Excerpt From the Life of Tomas Corza: A Reflection on Culture, Education, and Social Class
About the author: Tomas Corza is a marketing strategist, Jobs to be Done practitioner and musician.
Click here to contact Tomas Corza.
The following is an excerpt from the book I am currently writing.
“Only 13% of community college freshmen receive an associate degree after two years” (PPIC.org).
“Of the students enrolled in a community college in California who said they wanted to transfer to a four-year university, an average of 9.9% went on to enroll at a four-year institution in 2021” (Calmatters).
California State University-Northridge has a graduation rate of 54% (CSUN).
In 2014, I decided that obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Marketing was an absolute necessity for achieving my life’s anticipated outcomes. My goal was to work in the music industry, and I knew the only way to get close to that goal was by earning a bachelor’s degree. A goal I kept secret to avoid being labeled delusional. (More on that later.)
When I registered as a student in the LACCD system, the odds were stacked against me—I had an 87% chance of failure. Deciding to transfer to California State University Northridge’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics meant facing a 90% chance of failure. In 2020, when I graduated from the LACCD system and transferred to CSUN, those odds shifted, leaving me with a 46% chance of failure. But we all know that statistics can’t fully predict the future, especially when they don’t account for all contributing factors. In 2022, I graduated from California State University Northridge with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. How did I accomplish this seemingly impossible task? Through a combination of determination, discipline, sacrifice, and privilege.
I often hear people say they can’t attend university because they work full-time. In reality, that’s far from the truth. Throughout my time in higher education, I consistently worked more than full-time (except for six months during the pandemic). From 2014 to 2020, My schedule wasn’t your typical 9-5; I worked from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and 8 am to 3 pm on Saturdays. I attended night classes during the week, with weekends dedicated to online classes and homework. Sacrifices were inevitable—I had to forgo a personal life, seeing friends only on special occasions and having no time to pursue relationships. I maintained my sanity by DJing in the very scarce free time I had.
From 2020 to 2022, I attended CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics as a full-time student. Transferring to CSUN during the COVID-19 pandemic was anti-climactic, as online classes were far from the university experience I had envisioned. Classes remained online until six months before my graduation. I was fortunate to be unemployed in 2020, but that ended in December, forcing me to again juggle full-time work as a customer service agent with my final year and a half as a full-time student. Most days, I began working at 4 am to be done by 3 pm, leaving just enough time for classes and homework. During this challenging period, I allocated only 30 minutes a day for free time, which I used to practice guitar and keep my sanity intact.
The privilege that helped me accomplish this goal was my private school education. From kindergarten through high school, I attended a private Catholic school, where I learned how to work the education system to my advantage. This knowledge allowed me to achieve my educational goals at no cost. I knew how to apply for financial aid and grants. I also ensured my GPA stayed above 3.5 to qualify for the best financial aid options. I was also taught that a criminal record disqualifies you from financial assistance, so I avoided criminal culture at all costs—something that’s easier to do when you come from a middle-class background and have a private school education.
In 2022, I graduated from CSUN. After eight years of focusing solely on school, life after university felt strange. The world I knew in 2014 no longer existed, and moving forward presented new challenges. At the time, I believed that my university education would be my greatest challenge in life—but I was dead wrong. The greatest challenges were yet to come.
