Major: Biology, Purdue School of Science
My parents taught me from a young age that getting a college education was a huge priority. As a first-generation student, I was motivated because they provided me an opportunity to learn and stressed the importance of a college degree. Being able to attend college has given me so many opportunities I wouldn't have received had I not attended.
It has been so important to educate myself and ask for help, and that's my biggest piece of advice for other first-generation students out there. We can't always rely on family members; we have to seek out information and resources, and IUPUI has plenty of them. If I could go back, I wouldn't be so afraid to speak with my advisors about my GPA, and I wish I would have known just how much work outside of the classroom I needed to put in to achieve a high GPA.
My most impactful moment at IUPUI was attending a student organization's event for the third time and someone asked me to run for an executive board position. I never thought people saw me as a leader or that I could be a good one, but this experience set the tone for my growth in college. This one moment gave me so much confidence that I continued to strive for more.
