At school, he often felt isolated. At home, he grew up quickly, helping his parents navigate a new language and culture.
Now, all the sacrifices and struggles were about to pay off. As the first person in his family to attend an American university, his goals—his whole family’s goals—were finally within reach.
But when he arrived at GW, Liu’s only thoughts were: “I don’t belong here. I want to go home.”
The cross-country trip had unraveled from the start. Liu hadn’t slept the night before leaving California. His flight was delayed for hours. After a long Uber ride from Baltimore/Washington International Airport, he reached campus after 10 p.m. Wandering unfamiliar D.C. streets with a backpack and a suitcase, he asked baffled police for directions to “Gooth-ridge” Hall. It was after midnight by the time he secured a temporary access card and collapsed into his room.
“I was totally ready to drop out,” Liu recalled. “This was just not for me.”
Liu’s uncertainty went deeper than a late flight and a mispronounced dorm name. Along with more than 1,500 other other first-generation college students at GW, Liu carried an invisible weight. For students whose parents did not complete a four-year degree in the United States, finding their footing at a university can feel like winding through a maze—while shouldering generations of expectations.
Liu was ready to give up on his “first-generation American dream.” But, guided by friends and campus support, he built a home at GW. He was elected a first-year senator in the Student Government Association (SGA), joined the Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity and became a peer guide with Founding Scholars, GW’s first-generation student orientation program. Now he directs the First Steps Forward podcast, a monthly broadcast that helps fellow “first-gens” work through issues like financial aid, professional development and the transition to college life.
And this spring, he’ll reach another milestone. Liu will graduate two years early with a B.A. in criminal justice from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences while also pursuing his master’s in criminology at GW.
“I think the reward that you get out of finishing college as a first-generation student makes all those struggles so worth it,” he said.
Qingdao to California
It was Liu’s first night in America, and he had already been evicted from his first home.
After the long trip from eastern China in 2014, Liu, his parents and his 3-year-old brother Charles had arranged to sleep in a narrow rowhouse crowded with other immigrant families. But the landlord kicked them out when he saw his parents had brought their children. Pacing the Pomona streets that night, Liu was already homesick for his native Qingdao and his grandparents who had cared for him while his parents ran a logistics company.
“I felt like we left all my friends and a better life to be homeless,” he remembered. “Why were we even here?”
Over the next few years, his parents moved frequently. They rented house space to other families while carving out their own makeshift bedrooms in garages and staircase nooks. “I was like Harry Potter,” Liu joked.
On his ninth birthday—his first in the U.S.—Liu didn’t expect presents or a cake. But after walking miles to Walmart for kitchen supplies, his mother arranged tea candles on a tray in the shape of a nine. “That was ever so unforgettable for me—having that little bit of a celebration,” said Liu, remembering how he turned his head so his mother wouldn’t see him cry.
In his elementary school, classmates “looked at me as if they’d never seen an Asian person before,” Liu said. At home, his parents relied on him for translating phone calls and paperwork. At times, he resented the extra responsibilities. But he saw the chores as “something I needed to carry out because they moved for me,” he said.
By high school, college seemed like a realistic path. His parents—both educated in China—never pressured him, but he sensed their expectations. When he applied to schools, “my parents were…definitely more stressed than me,” he laughed, “and they were happier about me getting into GW than I was.”
First-gen pride
For 8.2 million first-generation college students nationwide, Liu’s challenges are deeply familiar. Without guidance from family who attended college, tasks like registering for classes or moving into dorms can be daunting. Beyond financial strains and adjusting to life away from home, many balance family obligations while battling isolation and imposter syndrome. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about one-third drop out within three years—more than double their peers’ rate—and only 40% graduate within six years. Studies show first-generation students experience higher rates of mental health struggles and feelings of not belonging.
While “there is no one look for a first-generation student,” Sean Watley, program associate for the First-Generation Program within the Division for Student Affairs, says many cite finding community as pivotal to their well-being. “There’s something impactful about having people around you who went through the same things and can guide you,” he said. Indeed, Watley said GW’s first-generation initiatives foster those connections through programs like Founding Scholars and First Gen United, which provides services such as mentorship, textbook exchanges and professional development opportunities.
On campus, Liu’s early doubts faded as he immersed himself in the first-generation community. Like many children of immigrants, he rarely identified with the term, worried it carried stereotypes and stigma. But he roomed in the residential Blaze the Tra1l First-Gen LLC. And through coffee chats with his orientation leader Darianny Bautista—a senior philosophy and political science major and a first-generation student herself—Liu’s anxieties slowly eased.
“I immediately recognized that he had the exact same sense of responsibility so many first-generation students have,” Bautista said. “When you realize that you’re not the only one, when you have somebody you can talk to, it changes everything.”
With Bautista’s encouragement, Liu won an SGA senate seat in his first year, chairing committees and working on issues like housing and student safety. “He is one of the sharpest people and hardest workers I know,” said SGA President Ethan C. Lynne. Liu built a tight-knit circle of friends, including Bautista who even visited his family’s home in Claremont, California. “Justin is unaware of how kind and selfless he is,” she said. “If you know him, you love him.”
Liu’s parents plan to attend GW Commencement this spring to watch him become the first in his family to earn an American degree. He hopes his grandparents—whom he hasn’t seen since leaving China—will also be in the audience on the National Mall.
Looking back, Liu says his time at GW—“the best decision I could have made”—reframed his perspective on his parents’ own journey. His challenges—from that first disorienting night on campus to charting a path no one in his family had taken before—gave him a glimpse into the uncertainty his parents faced as they began new lives in a new country. “I came to understand their struggles,” he reflected. “And I came to understand how important this was to them.”
Meanwhile, he’s embraced the “first generation” term he once avoided. What had felt like a label that set him apart now seems like a testament to how far he’s traveled. As Liu put it, “I can be proud to say that I am first-gen.”