I want to do anything I can to help first generation students have an easier path than I did. I'm always willing to be a listening ear, provide any of the tacit "college knowledge" that continuing gen students often have access to, and share my perspective and experience (while always remembering the bad advice I got about graduate school from an administrator and faculty member who had very different family supports than I did, and that others' experiences and circumstances may differ from mine). Here's why: Once I became aware, I think in about second or third grade, that there was a thing called college, I knew I wanted to go. By the time I was in 7th grade, however, I knew that would be difficult. My parents had gone to a 2-year business college (mom) and skilled trade apprenticeship (dad). Their view was that I should work my way through school, paying my own tuition and living expenses as I went, as people used to do. They also said that if I did well the first three years, they would pay for the fourth year. But I quickly learned from friends that neither of those things worked: tuition had increased enough that it was no longer possible to pay one's own tuition and expenses with summer and school-year work, and the federal government would look only at my parents' ability to pay (which was high), not their willingness to pay, when calculating my aid. It seemed to me that I would either need to go into the military (which didn't seem like a great fit for me) or get a scholarship. Luckily, my parents did support me spending a lot of time on my schoolwork, and I was awarded a full tuition, room, and board scholarship for four years at the University of Northern Iowa (I don't think this level of financial support is offered any more). I didn't know much about internships, and I didn't find much help with my after-college job search at the career center, so I struggled to find my place after graduation. An AmericCorps national service stint turned out to be a great opportunity. I decided to go to graduate school (this wasn't something I'd really understood existed, or how to apply, until my senior year of college). An administrator at UNI told me it would be a good investment, and a faculty member encouraged me to attend his elite alma mater. My own experience was that it was an investment in the sense that it was risky and expensive. In my case, it did pay off in the end, but it took a long time and cost a tremendous amount: it took a long time to pay off (both in terms of how long it took to pay off my loans with the salary I made, and how long it took for the increased earnings of a masters degree to justify the lost wages and debt repayment required), it delayed my ability to buy a house, and it delayed my ability to have children, because I couldn't afford both loan payments and child care. Once again I struggled to find my place in the workforce, and another tour with AmeriCorps was the key to helping me gain skills and make contacts that helped me find my way. I didn't learn the term "first generation student" until I was working in higher ed myself, but it helped me make sense of so much of what I went through: the stress and worry, the incredible pressure I felt to get and keep a scholarship, the (in retrospect) poor decisions and bad assumptions I made/had about how to get into the workforce, my lack of understanding that many careers in the nonprofit and higher ed spaces are really only open to those with families or spouses who can provide financial subsidies, etc.