By the time Diana Goins graduated high school, both of her parents had been diagnosed with different types of cancer.
“I had to drop out of college my first year and move back home so that I could take care of my terminally ill parents and finish raising my younger brother,” Goins, administrative assistant for the College of Health Science and Professions, said in an email.
Goins had to give up her scholarships, which made her financial situation worse, and she had trouble getting financial aid after she withdrew before finishing her full semester.
But she didn’t let those struggles keep her from graduating, and now she serves as an Ohio First Scholars advocate, a group of faculty and staff who use their experiences to help first-generation students.
To get through college, Goins worked as a waitress at least 60 hours a week so that her family could survive, and she decided to start college again but had to drop out for the second time after facing more financial problems.
“I could not afford a car when my old car blew up,” she said in an email. “So, after I started back to college, within my first year, I had to drop out again.”
After she had her daughter at 22, she had it set in her mind that nothing would stop her from finally finishing her college degree.
“I struggled, remained dedicated and pushed through,” Goins said in an email. “I wanted to finish my college degree, and I attended four years straight and finished my Bachelor’s.”
Angela Lash, associate director of the Allen Student Advising Center and director of OHIO First Scholars, was also a first-generation student and said part of her job is trying to help students facing some of the obstacles she faced.
“Filing the FAFSA was hard, (my family and I) were under-informed about a lot of the financial aspects of college,” she said. “We likened FAFSA to a college application, so there was this really big challenge I faced, before my sophomore year, when all of a sudden I realized I had no financial aid and wouldn’t be able to come back.”
Until a couple of years ago, OU did not have a campus-wide program to support first-generation students.
“I thought this was really important,” Lash said. “I am really grateful I was given this space within my job to make some of those things happen.”
Kerri Shaw, another First Scholars advocate and a field education instructor in the department of social and public health, said the most challenging experience was visiting campuses with her mom and both of them becoming incredibly nervous and stressed.
“There was so much that was unknown,” Shaw said in an email. “My mom and I normally get along great, but I remember fighting with her from the time we left our house, all the way to Athens, when we came for orientation.”
Her parents did not want her to visit home very often during her first quarter because they wanted her to acclimate to college life.
“I didn't take my coursework seriously my first quarter, and didn't have anyone checking in on me regarding classes, so I did not do well academically,” Shaw said in an email. “My parents were very upset, and threatened to bring me home, if I didn't bring up my grades. The transition was not as smooth as it could have been if I had known what to expect.”
Some advice Lash gives to her students is to not be afraid to ask questions or say that they need help.
“We all struggle sometimes, we all have questions,” she said. “As I reflect on my own experiences, I think that any of us are very used to doing things on our own and being pretty independent but also very successful.”
She said sometimes, students hit their first bumps in the road when they come to college, and it is hard to say that they are struggling or don’t know how something works.
“If they don’t know who to ask, that is why I am here, that is why my job exists,” Lash said. “You can figure those things out on your own, but you don’t have to.”
