DVC Alumni: Where Every Story Inspires the Next!

Navigating Community College Success with Ala Mokhtabad

September 03, 2024 • Charley • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Have you ever wondered what it takes for a first-generation immigrant to not only survive but thrive in the American education system? Join us as we explore the extraordinary journey of Ala Mohktabad, who defied conventional paths by graduating high school two years early with her GED and navigating her way to UC Berkeley. This episode unravels the inspiring narrative of Ala's life, starting from her early educational challenges in her small village of Amory to her successful transition to Diablo Valley College in the summer of 2022. We delve into the pivotal role of academic counseling and the supportive environment of community colleges that helped Ala adapt both socially and academically.

As Ala shares her story, she offers invaluable advice for students on building community and leveraging resources to make higher education more accessible. Discover her insights on understanding your specific field of study, the importance of attending office hours, and the strategic use of scholarships. Ala's experience underscores the significance of programs like the first two years free at community colleges, providing a detailed roadmap for first-generation and low-income students with big dreams. Tune in to hear how determination and support systems can turn aspirations into reality.

Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Your feedback helps us bring you more inspiring stories from the DVC community.

Stay connected with us on social media for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and upcoming episodes. Have a story to share or a topic you’d like us to cover? Reach out—we’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, keep pushing boundaries, embracing connections, and navigating your own path to success.

DVC Alumni: Where every story inspires the next.

Speaker 1:

There we go, so cool. So essentially, we're going to do like a informal. You could tell your story, I'll kind of ask questions and things like that. But whatever you know, this is, this is about you and what you have to say and what your journey was like and what you've learned from it. So why don't you start off by telling us who you are and when you went to DVC? So why don't you start off?

Speaker 2:

by telling us who you are and when you went to DVC. Yeah, absolutely so. My name is Ala Moktabad and I started DVC in the summer of 2022. This is really interesting. I'm actually kind of an untraditional student, actually kind of an untraditional student. So I graduated high school two years early because I took my GED and I was told a lot when I did that that it was going to be like an awful mistake because I wouldn't get in anywhere for a transfer.

Speaker 1:

But I go to UC Berkeley now, so yeah, Well, tell me, let's let's back up a little bit. So already you've got me really interested in what's going on. And again, see, this is where your story is way more interesting than mine. So go back to, like you know, where did you come from, where'd you grow up and where'd you go to high school at?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm a first generation immigrant. I grew up originally in a small village called Amory. I have two last names, so my first last name is Moktobod. The second one is Amory, and that's like the village I was born in, and I came to the United States when I was eight years old and I didn't speak English very well, so I got held back one year then as well. But when we moved to Walnut Creek I went to Northgate High School and, yeah, it's a very common high school in this like area. I feel like there's probably a lot of new students coming in from there and, yeah, Well, cool.

Speaker 1:

Now, Amri, how do you spell that?

Speaker 2:

A-M-R-E-I. Well, cool now, amory. How do you spell that? Uh am r e I and where?

Speaker 1:

where is that amory?

Speaker 2:

it's like a small little rural village and it's like a really interesting thing. I didn't even know what the history behind, like my last names were, until I was told it Maktabad literally means cowherder, so my family lineage comes from cowherding in a village, essentially.

Speaker 1:

So actual working people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's really cool to be seeing how it's like turned out throughout time.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's kind of like people now their last name is Smith and most people they haven't. You know, they got to go back four generations at least, or five generations for anybody that swung a hammer Right. So you came here. You're eight years old. You ended up at Northgate, which, by the way, that's one of the that's probably one of the best high schools in the Mount Diablo Unified School District. Academically, a friend of mine did a study some years ago and she said that's the standard that all the schools should be at for the Mount Diablo Unified, for the public schools. So it's a very good school and what, what? So? So back up a little bit more. So you decided to graduate two years early. What?

Speaker 2:

was the decision process on that. So this is actually really funny. It was a little bit impulsive, but at the same time I did a lot of research on it. I wasn't really a fan of like the American high school education system. I just don't really think it transitions nicely into what the real world looks like and it just wasn't something that worked out for me. It works out for a lot of other people, but for me I was like I'm at a stage where I feel like I could benefit more if I was just like put straight into college. And I know people who were doing like dual enrollment and I didn't really want to do that due to like time commitment, so I just wanted to get my GED and go straight into like community college and and how was that transition going from Northgate to you did your GED and then you ended up here at DVC.

Speaker 1:

And how? How was that transition?

Speaker 2:

you know, what helped me a lot actually was I met up with a counselor as soon as I got my GED. I dropped out because that's what you do in America. It's really funky you sign up a paper that says, yeah, I'm dropping out of high school, but I had my GED, made an appointment with an academic counselor at DVC and she saw me and I kind of wanted to understand what it's like to take classes and I think any DVC student and any community college student will say that the most difficult part of community college is understanding IGETC and what classes you're supposed to take. It takes a hot minute to get it. Um, but what really helped me was just like immediately jumping in, getting like a counseling session and taking like summer classes, because that gave me like a vibe.

Speaker 1:

Yeah and so you get here. It's obviously a much bigger community than high school was and, uh, how did you feel? Did you feel like you integrated in pretty quickly or did it was it? Did it take a while to, kind of like, settle in? I mean, you're at UC Berkeley now and I have a daughter that went to UC Berkeley and it's to say it's bigger than DVC is an understatement. But when you went from high school to DVC the social part of it did you find that to be an easy transition or did it take a minute?

Speaker 2:

I found community college social life to be easier than high school. I think in high school there's a lot of cliques, and I'm sure there's still cliques when it comes to community college. But what I noticed with community college students for the most part is they really just want to finish their time here successfully, just to transition. So no one will take the time out to necessarily bully anybody and no one will. You know, I really like that. Like I never experienced any mean remarks from any student and for the most part if you wanted to hang out with people they'd be like sure.

Speaker 2:

But I think the one thing about making friends at DVC that was difficult is it's like as soon as class ended, people just teleported back home and that was hard because it's like I want to make friends and the way I did that was I'm a biology major, so I would go to the science and health center and I just sit there and I would make friends. So it's definitely a little bit tough to make friends because you're not in like this atmosphere of like oh, I'm forced to have lunch every day at the same time, so I have to find friends. No, it's not like that and like. I really appreciated that because I felt like that's how it's like in the real world.

Speaker 1:

So when you were here, what would you say, like, was your so when you first got here? What was the vibe like when you first got here? I mean, so, first of all, you, you, you are much more measured and and thoughtful about what you're doing, moving forward, than most people your age. I mean. I'll say you're you're doing, moving forward than most people your age. I mean I'll say you were, you're, more thoughtful than I was, even at my age now. So, but you, you put some thought into this. So when you got here, what was, what was it like? Was it intimidating, or you know a bit much, or what was that like?

Speaker 2:

Um, I think I would say that on a point of view from like a biology major, it was really difficult because I wanted to graduate in two years.

Speaker 2:

So automatically I had counselors telling me that I can't do that and like it takes two and a half or three years.

Speaker 2:

So I was like but I really want to like finish it up in like two years, you know, and kind of like in the back of my mind I had this thing where I was like but I really want to like finish it up in like two years, you know, and kind of like in the back of my mind I had this thing where I was like, you know, it wasn't necessary, but it's kind of like this imposter syndrome of like, oh, I like graduated two years early from high school, but I want to graduate at the same time as my high school peers did. It's really funky. So I felt like I was kind of in this tight little spot where I needed to really like be focused on what I was doing and like I remember there were a lot of all-nighters that I pulled and a lot of times like my summers and winters were classes all the time. But then, like when you're transferring, you also have to have like community involvement and volunteering.

Speaker 1:

So um so. So what other uh um community involvement did you, did you do while you were here?

Speaker 2:

um, I did quite a bit at dbc, to be honest. I worked as a DSS intern, so I was scribing and proctoring during the examinations that they had. They also did rotations where I got to see what it's like in different aspects of the disability support services at DVC, so I got to see how the counselors work, what it is in the testing facility, front desk, as well as their tech lab that they have. I also worked as a chemistry and biology tutor, which was really fun because it got to like test my skills. There was one semester where I was working three jobs, so it was. It was cool. Yeah, I really liked it, and I think what's really nice about on-campus jobs is they're very respectful of, like, your time commitment and they understand that you're a student. So whenever students ask me, like what do you recommend, I do is get an on-campus job.

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah, my, my youngest one. She did, uh, work, study, study, and she went to a college down in Southern California, a little Christian college, but yeah, for her it was great. You know, it was really a good experience. So what would you say was your favorite thing? What's your favorite memory about DVC? I mean, it sounds like you were all work and no play, but I imagine that's not quite it.

Speaker 2:

No, yeah, no, I had an amazing friend group that I made because I was like with the same group of people from biology and like chemistry for like around like a year and a half. So I made a really good amount of friends and I remember I have a lot of memories, to be honest, and a lot of them come like the night before like an exam. Before like an exam, we would all go to one of my friend's houses and, specifically for like biology or bio 131, we had to like memorize a lot of like scientific names. And there's something that I think about very like frequently, to be honest, is we would try to make these names sound funny so that we would remember it. I came up with one and I don't even know what the actual scientific name for it is, but I just remember saying oh, rich people eat shark thighs, and that was something that we all like remembered but you don't remember what it was for now I don't know what it was for at all, but I also remember, like the old crow's nest at DVC, the one that

Speaker 2:

yeah, that was really good. I think I tried their food last semester and I was like, oh my God, what happened to the orange chicken, what happened to all of this? And yeah, those are my fondest memory that I have. There was also a time in organic chemistry when we had like a lot of like gas in like a room so we had to stand outside for a long time. These are things that I remember a lot, just because it was funny in the moment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it sounds like you've had some really great experiences here at DVC and they're still pretty fresh. So you're now at Berkeley. What was it like transitioning from DVC to Berkeley? What did that process look like?

Speaker 2:

Well, to start off with, I think it's really like it's like a time crunch because you have like maybe like a good month or so to start applying into these like programs, to be involved with Berkeley and like. I still feel that pressure, so it's always in the back of my mind. I applied for something called the UC Berkeley Miller Scholars and it's specifically for transfer students Berkeley Miller Scholars and it's specifically for transfer students and it allows them to be involved with like a research project for a year and a second year a day provide you with like mentorship to find like a job after you graduate or applications with grad school or medical school. So that was like a lot for me.

Speaker 2:

Personally, when I think about like the transition state from community college into a four year university, I'm constantly thinking like, ok, I have to make like a community for myself, because that's really important. Because you know like as much as you could be like a lone wolf and do your own thing and be in your own bubble, it gets to you if you're like alone. So it's really important to have that community of people and for me it was. I need to find other transfer students just because I felt like that would help me a lot so I joined.

Speaker 2:

Like the Miller Scholars, I joined BISP, which is Biology Scholars Program, um, as well as like just cold emailing a bunch of like labs to see if I could work there, which most of them never replied, because that's how it is in the real world.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, so so you've been. How long have you been at UC Berkeley now?

Speaker 2:

This is my first semester, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, so you're fresh there then.

Speaker 2:

I am fresh.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, okay, okay. So you're fresh there. Then I am fresh, okay, um, uh, remind me at the end. I, I actually would love to introduce you.

Speaker 1:

So I have a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, who works at lawrence berkeley and he's a um, he's a, a biological scientist, and they're running a whole whole bunch of just amazing. He started explaining to me and I I don't, I don't understand. You know, I'm not a biologist, so it's like I'm, you know, but the stuff that he's talking about is just absolutely amazing and I, if you'd like, I could introduce, if you just like to have a chat with him. Yes, absolutely, he's, and he is such a terrific guy, um, and he's been, he's been in the field for quite some years. So it's just, you know, the stuff that they're doing is really, really cutting edge. You know it's it's kind of like you know it's ways to reclaim, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

So anyways, sorry I got off track, remind me of that when we're done, please, because I he would love it and he's very, very kind with his time and he loves talking to people that are new to the field and especially talking to them about things that they can do. So you transferred there, where you found one of the biggest things was creating a community, and you're brand new at this. If you had to go back and do it again, what would be like? Maybe a couple pieces of advice you'd give yourself, you know, because hindsight is always good to have and maybe you can help out the next person with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so do you mean like the process of transitioning from?

Speaker 1:

What did you find Like if you had to, if you had to do it again, all the way going back to when you were in high school? I, frankly, I think that you're very inspirational and like you know. But if you had to do it again, what are a couple of things that maybe you would have done a little different or would have emphasized more, or something like that.

Speaker 2:

I think I would have definitely tried to see what like field of biology I'm interested in, because you can like transfer as like a bio major and change it into a different bio major when you're here. But it's just a little more difficult, I think, when we're in community college. We definitely have like less time to focus into what it's like afterwards, and that's completely fair because that's not community college's job, that's the four-year. But I think definitely looking into understanding the system here more would have been like incredible.

Speaker 2:

Um, in terms of like transferring from high school into like community community college, I would say I felt like I did a pretty good job at it. But if there's anything I would have changed, it would have been to not stress out as much and to definitely go to every office hour Even if you don't have questions. I just feel like so I got a lot of scholarships, so I'm not paying like anything. You're good, yeah, so it's great. And I don't think I would have gotten a single one if I never went to office hour, because every single professor I had gone to office hours with wrote incredible like letters of rec for me and that's something that I'm like forever grateful for. And I think especially this is like a huge advice to community college students, because it's so much, so much easier to make a connection with a professor in community college than it is in a four year university.

Speaker 2:

Like you'll never know your name here at a four year university. They barely checked our emails. They have so much going on. They barely checked her emails. They have so much going on. But you are in such a special spot to be in these classes with maybe a maximum of 50 people, and this professor even calls on your name when you raise your hand. So that's the biggest piece of advice is to just really be connected with your professors, because those are people that will really help you.

Speaker 1:

I think that's absolutely I've heard that from a bunch of folks is that you know, take it, go to office hours, even if you don't need it go to office hours. So when you were, were you getting scholarships for here at DVC and also at UC Berkeley, or what did you end up doing?

Speaker 2:

So the reason why I really wanted to do the whole like two year graduation thing was because DVC has like a first two years free program and I didn't want to pay beyond that. So I got my first two years for free at DVC and during my time at DVC I would literally pull like all nighters applying to scholarships at DVC for transfer and to me I thought that was a great investment and it really was, because I don't have to pay anything now. And it me I thought that was a great investment and it really was, because I don't have to pay anything now and it's like a huge thing, I think, especially for first generation individuals and like low income households, it's it's a big deal to be able to just not have to worry about the financials like seriously.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely so. How did you find out about the two years free program?

Speaker 2:

I worked in FYE and I think one of the things that I would always tell my students was you know, like the first two years here are free, and I would make sure that each of them would like try to see if they qualify, because my biggest thing as like a peer advisor was I wanted them to like not have to pay during their time here and to be connected to as many resources as possible. So those were like words that would be out of my mouth every time I met with a student.

Speaker 1:

Like that was like new to DVC specifically so, fye, can you tell me what that is?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So FYE is first year education at DVC. It's an incredible program and it creates this like sense of community for students in their first year. So your first semester is going to be with people and so is the second semester. So you get to have these familiar faces around you and you get to kind of create a community for yourself.

Speaker 1:

And I personally was not in fya but if I was to redo it I would totally do that, just because I feel like it would give you the sense of like connection, especially since people want to make friends, yeah oh, absolutely, and I'm, we're, as a species, very tribal and it's my and and it's it's my opinion that when we lean into that, uh, is when we really can, you know, we can really take advantage of that is just that, you know, is like make those connections with other humans, because on our own we don't do all that well. So you sound like you've been amazingly resourceful in finding the resources that you need to get through all this. What is the next bit look like for you? What do you think the next two years or four years involved for you look like and not that we're prognosticating or assuming that this is, and I'm going to hold you to it and you said but just, I mean, what do you see like out there for you besides grinding in school and things like?

Speaker 2:

that I really like research. So in my future I'm really considering to go into an MD-PhD route, which is like an eight-year program where you're combining a PhD and MD. So I specifically really like neonatal-like research, so with like infants as well as like OBGYN and neurology. So in the next two years hopefully I would have applied into an MD-PhD program and gone into one. But it's really exciting because I was actually just telling this to some of my friends where I feel like I just entered this new chapter of my life and now I'm starting to get ready for the next chapter. Just like a little warning to students in DVC still, like it happens fast, like it does it happens so fast.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy like I'm already studying for my MCAT, like it's yeah, so as well as taking your class load and all the other things you have to do.

Speaker 1:

Well, that is very exciting. Um, I I can't thank you enough for all the time that you spent with me here. I mean, it's not been that long and I think you have an amazing story. You know, I wanted to encourage you to to join the platform. We have a couple of events coming up in October and then in the springtime.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I just was busy talking to one of the club presidents and we're probably going to do a thing with some of the clubs here on campus and I'll certainly especially if you've joined the Alumni Association you'll see updates on that and so, if you can carve out a little bit of time out of your obviously incredibly busy schedule, would love to see have you come and say hi and stuff like that, Because one of the things I want the alumni such as you to be able to do is encourage folks that are maybe just coming in or have just started and aren't really sure about what direction they're going. It's like hey, look, you know, here's somebody that's done it this far, and I'm hoping to get some other alumni to show up to that. You know, folks like you are certainly bright, shiny stars for all of us.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm so happy.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm excited. Is there anything else you want to pass along?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all I have to say is really enjoy your time at DVC. Just that little website that DVC has. It may not be like super appealing when it's bright green color, but it has so many resources. You type in anything like research, internship jobs or MESA or resources for students, it will all pop up up, and the best wise words that I got when I was at dvc was like even if you think you don't qualify, still apply.

Speaker 2:

People still take me in when I don't qualify for something, and it may be because you have a unique story. So don't close that door just because you think you don't qualify to be in a certain position. So just apply.

Speaker 1:

That's the best you can do I think that's a great piece of wisdom. Um and uh, yeah, you never get the. The answer to the unasked question is always no and oftentimes if you say, if you ask, the answer may be yes. So again, I thank you so much for your time. I will do an email introduction with you and I'm telling you I'll remember when we get off of this. But again, he's a really, really good friend of mine and he will be happy to take some time out and talk to you about the kind of research he's doing and just kind of what it looks like and what his experience was. He went to the University of Florida and got his doctorate there. So yeah, he's a smart guy.

Speaker 2:

I'm not doubting it at all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah so yeah, and I look forward to it and I wish you all the best and I will keep you up to date on stuff and hopefully we get a chance to, as you continue to move along, continue to update your story. I I think it's very exciting thank you all right forward to your email absolutely, absolutely. I'll send it out here in a few minutes, thank you, thank you, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2:

No.