Miguel Sanchez : 0:09

Welcome to first gen 1 0 1, the podcast where first-generation graduates share their stories and career tips. I am your host, Miguel Sanchez. In this episode, Carlos orbit junior, a dynamic first gen graduate. He talks about his educational path. The importance of mentorship. And his impactful work with Maryland Latinos needles. Dive into this episode to discover how Carlos Bill's bridges and drives change. Welcome to another episode of the first gen one on one podcast today. I have Carlos, Carlos. Thank you for being here today.

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 0:51

Thank you so much for having me, Miguel. This is awesome.

Miguel Sanchez : 0:54

We're going to get right into it. We have a lot to talk about. Carlos, tell me about your background.

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 1:00

Right? So, my background as a first gen, right? My father was born in Ecuador. I think it was along Salinas. to be more specific. he came here when he was about eight years old with his other family members that I think range from seven kids. They had, but you know, they came in two parts. He was among the last group to come. But my mother was actually born in Washington, so then they had me among two other, children. and from there it was just a very, it was, obviously it was a varied childhood that I look forward to getting into. It's filled with color, It's filled with culture. It's filled with beautiful things that I believe. Make up the first gen experience ties into immigration, ties into all these different things, all these crazy themes right now that we're experiencing in a different way.

Miguel Sanchez : 1:59

And where did you grow up?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 2:02

Locustdale Drive. I remember the road name clearly. And then, my mother decided she wanted to move to the country. So my father naturally thought, happy wife, happy life. So we ended up moving to Poolsville area, which is right near Frederick. If people aren't familiar with, the territories around there.

Miguel Sanchez : 2:24

And that's Frederick Maryland,

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 2:26

Yeah, Poolsville, Maryland, Frederick, Maryland around there. But more specifically Bealsville. It's a small town. I, I don't even know the population number, but growing up there was like one restaurant where you had a really good time. And then a gas pump and that was about it.

Miguel Sanchez : 2:42

So being from Maryland, how did you choose Manhattan College? And you can tell us a little bit about the process of choosing to attend Manhattan College.

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 2:53

I can't talk about my college experience without talking about my high school, which was St. John's College High School. It is a part of a long standing tradition of Lasallian, Jesuit and it's that history is so rich in religion and, and their different cultures that they have over there. But I was blessed to be a part of a slash military school slash college prep. So the counselors really focused on our trajectory. Where do we see ourselves? They would ask us questions that would really help us, identify our our mastery over certain things in high school as young as you were there on that foundation. It was so solidified. through like those internal questions as to who I am, what do I want to do? What is this school for me? I decided that New York that was an area where it was full of energy. It was the live city. I knew that my extroversion would be met there. And so my counselor was a no brainer, said Manhattan College. It's a Lasallian institution, just like our high school was. And From there it's, I was there on a Lasallian scholarship actually. So that was what helped solidify the bridge. And, Manhattan college just checked all the boxes at the time.

Miguel Sanchez : 4:15

In the process of selecting Manhattan College, did you consider other colleges? How did that look like for

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 4:23

Well, it's very important to gauge if you want to be. In, in a large university setting where you probably will not be the main focus of your teacher. The curriculum will be a bit varied. It'll be different because of the large crowds. Me, I know I wanted to focus on a small liberal arts college There were, I think, ten students to one teacher ratio going on, and I knew that I wanted to engage with my with my teachers.

Miguel Sanchez : 4:55

going to a smaller college can let you have deeper connection connections with staff, faculty, and other students because networking, it's a really important part of the college experience. You learn something and you're also going to meet other people. in that sense, how did you find your community at Manhattan college being that you were not from New York?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 5:19

Well, to be honest with you, I was was kind of a social little butterfly that kind of had to spread his wings because I thought it was a welcomed challenge to move to a space. You don't know anyone, but by God, you have the will to do it. my community was comprised of small, different circles of people. that I wanted to either become or reminded me of a piece of home. And I think it's important for people to gauge this. And I was looking at the questions earlier and I totally want to answer this like this. It's just I heard an inspirational talk on Netflix one time where the speaker posed a question to the audience and it says, if you had a boat and the world was ending, And there were only 5 to 6 spots available, your family was already taken care of. Who would you bring out of, your friends, acquaintances, colleagues, everything, and, they answered the closest people to them, you know, and he asked questions. I was like, what's, what are these characteristic types? What are, you know, and they said, Oh, they're this, they're that. And you come to find out they picked all the same type of person. So for. The message in that story was to say each of these spots are meant for a specific type of individual that brings out a different life in you. And, when you die, you're surrounded by all the talents and all the things that you could have been all of your goals, all your dreams. What communities are you surrounding yourselves with that keep that alive? And so my communities were comprised pretty much of those small individual aspects that I wanted To be, as I grow older, what's my five year vision, my ten year vision of myself, so. Having those great people around really helped shape

Miguel Sanchez : 7:05

so it sounds like you really had, a clear vision of what you were looking for, what type of school, what were some of the challenges you found as you started college?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 7:18

I will say that it was difficult because for me, coming from a college prep school, coming from a Latin culture there's a lot of pressure put on you to become a doctor, a lawyer all these things. And it's common characteristic that is shared in many minority cultures here, you know? And so I know it's, the same for the Indian community, the Asian community, so many different varied responses, but that's. What I wanted to do. I thought I had it all figured out. I know I no longer need to get the advice of other people. I'm just gonna go all in. But in reality, that's possibly the worst thing that you could do for yourself. I decided to join in pre med. I wanted to be an orthodontist. I wanted to be rich. I wanted to take two weeks off from work every other week. It was I had a vision, but then, my dad comes in and he says, you know, you're extroverted. You like to network. You like to bring people together. Why haven't you thought about communications? And then my mom snaps quickly and says, no, he's going to be, he's going to be a doctor. And if He's not going to be a doctor. He's going to be a lawyer. I ended up pursuing a wrong field that wasn't for me. it's, it's important that you recognize good things take time, You need to wait and understand what is it that makes you smile? What is it that makes you like it doesn't feel like work? And I know that's so cliche, it's so corny, it's, it's, it's repeated, but that's also how important it is.

Miguel Sanchez : 8:58

that's a great point. And speaking of finding it sounds like you're calling or, or finding the career that makes you happy. So to speak, what was the role of mentors in your, in your process? Did you have someone in college other than your parents who said, try this career, think about this, think about that. What did that, how did that look like for you?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 9:23

Mentorship was something that I always strive to look for. But here's the, here's the trick. I only interviewed mentors that I would change places with them. And that was from a family perspective, that was from a work perspective. I wanted to look at the whole person. And, so, to be in law, I was like, okay, this is something where I would want to interview the lawyers that, you know, I saw in their specific field and their disciplines and then I would want to have a I would just want to have a mentor that was well rounded, that had my original thought processes that I had going into this thing. but mentors help guide and direct you towards different thoughts that you might have never even thought of. So it's important to have that get into that pipeline and see what you can find.

Miguel Sanchez : 10:19

That's a great point. As you know, I work in law school admissions. And one of the questions we ask to prospective students, why do you want to be a lawyer? Is it to help people? There are many ways you can help people that go beyond law or could be done in other careers. For those of you listening who are interested in becoming lawyers. It's a great profession. Be very clear on why you want to pursue law or any other career. And you mentioned a few other experiences and factors that I want to touch on, and that's regarding your, your graduate degree, because not only did you complete a college, but you've also completed a master's degree. How was the master's in public administration program different than your undergrad experience?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 11:08

I will say that my undergrad experience was amazing towards the end. They gave an opportunity where you, it was like a makeshift choice if you wanted to be in the classroom or if you wanted to take an internship instead. And I remember towards, the end of my junior year, going to senior year, I was doing three internships. You know, and To me, I never learned well in the classroom. I wanted to get out there. I wanted to actually understand the real world. And so because I was in communications, I understood the foundation of how I could use what I'm learning to, better myself, better those around me. And mostly like understand my craft to manipulate it in different ways. Because communications is a base, but how you use it could be, Yeah. So, I will say that when I was in my master's program, uh, and I went to the University of Maryland, I started out in public policy. because you have to choose a specific field that you wanted to go into. And I was beginning to realize, like, this, this itch that I was getting. It was because I was back in the classroom, and I had learned so well just by being out there, getting in the noise that, I struggled with that because from from my standpoint policy is the academia portion. Right. It's very important. If you are like of that intellectual capacity to absorb all those words and see it. But me, I was coming from the dirt. I was coming from, hey, I have my sleeves rolled up. I'm looking to learn what you guys are teaching me. And, for the most part, I loved my experience at University of Maryland, but I realized I had to pivot. So I switched to Masters of Public Management. And that is what I felt was the application process of all the academia that I was learning. considering myself a very action forward person as I think many in the Latino community are. It's it was important for me to understand the different learning environments and what I didn't like and what I did like.

Miguel Sanchez : 13:16

How was the process of getting your first job and how was that, how did that lead to your current position?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 13:23

I did my AmeriCorps year with the Lasallian Volunteers, Lasallian Heritage, that's that culture I was telling you about. And, I was stationed in Portland, Oregon, my original position for this high school was, An IT specialist and, you know, on my application, I said I worked for an IT for like a month at college just to help pay the bills, so I felt like I was ill prepared, but I signed up for this volunteer year because I wanted to impact younger audiences. I wanted to engage with younger audiences. younger kids that look like me, law was falling short, there was still juvenile injustice, there was still all these things, so I said, I'm going to go directly to a high school in need, in an under resourced area, and I'm going to give my all to that. And I was met with so much hardship. So much A lot of trials to test what ability do I have in translating what I learned in college and what I learned in my childhood development growing up in under resourced areas. How do I combine the two to translate it to these kids? And it didn't come through IT. came through a poetry club that I started, uh, and that is what I consider my first job. because it was one I was getting paid. But two, it was the job that helped me understand the difference between a profession and a vocation. And a vocation is where you dedicate yourself unwittingly. You become obsessed and that type of care, that type of passion. It exists. It's out there. And when we're younger, especially first gens, we're not really introduced to this to this fabric of reality. We're so caught up in, no, we gotta be successful, we gotta do this, we gotta do that, and it looks like one specific lens. And that's not true. We are very dynamic. And so, what that took me to is understanding policy, believe it or not. Because I had to work with different mechanics in the school. In this poetry club, I made, I posed a challenge to these young poets that, remember, have gone through hell and back. but I wanted them to showcase who they were. So my subject matter titles would be Write a letter to your unborn child, embody an emotion and personify it. Tell me what is hate, what is laughter, what is all these things. And so these kids shocked me and these were first gen students too. These were minority kids. These were the outcasts of society, which many times are written off. And to be quite frank, I believe I was one of those And so when they. Rose to that challenge. I decided that I wanted to give them a stage and Ergo went the talent show, but the talent show Wasn't as easy as it was I had to talk to the president of the school I had to talk to the principal and at First they were like no we can't do this because of money. I said don't worry about budget I will speak and see what resources we can allocate and sure enough the show got the green light But Miguel, it didn't stop there. It was one of those things where I had students help me say, Hey, like this is a community thing. What can we do to gather all these people together? And sure enough, it's Portland, Oregon. The teachers are musicians as well. So I had the janitor at the time of the school, a sanitation engineer come to me and say, Hey, I'm in a band. I hear your kids play instruments. You could use my instruments. If you'd like, if we can have a gig, I'm like a hundred percent. The math teacher was a part of a rap group. He joined as well. Collaboration with the art club. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful shows and these poets that I helped create or I helped forge, not create, because they had that in themselves. They are now doing their own things. Some are musicians, some have embodied poetry. So all this to bring back to your question, it's important that you understand what your, what your passions are and how they align before picking your first job. Because it could lead to the rest of your life in a beautiful way, in a beautiful process.

Miguel Sanchez : 17:59

I love that you started something out of nothing really, and I can tell that community organizing is really in your heart. It's, you correct me if I'm wrong, it sounds like that's something that you really understand and you embody. Tell me how that has translated in your current work and how did you get to your current position?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 18:23

Yeah. So right now I am the communications and public affairs specialist for Maryland Latinos, and needles, and this is a dedicated nonprofit. That truly tries and succeeds in becoming the bridge, right? The bridge between senators, house delegates, uh, leaders in so many different facets of society, You could say. And we connect them to the boots on the ground, the street level bureaucrats, the, the people that are actually making the difference day in and day out, years upon years, dedicating themselves to community organizing to advocacy, and I consider it to be an honor uh, to be among them. But, what MOU does so well is that cross collaboration, and me in my specific role, I introduced these two parties that seemed so distinct to come together for the benefit of the community. And that means that real life change is being made every day. And I think it's the way that I got there was through a varied path, right? I was lucky enough, uh, after my law studies And, everything, uh, that were cut short in New York, um, I decided to come and, dedicate myself to law in D. C., because this is where I wanted to set myself up. and. I was applying, Miguel, I applied to 236 law positions. Now, I got interviews, I got, maybe I got like 10 interviews, Didn't work out at any of them. And then, my sister and my mom, they sat down with me because they saw that I was, it's a depressing battle, to, to try to translate your self worth on a piece of paper and to be accepted. But especially for a first gen student, a first gen generation, anything. And so, my parents and my sister were like, You're selling yourself too short. Why don't you apply for your dreams? Like, why don't you just apply for your dream law firm for this government agency and all these things? And I was like, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. If I'm getting rejected, why not? Fast forward two weeks later, I got acceptance from the DOJ. I got an interview with NSA. It was, it's crazy what could happen when you set your sights higher. And so I ended up working for the department of justice in the healthcare fraud division. And that was where I believed I could fight For the average man who was, you know, scamming insurance and just the horror stories that you would hear in the cases that I had. It just it defeats you. But I understood the limiting factors of only helping a specific audience. I understood that law is two people in a courtroom, playing a game, right? But policy and legislation are the rules of the game that are being written. So you gotta have that chess vision, like I said before. And so, I, grueling, it was a grueling process, but it was an a journey. Of education in so many different lights. And there were even lesson plans that I didn't agree with from my master's program, I believed, and this is important for people to hear because in my trajectory of getting to where I am, I had to recognize the wrongs along the way there. And for my master's program, we were learning. In the academia side, as I told you, policy, outdated measures outdated banking systems, monetary policies, everything that has led us to collapse after collapse to the storm that we are in right now. And in my mind, I'm over here practicing AI. I'm over here studying crypto blockchain technology, seeing where it can take us. Because what I'm trying to promote to my people and Maryland Latinos Unidos and these bridges is that we need to attack literacy, financial literacy. We need to do math. And so I'm trying to find a way to revolutionize a traditional model. And it's. it's. sad because you begin to understand that the traditional mindset is so entrenched in our education systems that it really debilitates a young mind from wanting to do real change, and that's not a shot to any specific schools or anything. It's just it's what I'm seeing in my community studies in the data and the statistics in the education summits that I'm working on now. And so. I say all this to now let you know that I've, that work led me to the Senate. It led me to the Judicial Proceedings Committee where I was a fellow in my graduate program, and that got me into rooms where you're sitting with Republican senators, Democratic senators, you're hearing a bill, you're ingesting what it is, and you have to anticipate. What the objections are from the right and what the objections are for the left. You have to anticipate that and try to come up with solutions for the betterment of everyone's community And everyone's community has needs. Everyone's community has value. The difficult part in what I've learned in my line of work is what community, Why is there a hierarchy in so many varied communities that share the same issues? That is what my path has led me to ask. So yeah, from the Senate, I realized that I wanted to focus more on the Latino population because I couldn't see my identity in a lot of the bills that I was doing. I couldn't stand proudly and say I was really fighting for my community in the legislation that was being passed because In reality, as a first gen, no one really knows how I feel except for other first gens. And this is why resources of what you're doing right now, Miguel, is so imperative for the future, because these are the common foundations that we look towards. for guidance, for direction, and my guidance and direction led me towards the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus that led me to you. And so I will say that from the caucus the director, the executive director at that time, her name is Madeline Martinez. She now works for Catholic Charities. She was one of the best mentors that guide me towards Maryland Latinos Unidos. Where I'm able to do all of the work I just spoke to you about, from DOJ components to the Senate to the caucus. Now I'm able to do all those things.

Miguel Sanchez : 25:11

Based on all your experience and the work you're doing now, what advice do you have for first gen students who are in school now?

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 25:21

First gen advice for nowadays, I would say, know what you want to do before you enter college. And I know that's difficult because you heard me in the beginning say that I wanted to be a doctor, right? But I think and this is the most important thing I was fortunate enough to have a mother that challenged me in so many different ways growing up I asked for a ps2 She gave me a book about greek mythology I you know and like those small instances change everything in your development. So luckily for, because of my mother, I was able to challenge myself in many different ways that by the time I went to college, yes, while med school was completely off the table, I always Was preparing for a minor study. I was always putting classes in the background that I knew Was an itch that I wanted to scratch all my life But in order in order for me to have been the best version of myself back then I wish I would have Opened up a mic, turned on the camera, and started speaking into it. I wish I would have gotten to know different parts of me in uncomfortable situations, because you grow in discomfort. And so if you're about to enter college, you're about to be uncomfortable every day. And it's not like to scare you. It's to challenge you. And I think for the people that rise to that occasion, that arise to that challenge, you will love what you see at the end of that path. find uh, You are people that remind you of who you have been, who you are, and what you want to become. And lastly, just one last thing, I will say, get into the arts. Some form of arts mine was poetry, right? Granted because I had a big stutter. So I needed uh, to Poetry to help me with that, but it was because of poetry It was because of the arts that helped me remove the facade of society that oh a man I had to follow a certain path Because you will never find who you are in the paths that are already written out for you. I think it's only Your true identity is forged in areas you just throw yourselves in without questioning.

Miguel Sanchez : 28:08

No, thank you, Carlos. One of the things that I'm taking away from, from today's episode one, I need to go back and watch that Ted talk and I will leave a link to that Ted talk in the show notes. So I'll connect with you Carlos later on so you can share with me that link. I thought that was a great way to describe how to build community. Something else that I'm going to take away that I'm going to apply it is writing that letter to yourself. I think that's a really good way to think about the past and where you are now. And then finally doing things that are in discomfort. You, we're going to grow in this comfort. It's important to challenge ourselves and equally important to find people who are going to challenge us. Thank you for speaking with me today, and I appreciate your time.

Carlos Orbe, Jr. : 28:54

Thank you so much, Miguel, for all this.

Miguel Sanchez : 28:56

Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the episode. Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend. Don't forget to leave a review. Until next time.