Marissa Rivas Taylor
Share Your Story
Marissa is a first-gen from California and a proud Gates Millennium Scholar (@thegmsp), whose support for the entire cost of attendance (transportation, health care, textbooks, room/board, winter clothes, etc.), not just tuition, made her undergraduate years at Wheaton College (@wheatoncollegeil) and graduate years at UMSI (@umschoolofinformation) not just possible, but provided the mental capacity to truly fall in love with learning, writing, and higher education. She’s worked at @uofmichigan for ten years, advocating for First Gens and leading institutional changes to make educational paths easier for all students. She’s currently pursuing her PhD at @michiganstateu, where she studies student success in STEM, student motivations behind AI, and how institutions can better support students. She just published a book called “Higher Education & AI,” a first-person, narrative-based book reflecting on this moment in education based on her experience.
Your advice for other First-Gen students
Marissa writes, “First-gens are magic makers. They care for their families, work to make ends meet, volunteer to give back, and still pursue education. Putting their studies first probably feels very selfish, at least for me it did, but as I rise, so did my family and loved ones. And I take my blessings to pour them back into the students who come after me. They all do something like this; first-gens are community changers. Institutions should prioritize making their paths to success commonplace because the future should be in the hands of their most capable and passionate people. And while waiting on institutions, first-gens will still be making magic happen where they are.”