Sylvia

Sylvia

Oral history from Chihuahua, Mexico to Lawrence, Kansas

Sylvia works as a school psychologist and is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico. Her interest in furthering her education led her to Fort Hays State University where she obtained her Bachelor's degree. Shortly after, she continued onto the Masters program and found work serving the community in Garden City. Eventually, Sylvia moved to Lawrence to obtain her Ph.D. Today, she practices psychology at a local high school.

1980s

Lawrence, Kansas

Sylvia (S)
Joohye Oh (J)

S: I think my story is a little unique in the sense that it's not your typical story of how I ended up in Kansas.

S: Let me just say that my family is from the border from the south around the south part of the US–north part of Mexico. And from what I heard from family members. My dad's side of the story comes from Texas. And my great grandmother was born and raised in Texas and decided
to move south to Monterey–Nueva León, which is south of Texas.

S: On the other side, I have family that comes from the western part of Northwest part of Mexico. So that was another state, Sonora.

S: But there's always been my grandparents had experienced living in the States. Some grandparents lived in California and Arizona. Some other grandparents lived in Texas, El Paso.

S: It is not that unusual then that I was going back and forth live in coming from Chihuahua, Mexico. And being born and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico, being the first immigrant and my family to come and actually decide to live in Kansas.

S: So that's where my family comes from.

S: Being in Chihuahua, Mexico. That means that we had easy access to traveling and visiting Texas often, and that's what we did. My grandparents always had a place for us to stay in El Paso, Texas. That was a place for us to go shopping.

S: Is just a two-and-a-half, three hour ride from Chihuahua to go to El Paso.

S: So I was exposed since I was little to just traveling in visiting Texas and spending summers there in my grandfather's residence for a place to go.

S: My dad, when I was an infant, decided to do his master’s. And I don't know how he came about deciding that he wanted to go to New Mexico.
S: I lived in New Mexico as an infant for two years, the firstborn in my family, so it was only me and my mom and my dad while he was doing his master's in wildlife.

S: Then again, as an infant that was exposed to English, I was exposed to the American culture. My family has a pretty good grip on keeping traditions and culture, but also being very comfortable and used to the American way of life in the American culture.

S: So that's the moving back and forth. Yes.

S: I lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico while my dad was at the New New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, then move back to Chihuahua. And I lived there and was raised when I was a kid in Mexico.

S: I was very fortunate that my family is upper middle-class. So I've always been exposed to private schools, and that's what I attended when I was a child. I attended Catholic private schools from kindergarten, elementary school, and then I went to the, one of the most prestigious secondary schools there, one that was affiliated through the university, Tec de Monterrey.

S: So I ended up going to a junior high school that was bilingual. So half of her classes were in English. Half of the classes were in Spanish.

S: It was difficult at first, but but it was, it was a lot of fun. So once I finished with junior high, then the next thing that we typically did, our classmates at that particular school was to spend a year as an exchange student.

S: So there were different options at the time, some people ended up being going to boarding schools for my particular family and my situation, we decided that I wanted to do an exchange
program through a through a US company.

S: So I sign up for that and I get chosen to go to Utah. So I spent my junior year in high
school in Utah for the year. So 1990–91, I believe.

S: That was a really good experience.

S: I really learned a lot about their religion there, which is a Mormon. And even though the family that I live with, they were not practicing Mormons, they did have some connections
with the Mormon religion and their oldest child was actually converting to become Mormon.

S: And so I was invited to listen to their preparation meetings that they had. So that was quite, quite fun.

S: As a junior, I finished my year, I came back to Chihuahua, finished high school. I started college. And after starting college is when I realized that I was in the wrong major, I was studying for marketing and I really felt like psychology was where I needed to go.

S: So looking at the options that I had at the time, this is around 90 to 93. We're not really good Psychology schools in Chihuahua. And I always wanted to go back to the states to just study more.

S: So I started looking for options and by then my parents were divorced, my parents were married and my stepfather was very supportive of me.

S: Just looking for opportunities and finding a good school to go to. It was–it was a matter of luck that one of my classmates ended up suggesting for me to try Hays, Kansas.

S: And the reason why he suggests that that is he came from a private school in Chihuahua that had some kind of agreement with the boarding school to high school, Catholic boarding school in Hays, Kansas.

S: So a lot of my friends and close, close acquaintances were going to Hays, Kansas for this
boarding school and thus his experience. But he offered the information that there was a University in Hays, Kansas, that it was a really nice, safe, small town. I should check it out.

S: It's always researching options in applying for different places. I went ahead and applied for Hays, Kansas, and all the places that I applied in Texas and I want it to stay somewhat close.

S: So I was applying for Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado. And then Hays–I got a response from many of them that was very not personal, but very generic of student 101234. You need to reply but this date, otherwise, we're going to toss your application and you're gonna be inactive.

S: And Hayes sent a very personal letter calling, referring to me by my name, letting me know that they were excited that I applied, that they were hoping that I would choose them. It was signed by the director of international students, who happens to be, by the way, the current director of international students at the University of Kansas right now, Mr. Joe Potts.

S: So that just made me think it made me feel that I was welcomed in Hays, Kansas and that I was going to have some kind of support system to go to.

S: So we decided that that's where I needed to go. As a sophomore of transfer transfer student from, um, the Tec de Monterrey campus Chihuahua to Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.

S: That's why I say my story is not very common because I came here as a documented,
not immigrant but as a documented student with an F1. I think it's an F1. I'm not sure. But with a student visa both times when I was an exchange student and then when I came back as a college student.

S: My plan has had always been that I was just going to do my bachelor's degree and then I was going to go back home.

S: And so I had a boyfriend at the time. He was in Chihuahua. He decided he needed to be closer, so he ended up coming to Wichita State University. And he was there for about a year but then he had to go back home and I was still finishing my bachelor's.

S: So it was then that I met my now husband. We were in a class or two together. And it was towards the end of the semester that he decided he was brave enough to strike a conversation
during an outing on a Friday night. So I was completely in love where I had a crush on this guy.

S: So it was just the right timing, I guess, that I was not dating anyone in that he was asking me to go out for a date. That was my last semester of my bachelor's.

S: At that point, I was already looking. I already had a plan of pursuing a master's degree, knowing that in psychology, you need to have higher education if you want to work in the field.

S: So again, I started applying to different places, looking at what was feasible. My family was paying the bill. I was very fortunate that they have the resources to pay for me to live in Hays, Kansas, same pay the full tuition. And as an international student, that's not cheap.

S: So I was looking at options, but also being very mindful that I'm one of three kids and I'm the oldest one of my sisters. I have two and they were close behind me finishing high school and needing to go to college, knowing that my parents were going to support them fully as well.

S: So even though we had resources, I was very mindful of making sure that whatever place I chose, it was going to be within the budget so that my sisters could also experience something like this if that's what they wanted.

S: And at the time that we're not interested, but the tuition at them on the Tec de Monterrey campus Chihuahua was pretty high because that's the most expensive university then northern part of Mexico.

S: Anyway. So around that time is when I realized that one of the most affordable options while was to stay in Hayes and it was going to be easier for Hays to admit, you know, continue to have me as a grad student, as an international student, even though I had years and years of English as a second language, I really did struggle with language skills in verbal skills.

S: So at the time I was taking the admission test called the GRE, scores were very, very unusual in the sense of the analytical and the nonverbal sections were extremely high. I want to say 90th percentile and above meeting all the criteria for whatever admissions. But yet my verbal skills were low.

S: And that was because I was still learning academic English, not just conversational English and all these terms that I needed to understand.

S: So with those scores, it was just easier to stay in haze in my directors international students. The Mr. Joe Potts knew that I was a straight “A” student 4.0 throughout my career at Hays.

S: And actually finishing up my bachelor's in a total of three years, one year in Chihuahua Tec de Monterrey, and then enrolled in 24 hours usually per semester up for Hayes for two years.

S: So I finished altogether in three years.

S: So he knew that I was going to be capable of continuing with grad school and he offered for me to apply for a scholarship from the it's called Rotary Club. Rotary Club of Hays, Kansas.

S: They were giving away a pretty big scholarship to international students. I applied and got the scholarship, which was great for my family because then my sisters, my family could afford my sister starting college at the time.

S: So that really gave me the reason to stay and to continue pursuing my Master's in clinical psychology at Fort Hays.

S: So I can I kept dating my husband and soon enough we got engaged. By then. I already knew that I was starting to grow fond of Kansas.

S: He is–he was born and raised in Central Kansas. So he's a guy that was in law enforcement.

S: So by the end of my master’s, we decided that we were gonna get married. And that's what we did.

S: By then he got a job in central Kansas. So we move to Larned, Kansas where he was a police officer.

S: And soon after that I, when an applied, they have a state hospital in Larned. I was not very fond of applying or working as a first job, a newly graduated psychologist, I was intimidated by the idea of working at a state hospitals.

S: So I ended up going to the nearby bigger town of Great Bend, Kansas 20 miles from Larned
and applying or at least going to the mental health center to let them know that I was interested in a job, which at first they dismissed me and they acted like that: We're not interested.

S: Once they met me and realized that I was fully bilingual in Spanish, that quickly changed their strategy and they were all over wanting to hire me just immediately, which I'm very fortunate that they did.

S: And that's because Great Bend in the surrounding area has a lot of Spanish-speaking families
that are recently migrated. So a lot of people worked in the meat packing industry in the farms there that did not fully understand English and that just needed support and services.

S: So I started working there.

S: It was not until a year or two after that that the school district in Great Bend was really using my services for the influx of children that they were having that only spoke Spanish, that struggled academically.

S: So soon after a year, after working at the Mental Health Center, the District approached me and asked me. If I would be willing to work for them and get my certification as a school psychologist.

S: And being just newly married with no family. Knowing that I liked going to school, I said: Why not?

S: So they hired me and gave me the opportunity to go back to haze or wherever I want it to do the required grad classes so that I could get my certification as a school psychologist in addition to the clinical one that I had.

S: So I did that I started working for the school district. And this is two or three years after living
in Larned and just realizing that Larned, Kansas is a very small town, even Great Bend, Kansas, this is a very small town. I'm talking about 4,000 people in learned, about maybe 10,000 in grape and I don't know, I'm guessing.

S: But coming from even Hays, Kansas, this a little bigger.

S: It's it's a college town and it's full of diversity. In my hometown of 500,000 people. It was a culture shock to live in central Kansas.

S: It was, it was very it felt very lonely. I felt very isolated, even with the Hispanic community
that they had over there.

S: I didn't feel connected.

S: My husband was American and I just didn't have a whole lot in common with being a professional in working for institutions. I didn't have a whole lot in common with the families that lived in long hours or that they were the clients that I was seeing at the mental health center.

S: Because typically what I saw there was I was the one providing services for alcohol abuse,
alcohol dependence for the families that were stopped and arrested for driving under the influence and then being referred to me to complete assessments and complete treatment because
they were driving while drunk.

S: So it was not a good situation of making friends or having connections with families
that I was providing a service.

S: So my husband and I started thinking and talking about places where we could move, what we needed to be to be happy and my family by then, they were visiting me, but they were not very excited to come and visit small towns with nothing to do.

S: My sisters by then decided that they wanted to come to Fort Hays to pursue their bachelors and master’s. So I had them close by and that kind of helped a little.

S: My middle sister finished her bachelor's in Mexico at Tec de Monterrey, but then decided she was gonna do her MBA at Fort Hayes, which she did.

S: And then my youngest sister came–transfered from from Mexico and finished her bachelor's in her master's in school psychology as well. The difference with them, my middle sister have boyfriends in Mexico. So when she was done with her MBA, she went back home. Later married the same guy. So she's happily married in Mexico with her husband.

S: And my youngest sister, stayed a little longer in Kansas, but then eventually ended up moving back to Mexico. And then later on deciding to pursue additional certifications in Spain. So she ended up living in Spain for a few years.

S: So in around that time when they were going back home from Hays, Kansas. That's when we decided we wanted to move from Larned.

S: So we ended up finding my husband didn't want to leave Kansas. He was not interested in going back to school or doing any more further training–police officer in Larned.

S: So we were limited to staying in Kansas so that he could use his certification as a police officer in a new job.

S: And the opportunity came around to come to Lawrence, Kansas, which was considering the places that house hoping that we were going to go to–I was hoping Wichita, I was hoping
Kansas City for the amount of opportunities there and access to an airport.

S: And Lawrence was a really good option. Being so close to Kansas City in the airport, but also going back to a campus town. And feeling that welcoming feel that you get when you are in a town that’s open-minded to diversity and that celebrates diversity.

S: So that's what we did and we moved to Lawrence in 2001, when our first kid was born. So she moved to Lawrence, Kansas with us when she was a few months old.

S: And ever since we've been in Lawrence.

S: And Lawrence, my husband, transferred to the police department later on decided that he needed to change careers. So he now works for the National Guard–Army National Guard in Topeka as an active duty officer.

S: I moved here a school psychologist and have been working for the school district since 2001.

S: And eventually when my kids, I have two beautiful girls, and when when they were little, I decided that I always wanted to pursue a doctorate degree. And I fell in love with behavioral
psychology, applied behavior analysis. So I ended up starting to take classes until I got to the point that I was able to find an advisor and finish the program and get accepted as a doctorate program candidates.

S: So I ended up getting my degree in 2011. I think.

S: I mean, I don't know if that's a lot. If it's too much. I still see my family. I think that the going back to school and becoming a school psychologist was the next best thing to having a part-time job.

S: Because that means that with my job, I have the same schedule of work scheduled teachers, so that I get the summers off.

S: And every single summer. I have gone back home taking my daughter's, gone back on and have spent summers with my family and Mexico, were very proficient, had deriving from Kansas all the way to Chihuahua, Mexico.

S: Three day trip, spending a month or two with my family, enjoying their company, taking advantage of the fact that they have houses big enough for us to all fit in there. We usually sign up for the Country Club in summer camps that they have at the country club.

S: And my kids–because of that, they have been exposed to not only Spanish, but also meeting friends from their meeting. My my longtime friends’ kids, as a result, keeping those relationships going.

S: And then of course, my family continues to come and visit me when they can spending sometimes holidays with me.

But just live in

S: [reading out loud a question the interviewer put into the Zoom chat].

S: My extended family, most of my cousins, my grandparents died and Chihuahua, and most of my cousins had lived in Chihuahua. I have maybe one or two cousins that have moved away, but it's not very common.

S: So like one or two in Mexico City, one or two in Monterrey. I have some cousins that have I have worked with Doctors Without Borders. I have one cousin that ended up in Africa a couple of times.

S: I mean, it's not very common, but at the same time, my dad comes from a family of 11.
So a couple of his brothers ended up marrying American wives. In one of them, like I have an uncle who lives in Wisconsin, and I have another uncle that lives in Michigan.

S: So they kinda, I kinda ended up doing something very similar with them in the sense that if
they migrated to the States, it was because they met their spouses and they ended up staying here.

S: And I think that they had the situation, at least with one of my uncles. He ended up meeting the wife also in college.

S: And the other uncle is a professor at a university. So my assumption is that he was at the university as well as how I was when I met my spouse.

S: So kind of interesting that the story repeats.

S: And you know my sisters, all of them ended up with a master's. Both of them.

S: And my dad, even though he had his master's back when I was young, he decided he wanted a PhD. So he went to the university in Chihuahua–Universidad de [unknown] de Chihuahua. And he ended up getting his PhD in wildlife and conservation soon after I got my PhD.

S: So I got mine in 2011, and my dad got his in 2012. So that was kind of exciting that we
were both kidding our degrees together.

S: And fun fact that he's the wildlife guy, but we didn't follow his steps. Since I'm a psychologist. My middle sister is into business, not currently working. She has kids that are little and then my
youngest one [sister] ended up in psychology as well.

S: And some family members being business owners. My dad's side of the family, there's a lot of physicians and my great–My grandfather actually owns a hospital.

S: So I have some an uncle and aunt and several cousins that are physicians.

S: I ended up not not choosing that but it did cross my mind, but I if I would have chosen that, I don't think I've ever would have come to the States because it probably would have been easier to go through med school, in Spanish, to finish the type of degree over there and not worry about a second language.


S: [Reading another question that the interviewer left in the chat]. Okay. Let me look at your question as we wrap up.

S: [Reading the question]. Is there anything you would like the youngest my next generation to know? I would like to share your concluding thoughts.

S: Sure. I would like for Linux kids to know that everything is possible. If you set your mind to it.

S: In that, you know, saying that I went to school and I got a degree. Sounds easy. It was not super hard.

S: A lot of people may help you, may support you, but a lot of people kind of get in the way. And you have to have a strong will into now that I want to, I want to go to college, I want to go and get into grad school.

S: If that's your goal, put everything you have into it and don't give up. And you can make it happen. Because I make it sound like it was easy for me and it was not.

S: Many times my family said, we don't have any money and we don't–we can't afford that. We're not gonna be able to help you. And it was a lot of looking For supports, asking around making connections at the university and letting people know that I was looking for scholarships. I was looking for ways to make this affordable and make it happen AND kids can do that.

S: If you, if you believe in yourself and you know that you wanna be successful, then just don't give up. Keep trying. And just show the rest of society that Hispanics are hard workers, that are smart people that are capable. And that we can we can also hold positions that are reserved for people that have professional education and we can do that.

S: We can definitely do that and we can take advantage of the fact that we're bilingual. And unfortunately, in American schools, in American students may not see the benefit of being bilingual.

S: But let's, let's keep our language alive, in our culture alive, and help our community to be successful.

[END]

Joohye Oh

Sylvia

English and some Spanish

Audio

Chihuahua, Mexcio

Utah

Hays, Kansas

Great Bend, Kansas