As the first to graduate college in her low-income family, Jessica Ousley, 22, recalls many of the hardships she overcame growing up and the accomplishments born out of her dedication.

“I’m a problem solver, I’m a go-getter, but I have had troubles. The point of me sharing my story is to help others because everyone has hardships,” said Ousley, who graduated in June with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology.

Ousley is part of a low-income family whose father is a truck driver and mother is disabled from a car accident. For her, growing up was not about toys and play dates.

She recalls being evicted from their house when she was in elementary school, forcing her and her family to move into a mobile home park, then into a trailer.

At this point, the Ousley family, Jessica, only in middle school, her sister, and her two parents, were living without water, without electricity or a restroom, and eating gas station hot dogs.

“When I would get a food stamp or money for chores, I always saved it because I knew my parents would need it later,” said Ousley.

She explained that living behind a body shop the family built up walls made from old doors. They hung a hose over the top just to shower, heating their water via sunlight and even using a portable restroom outdoors.

Showering outdoors was awful according to Ousley. “The wind would blow through and it would be extremely cold, I had only one friend who knew where I lived and she didn’t care about me taking a shower outside.”

“I didn’t always have clean clothes or nice shoes,” she said. Ousley remembered a time when she borrowed a pair of shoes from a friend. She recalls being told, ‘the first thing everyone looks at are your shoes.’

Ousley said, “That was more embarrassing than having my own messed up shoes.”

“It’s hard for me to say I was emotional because I learned early on that you can’t get emotional over everything because it won’t help,” said Ousley. She also explained that she didn’t show many emotions growing up.

“I’d say I’m more emotional now thinking back to everything I went through,” said Ousley.

“I was always going to someone else’s house, and I was embarrassed because I couldn’t tell the other kids where I lived, and we could never go to my house,” said Ousley.

After their trailer got flooded due to a bad storm, the Ousley family moved in with their old neighbors, whom they lived by before being evicted.

Ousley recalled with tears in her eyes when her mom, who was in tears, picked her up from school early. After sitting with her mother in the park, she learned that her mother had been chased out of the house with a knife. “We never went back, all we could do was call my dad,” she said.

“I was scared because I didn’t know where we were going to live, but I couldn’t handle seeing my mom like that so I did what I could to comfort her. That was the moment when I learned we had nothing, no home, no outside family and no friends,” said Ousley. “At that moment I became defensive and strong; I wasn’t going to let anyone treat my family like that again.”

Next, the Ousley family lived in a shelter in Bakersfield for several months. This was the first time she saw her father cry, the second being when she graduated high school.

After living in a shelter, the family moved around. First they moved into a triplex, then into a house, then an apartment, and lastly an RV. The family is still living in an RV in Bakersfield, while Ousley lives with roommates in Hayward.

Through college, Ousley relied on financial aid, while she worked different jobs to pay her own bills, as well as help her parents pay theirs.

According to Rhonda Johnson, Executive Director of Financial Aid, within the 2011-2012 school year, 9,379 East Bay students received financial aid. Of these students, the average award for a full time undergraduate student was about $11,000.

“We disbursed $88,443,451.00 in total financial aid during that period,” said Johnson.

Over the years, Ousley found herself attending many different schools, depending on where they could find a place to live.

“I was constantly ripped away from my friends, I got to the point to where I moved so much I didn’t want to get attached to anyone,” she said. “I became introverted and kept to myself.”

After a hard childhood, Ousley found herself attending California State University, East Bay for five years working to complete her bachelor’s degree.

“My parents couldn’t help me with anything, so the only way I had food was through the DC,” Ousley said. “I have 30 or 35 thousand dollar loans. I did have one or two scholarships, but those paid for my computer and my bed sheets and things for daily life.”

Her junior year she was driven to get involved and with help created an East Bay outdoors adventure club, and SKATE, Skating for Kids Achievement Through Exercise.

The outdoors adventure club included hiking around campus and around the Bay Area, as well as snowboarding.

SKATE, worked to encourage kids to achieve their goals, through exercise and perseverance. The club may not have continued, but she said the message still does.

As college went on, she worked for Resident Housing Association. She began as a student assistant for the freshman residence her junior year, and then moved on to the Vice President of External Affairs of Housing.

Her senior year, she became the President of RHA. In this position, she overlooked 7 executive positions and attended conferences to better her leadership skills.

“I worked 7 days a week to help pay my own bills, and help my family pay theirs,” said Ousley.

After giving up RHA, Ousley joined an internship offered through the kinesiology program at CSUEB, called Get fit! Stay fit! This was a program offered to help staff and faculty with personal training through knowledge acquired in their major. On top of that, in spring quarter of 2014, Ousley and three others started biweekly nutrition workshops for faculty and staff.

Currently, she works as a Tuff Tumblers instructor, traveling to different preschools helping kids with gymnastics, tumbling classes, and soccer.

Being old enough to see her parent’s struggles, Ousley explains that everything she went through made her realize that even though things are hard, it was not an option for her to live as her family had.

“I’ve always wanted to be financially stable, because that was always our issue,” said Ousley. “I don’t ever want my kids to go through what I had to, or my family. I want to be more stable than my parents were, and I want to help my parents to be more stable too.” She said the things people go through do not define them.

“Work hard and don’t give up, because my parents never gave up. I don’t want pity,” Ousley said. “I never have.”

She said, people need to ask themselves ‘what can I learn? How can I better myself to better others?’

“I have my boyfriend David and my best friend Jennifer to thank for helping me get through everything all these years,” said Ousley. “I’m stronger now. I’m not the smartest cookie, or the sharpest knife, but I have the drive to get me through anything.”