first-gen alumni forge t
F irst-generation students in the College of Business don’t need to look far to see what they could achieve. The examples are just a few years past commencement. Young alumni are building their careers in interesting, influ - ential roles—and their experiences on campus show current students how they can follow the same path. Inspired By Family Luis Hernandez Talavera (’21) keeps two photos of himself side by side. In one, he’s a teenager in jeans and a wide-
people see your success now, but they don’t see the strug - gle that you had to go through in order to get to where you are at this day,” Hernandez Talavera said. His parents’ hard work and sacrifice inspired him to become the first person in his family to graduate from high school and go on to college. At CWU, he found the success his family pushed him toward. Hernandez Talavera met mentors who helped him feel confi - dent in college, like Dr. Toni Sipic, an associate professor of economics, and Dr. Thomas Tenerelli, an associate professor of finance and statistics. “He saw the potential that I didn’t know I had,” Hernandez Talavera said. He also built fast bonds with other students, joining the Association of Latin Professionals for America (ALPFA) and eventually becoming the organization’s president. Connec- tions he made through ALPFA helped Hernandez Talavera earn an internship at Boeing. “I think during my time [at CWU] we helped about 20 first-generation and non-traditional students land internships at Fortune 100 companies,” he said. At Boeing, he worked with the supply chain strategy prod - uct development team. He also founded CWU Networking Sessions, which brought together interns and Central alumni at the company. Hernandez Talavera graduated in 2021 with a double-ma - jor in finance and managerial economics and a minor in business analytics. Boeing hired him to return to the team he’d interned with. In February 2022, he joined a rotational program that allows him to experience working in multiple areas of the company. Every step along the way, his parents have supported him. At commencement, they were surprised to hear Hernandez Talavera receive a shout-out from Dean Jeffrey Stinson. “They’re not very emotional people like that, and they started crying,” Hernandez Talavera said. “Out of the thousands of students, their little boy was one of the special ones.”
brimmed hat, picking pears in the orchards near his home in Naches. In the second, he’s standing in another orchard, wearing a but- ton-up shirt and a baseball cap with the logo of his employer: Boeing. Hernandez Tala - vera grew up in an agricultural community where college didn’t seem like an option for many people.
Luis Hernandez Talavera
When he was little, his parents couldn’t afford child care, so they took him to the orchards and made him a fort in an apple bin. “That’s the story I always bring up, because
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