If I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would tell her to be vulnerable and ask for what she needed. The University would have been there for me with open arms and might have made it all just a little bit easier!
Whitney Bayer
Share Your Story
As the first person in my family to go to college, I encountered so many things I didn’t even know I didn’t know at the time! Living in a residence hall and managing my own schedule and finances for the first time, I really struggled to make it all work at first. But once I got into the groove of things (a few years in, lets be real!), I managed to graduate with a BA from LSA and I even got into graduate school at UM, later graduating with an MSI!
Your advice for other First-Gen students
Looking back now, there are a million little things I would have done differently, but the biggest regret I have was that I didn’t take advantage of the resources I had access to through U-M. All of my friends had parents and even grandparents who went to college and I didn’t want to admit to them that I was struggling so I didn’t seek out help or resources. If I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would tell her to be vulnerable and ask for what she needed. The University would have been there for me with open arms and might have made it all just a little bit easier!