When Edgard Jara worked as a building engineer in the Bay Area—maintaining facilities for tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Quora—he often wondered what it would be like to sit in the offices he polished and repaired. Constantly surrounded by software engineers and computer scientists, Jara found himself imagining a different future.
Today, as a computer science senior at Chico State, 37-year-old Jara is closer to that future than he ever thought possible.
But his journey in higher education has not been an easy one. Grappling with his parents’ separation and overcoming a traumatic childhood, the first-generation college student dropped out of Santa Clara High School in 2006. After earning his diploma from a continuation school three years later, he enrolled in trade school to become an electrician and fund community college. But as an undocumented immigrant from Peru, he couldn’t secure an apprenticeship.
In 2014, he received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which granted him work authorization. He continued taking courses when he could, but at 27, he was hospitalized with ulcers that caused internal bleeding, halting his progress once again.
When he recovered, Jara returned to work as a maintenance technician, eventually becoming a building engineer. Working inside major tech campuses opened his eyes to the possibilities in computer science. But his struggle with math courses at community college stood in his way.
In fall 2023, while retaking calculus at Evergreen Valley College in San José, he was laid off from his job at Google soon after learning he was going to be a father. Suddenly unemployed in a tough job market and failing the course he needed most, he hit another crossroads.
“I got fired, and I had an F in the [calculus] class, but I now had a new motivation: my son,” said Jara, who got his green card in 2020. “I was going to try to finish, then maybe I could get financial aid that can help me pay the rent.”
He threw himself into school—study groups, late-night YouTube tutorials, and hours of practice. He clawed his grade up, and he passed the class. He was able to complete four more classes the following spring, when his son was born.
His progress rekindled his confidence. He researched computer science programs across Northern California, looking for strong outcomes and a place where his new family could thrive. With its ABET accreditation, strong reviews, smaller classes, and affordability, Chico State rose to the top.
He, his wife, and their infant son moved to Chico, which was far from their support system but closer to opportunity. His first semester at Chico State was tough.
“College isn’t built for students who are parents,” Jara said. “I’m always playing catch-up. Computer science requires a lot of work, and at Chico State, the courses are project-based, so you can’t cruise through them. I see why it’s highly rated.”
During his second semester, he felt comfortable asking professors for help.
“I felt embarrassed saying, ‘I’m a dad, can I get an extension?’ But then I thought about my son. I can’t be too embarrassed to advocate for myself,” Jara said.
Computer science professors like Kun Tian and Sam Seiwert offered compassion—and stories of balancing their own families and academic careers. Jara also began seeing a therapist to work through childhood trauma and imposter syndrome.
Tian said he witnessed Jara’s incredible growth in his course and said that no matter how challenging the class was, he never gave up. Jara was consistently working and making progress every day and week, he added.
“It has been an amazing experience working with Edgard on my course, witnessing his sheer will to succeed academically while seeing that he faced and effectively dealt with the troubles from work and life,” Tian said. “[He has a] high level of perseverance and high level of mental maturity.”
Chico State’s Basic Needs has also become a lifeline for Jara and his family. An emergency grant this spring helped him pay rent and his phone bill, and the Wildcat Food Pantry ensured he never had to study on an empty stomach.
“There have been times when I don’t have money,” he said. “Going to the pantry and finding a sandwich means I can stay on campus until 5 [p.m.].”
This summer, Jara earned a paid research position with the Chico STEM Connections Collaborative (CSC2), working with Seiwert on the Elephant Listening Project—an opportunity that combined financial relief with hands-on experience.
Jara worked on building a poacher detection model. He used acoustic data (voices, elephant rumbles, background noise) to attempt to build machine learning models that could detect human presence to prevent poaching of the African forest elephant. The project, which is still being fine-tuned, introduced him to research and machine learning, but most importantly, it resonated deeply with his Andean and Indigenous roots.
“I think I have green in my veins,” he said. “I always think about the environment. I want to do something that makes an impact.”
Despite every challenge that life has thrown his way—employment setbacks, academic hurdles, fatherhood, health scares—Jara remains driven by a vision of what comes next: financial stability for his family and serving as a role model for young Latino boys and men, especially his son. He sees a future where he’s the one behind the desks using technology to make the world a better place.