I grew up in a small, rural, farming community in Missouri. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. Through lots of weird twists of fate and happy accidents I ended up teaching a college course and LOVED it! The life I have today would be very different if I had not had the determination to graduate. In 1990 there was not a lot of support for first generation students. I want to make sure that today I am part of the support network for students who were in my same position 30 years ago.