Being the first in your family to go to college can be tough. Maybe pop culture can make it smoother.

Ariela Canizal, director of community and leadership development at the University of San Diego, was a first-generation college student who found pop culture helped her connect with her peers and professors. She’s part of a San Diego Comic-Con panel discussion, “GeekEd: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? When Pop Culture Becomes Pedagogy for First-Gen Students,” inspired by the book “First Gen & Juice: Exploring First Generation College Student Narratives in Pop Culture and Mass Media,” in which she is also a contributing author.

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