College Commencement Extra Special for First-Generation Graduate

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg
Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing

When Lyndon Orinion came to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, he thought that most other first-generation students would be like himself: children of immigrants.

After all, he thought, everyone who’d been in America already had been to college, right? He found out differently when he began meeting his fellow Pitt-Bradford students, many of whom are first-generation college students.

In fact, last fall, first-generation students made up 41 percent of the entering freshman class at Pitt-Bradford, which puts it in the top 10 of four-year baccalaureate-granting institutions in Pennsylvania.

For those who have earned their degree and are crossing the stage in the KOA Arena Sunday, earning their college degree isn’t just for them, it’s also for their family.

Orinion’s parents grew up in the Philippines province of Pangasinan, which Orinion said is a poor region of the country lacking in basic necessities such as running water. They left the Philippines to come to the United States for a better life while they were in their 20s, Orinion’s mother, Felicidad or “Feli,” coming first, and worked as a live-in housekeeper.

She lucked out. Her employer gave her housing for her husband, Elpidio (Peter), and later her children, and the family lived there until Orinion was about 10 years old. At that time, they moved to a somewhat bad neighborhood in Washington, D.C., that has become a better neighborhood as time went on. Currently, she works as a housekeeper for a law firm in the district.

“They’ve always pushed education,” Orinion said. “They just want a better future for me and my sister. They want us to be able to find jobs that we like.”

Elpidio Orinion is a clerk for a foreign information office in Washington. Each time Orinion brought home a report card, his father would tell him about the importance of good grades and how he didn’t want Lyndon and his sister to work as hard as he and his mother did.

Orinion dutifully listened to the speeches, but said he “didn’t realize how important it was to go to college until I started working.” That first job, at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, gave him an idea of how far and how not far a dollar can go. He realized it was the kind of job he would look forward to without an education.

As a first-generation student, his parents didn’t have the experience to guide him through the admissions and financial aid process. He leaned on his sister, Evert, high school and the District of Columbia College Access Program, a program that provides advice and grants to Washington, D.C., residents who want to go to college.

Evert Orinion graduated last year from Penn State, but attending a smaller campus has served Orinion well. His father was thrilled when Dr. Livingston Alexander, president, chatted with the family during Alumni and Family Weekend and told them that their son was going to go far.

“My dad was really impressed that a lot of people knew me and that made him really proud,” Orinion said. His parents should be positively beaming Saturday evening when Orinion speaks at the graduation reception. He was chosen for the honor by his fellow students.

Orinion has excelled not only in the classroom, but in student life as well. He is a resident assistant, active in many clubs on campus and served as president of the Student Activities Council in his junior year. Earlier this spring, he was chosen as the recipient of one of the university’s highest student honors, the Student Life Award for Outstanding Leadership, Scholarship, Character and Service to the University.

“People each have their own motivation for coming to college,” Orinion said. “I want to do well for myself, but I strive to do well for my parents as well.”

Pictured, top, Orinion enjoys a campus event with friends.(Photo by Alan Hancock);Orinion performing during the popular Airband competition on campus. A talented dancer, Orinion was on the dance team as well as president of the Student Activities Council.