19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 21
“I think the reward that you get out of finishing college
as a first-generation student makes all those struggles
so worth it.”
— JUSTIN LIU, BA ’26
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 first-generation college students at GW, Liu
carried an invisible weight. For many students in similar
circumstances, finding your 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,” as he called it. 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 in 2026, he reached another milestone. Liu graduated
two years early with a BA in criminal justice and minors in
philosophy and political science. He’s 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.
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?”
From 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
Liu, pictured with his family in childhood photos, left
China for California in 2014.
GW Arts & Sciences | RESEARCH & LEARNING | 21
