Thinking about those who are like me in creating a persona...

After reading the articles and getting familiar with creating a persona, I began to think about what segments I tend to be grouped that usually don’t describe me at all and also about what makes me different from others that could really help marketers gain insights about those who are like me.


My first thoughts are about being a student. I thought about how most students are between the ages 18-21 and typically take 4 years to complete their bachelors. What stands out the most to me is how most of these students only focus on their studies and have nothing else to worry about. They might have a part-time job for “spending money” (drinking money) as an option but not as a requirement. Their priorities are school, graduate, and then find a job. These students have their parents as a cushion that provide for them and do not have to worry about any responsibilities. Their only responsibility is school. Most of these students have at least one of their parents who attended college and know about the college process or life which can be of great help. They understand what you are going through and are willing to help you succeed. Most of these students are also pretty well off and come from good high schools. Their families prepare for college since their kid is young and is at times a rite of passage in the family. It is necessary to go to college. In my career as a student, it is not like this for me and this is where my persona derives from.

I would like to call my persona the "Juggler" because of the different roles they hold. These people would be those who have a job but are also going to school. People like me are single, non-traditional, first generation students that must work to take care of their responsibilities. There is constant struggle between having to juggle a job and school, especially when you have to be on point with both.
I belong to the Hispanic and female groups which are not really well represented in college, it is predominantly white males. Hispanics have the highest percentage of first-generation students since most of the parents do not have any higher education experience. They believe that work is priority and education will get you nowhere because of their lack of understanding. These pressures can be seen in the juggler’s life because they must provide for themselves and sometimes their families (like helping with the rent at home for example) but have grown up in the U.S. knowing that a formal education is required by most jobs. Most of these jugglers also pay for their own schooling because either there is no support from their families or cannot afford to help. The focus of education is not possible with these circumstances.
Another hindrance to the juggler is high school preparedness. Our families do not prepare for us to go to college and we do not even hear about the idea of college until high school. A juggler notices once in college, I might not have been preparedness as I thought I would be. This has to do usually with the areas that minorities usually live in which are low-income areas where the high school is usually an underperformed high school. In my case, I attended Lanier High School a HB 400 school. This means it is among the high schools that have the lowest amount of students that go on to college or university. I did not know this then of course but I only bring this up to make a distinction between me and other students who may have gone to better high schools. The lack of preparedness makes it tougher for us the jugglers to focus on school and may at times focus more on making money. Like these situations...
As the juggler, you often find yourself making decisions between going to school or work. You think you cannot afford to miss days at work for school because you need the money to pay for the car that transports you back and forth from school to work but then again you need time to study. In addition, you cannot miss school because of work related reasons since you will be really behind or miss something important but you need the extra money to make a payment. From a marketers perspective after seeing the jugglers strive to become successful they may take this information and create special services for these people. For example I think CAR 2 GO could really benefit the juggler, juggle between going to work and school. This could also help budget wise for some. I am not sure if there is any insight on a product that could make the jugglers life better but most likely, I see a service.