WATSONVILLE >> The high school students sitting in the Watsonville living room laughed nervously and frowned with concern as the older students described the trials and tribulations of college life.

“Listen, college is hard. I realized quickly I wasn’t going to get the grades I did in high school so I just focused on passing classes and learning,” said Sandro Renteria, 23. “In college you need to remain flexible — both intellectually and physically. Nothing is permanent.”

Renteria, a Watsonville High alumnus, graduated from Tufts University in 2015 with a degree in chemical engineering. On Monday, his words of wisdom appeared to resonate with the gathering of students, all of whom are current or past participants in The Watsonville Ivy League Project.

Since 2007, the Watsonville Ivy League Project has given more than 100 Watsonville students described as “low-income, first generation and under represented but academically high achieving” a chance to tour colleges on the East Coast and expand their academic horizons.

Alumni of the project gathered in the living room of director Lorraine Sandoval-Vigil’s home and gave advice to their underclassmen counterparts.

Bryan Lopez, 21, entered UC Berkeley in 2013 to study astrophysics after graduating from Watsonville High, but his classes took a backseat to work and dancing.

“I got a job in a coffee shop to help with expenses and found I started enjoying it more than school and my grades began to suffer,” said Lopez, who is currently taking a break from college. “Remember where you are when you’re in school. You’re there for a reason.”

Rene Siqueiros, 24, will have taken a circuitous route to his degree from San Francisco State University when he graduates next year. The 2011 Watsonville High grad dropped out of UC Berkeley after his father was diagnosed with cancer. Siqueiros enrolled at Hartnell College for a year and a half, rediscovered his love of running and now competes at San Francisco State.

“Seek out support and mentors,” Siquerios said. “Those people are around and are willing to help. Sometimes you have to just reach out.”

Ester Lomeli, 25, graduated from MIT in 2013 with a degree inn material science and engineering. She recently cofounded a company that creates custom metals for specialty applications.

“You are going to fail and it’s going to suck and you have to ask for help,” Lomeli said.

Although many of the Latino and Latina students said they had to overcome cultural alienation on college campuses, Lomeli said she was eager to experience people from different backgrounds.

“Don’t take this wrong, but I needed to get away from other Latinos. I needed to learn things from other people,” Lomeli said.

Joaquin Alvarez-Bautista, 23, said it can be difficult to differentiate between academic challenges and the challenge of growing up. As a student at Brown University, he felt pressure to present a strong front to his family.

“You don’t want to let anyone down at home. Everyone back in Watsonville is looking up to you,” Alvarez-Bautista said. “But there were many times I didn’t feel like I was good enough or belonged — even though I knew that wasn’t true.”