亚利桑那州的一名国会议员他是家里第一个上大学的人分享他是如何不顾困难从哈佛大学毕业的。
民主党众议员鲁本·加列戈周一在推特上分享了他的经验总统顾问的评论贾里德·库什纳，2003年哈佛毕业，比Gallego早一年。
库什纳因在“《福克斯和朋友们》”上说总统唐纳德·特朗普想帮助美国的黑人，但他们必须“想成功”，他的政策才能奏效。
“特朗普总统的政策是能够帮助人们摆脱他们所抱怨的问题的政策，但他不能希望他们比他们更成功，”库什纳说，她嫁给了特朗普的女儿，也是总统顾问。伊万卡·特朗普。
加列戈在回应库什纳的评论时写道，“这就是1%的人对少数民族的看法。我是库什纳的同学，让我告诉你，与他相比，我为进入哈佛做了什么。”
在他的推特帖子中，2014年当选美国众议院议员的加列戈描述了他如何在高中一年级开始超越自我，以确保他能上大学。
“我大一的HS。他写道:“我意识到上大学的唯一途径是首先我必须在考试中取得好成绩。“于是我开始买二手备考书，从图书馆里抄考卷。直到今天，学校图书管理员还是我的密友。(谢谢康利夫人)。”
“我很幸运，有一份工作让我在烙牛肉饼的间隙练习测试。(谢谢史蒂夫和苏西的)，”他写道。“我用这笔钱来支付在大学简历上看起来不错的课外活动。甚至去了希腊交换。”
加列戈说，他在哈佛不认识任何人，所以他使用学生目录来查找那些“有拉丁裔发音名字”的学生，并给他们留下语音邮件，希望他们能提供指导。
“有几个人回了我的电话，帮我指导准备申请大学。谢谢格斯!”他写道。
高三的时候，Gallego申请了哈佛，自己算出了学费的助学金要求。
“我可能是唯一一个用汇票申请哈佛的学生，但我做到了，”他写道。“用朋友的电脑申请(谢谢科比特一家)算算我们怎么做估税，去做FAFSA。”
当他在芝加哥接受入学面试时，加列戈不得不利用公共交通工具去面试，包括乘公共汽车和步行一英里去一个面试地点。
“我的面试官从来没有让申请人乘坐公共交通工具去见她。当我告诉她我要把它带回家时，我很惊讶。她很好心，让我在CTA站下车，”他写道。“第二个采访者想在没有公共交通工具的地方见面。学校允许我在市区他的办公室见他。”
西班牙移民的儿子加列戈于2004年从哈佛大学毕业。他随后加入了美国海军陆战队，并于2005年被派往伊拉克。根据他的国会传记。
他在推特上写道，作为第一代学生，他是如何到达哈佛的，得到了成千上万的赞。
“我在课堂上展示这个。我的孩子没有资源，但他们足智多谋，”一位评论者写道。“有一个无家可归的女孩和她的家人睡在一个公园里&在去学校参加一个她必须毕业的考试后出现了。她通过了。真正的勇气。韧性。我要了!”
Arizona congressman details his road to Harvard as a 1st-gen college student to make a statement
An Arizona congressman who was thefirst in his family to attend collegeis sharing how he managed to graduate from Harvard University, despite the odds.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, took to Twitter Monday to share his experience in response tocomments made by presidential adviserJared Kushner, who graduated from Harvard in 2003, one year prior to Gallego.
Kushner drew criticism for saying on "Fox & Friends" that PresidentDonald Trumpwants to help Black people in America, but they have to “want to be successful" for his policies to work.
“President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about, but he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful," said Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter, fellow presidential adviser,Ivanka Trump.
Gallego wrote in response to Kushner's comments, "This how the 1% look at minorities. I was a classmate of Kushner let me tell you what I did to get into Harvard compared to what he did."
In his Twitter thread, Gallego, who was elected to the U.S. House in 2014, described how he had to start in his freshman year of high school going above and beyond to make sure he could attend college.
"My freshman year of HS. I realized that the only way college was gonna happen was that first I had to do well on my exams," he wrote. "So I started buying used prep exam books and copying exams from the library. The school librarian is a close friend to this day. (Thanks Mrs. Conley)."
"I was lucky enough to have a job that let me practice my tests in between flipping burgers. (Thank you Steve and Souzy’s)," he wrote. "I used that money to pay for extracurriculars that would look good on a college resume. Even went to Greece on exchange."
Gallego said he did not know anyone at Harvard, so he used the student directory to look up students who "had a Latino sounding name" and left them voicemails in hopes they could offer guidance.
"A few returned my calls and helped guide me to get ready to apply for college. Thank you Gus!," he wrote.
In his senior year of high school, Gallego applied to Harvard and figured out the financial aid requirements for tuition on his own.
Representative Ruben Gallego speaks during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., July 9, 2020.
"I am might be the only student to apply to Harvard using money orders but [I] did it," he wrote. "Use[sic] a friends computer to apply (thank you Kobelt family) Figure our how to do estimated taxes, to do the FAFSA."
When it came time for his admission interviews in Chicago, Gallego had to tackle getting to them using public transportation, including taking buses and walking a mile to one interview site.
"My interviewer hadn’t ever had an applicant take public transportation to see her. Was surprised when I told her I was taking it back home. She was kind enough to drop me off at the CTA stop," he wrote. "Second interviewer wanted to meet in area with no access to public transportation. School gave me permission to meet him downtown in his office."
Gallego, a son of Hispanic immigrants, went onto graduate from Harvard in 2004. He then joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq in 2005,according to his Congressional biography.
His tweets about what it took for him to reach Harvard as a first-generation student received tens of thousands of likes.
"I’m showing this in class. My kids don’t have resources but they are resourceful," wrote one commenter. "Had a homeless girl who slept in a park w her family & showed up after walking to campus to take an exam she had to have to graduate. She passed it. True grit. Resilience. I’ll take it!"
