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As another spring comes to UCLA, graduating students try to ponder and decide where their futures might take them.

However, as some students decide whether their futures lie in corporations, students of color have a more daunting task. Many have to make decisions that do not only dictate their futures, but the futures of their communities as well.

For people of color, graduating from UCLA is a privilege that must be shared with those in their communities. Many UCLA graduates were expected to get degrees from prestigious institutions like UCLA. However, there are thousands of students who are only the first or second generation in their families to receive college degrees. For some, this degree is not just the next step, but a symbol of achievement won at the cost of the lives of those who lived and died so that Latinas/os, blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders and others would have access to degrees in the United States.

Students of color have to understand that their success hinges on the success of their own communities and peoples. The notion of linked fate states that people are not just individuals, but part of a collective identity that, no matter the circumstances, experience the same destiny in the end.

History shows the truth of this. The United States did not separate out educated Japanese people when they rounded up all Japanese and placed them in internment camps during World War II. It didn’t matter if you had a master’s degree in 1960; if you were a person of color you still didn’t drink from the same water fountain as your white counterparts. Thanks to the Patriot Act, anyone looking “Middle Eastern” today is perceived as a terrorist by our society and can be questioned, regardless of educational status.

No matter how much education you have, your community is a part of you whether you like it or not.

As students of color enter the ranks of corporate America and join the upper crust, most can’t divorce the fact that most of their relatives, friends and communities will never live like that. So, students must continue to look after the interests of the whole rather than just their own interests.

What will you do with a degree when you graduate? Some students take out the braids and shave off the dreadlocks, and adopt that weave and fresh cut once they realize they must fit a certain mold in order to get a job. Others will drop their Spanish surnames, changing from Ricardo to Richard and from Maria to Mary in the wake of that next promotion. In this era, where we have been fed the idea that the American dream is now wide open to us all, shall we forsake our collective dream for a piece of this country’s gold?

We must not allow our communities to perish as we find success. We have never seen communities more divided. As Latino and Asian communities increase in numbers and gain political clout, these same communities are victim to brutal, cheap labor practices that our economy thrives on here in the United States.

Los Angeles now holds the richest and poorest black communities in the nation (Ladera Heights and Watts). As more women of color have broken barriers through positions, salaries and possessions, more women of color are also seeing the inside of jail cells and prisons. The only reason we are here is because of the sacrifices of those who have come before us. We pay homage to them not just by recognizing their contributions, but contributing to this university and this world.

What will you do with your UCLA degree? Will you, like thousands of people, work hard while making others richer, or will you reinvest in your community? You do not have to be the director of a non-profit organization to give back. You only need to empower one person to receive the same opportunities that you have been given. There will always be a disadvantaged person who needs your guidance and support. It is important to understand that your education means freedom to many of those not given the same opportunities. You have been given the power to make a difference, and hopefully that will not not go to waste.

So, as we all go buy our tassels, seal our invitations, and make our first steps toward the future, remember the education you have earned here at UCLA, and remember that our legacies depend on our community’s legacy in the end.

Remember Frederick Douglass’ motto: “Without struggle, there is no progress” – for our lives, as well as the lives of our communities.