I was a first-generation college student myself and I had to learn how to navigate college life on my own-not that I didn't have support from my mom but she didn't have her own college experience to help me-and I remember making my mom call the financial aid office at Kirkwood Community College (I was too scared!) where I was attending to ask about this refund check I had received in the mail and what was it for, was it legit? were they going to ask for it back and they had to explain it was from the leftover Pell grant I had awarded and it was mine to keep. Later on, I ended up being a work-study student who worked in the One Stop office which was a lot of financial aid work and I ended up working part time and eventually full time and spent almost 7 years there altogether before coming to the University of Iowa as a Financial Aid Advisor now. I do my best to break down financial aid and the complexity of it to parents and students since I know what it is like to be so confused by it and I work with campus partners a lot to try and meet students needs. My background is diverse- Indigenous first-generation college student raised in a single parent, lower income household in smalltown Iowa.