Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays.
Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments.
At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and she came close to missing UC’s application deadline.
In her freshman year, Felix has chosen to live on a newly created dorm floor just for students like her who are the first in their families to attend college.
[For more on this story by Teresa Watanabe, go to http://www.latimes.com/local/l...-20171002-story.html]
Photo: Desiree Felix, 18, unpacks her dorm room in Hedrick Hall at UCLA. Felix is the first in her family to attend college. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
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