Coming to WVU as a First Gen student was very intimidating at first, but my BCOR 199 Professor Suzan Lantz takes the "Mountaineers Go First!" motto to heart and has all of her class go on mini adventures, and these adventures allowed me to take hold of countless opportunities! I joined the club for my major Management Information Systems Association(MISA) and even tried running for President, I didn't get it, but the thought is what counts. This little leap of faith helped me make upperclassmen friends that I will actually be working with post Graduation! With that being said, I contacted the very first person I met of my WVU family Rachel Nieman, and she helped get me in contact with a great job working at the B&E IT department as well as let me know about B&E Student Ambassador program openings.

The B&E IT Department opened me up to every department of the B&E and even allowed me to know many of the Administration on a more personal level, such as Dean Reyes and Associate Dean Peace. This involvement stoked my want for more adventures, so the spring of freshman year I took advantage of the WVU Outdoor rec center, and went kayaking around the Florida keys meeting even more students from around campus and making more friends.Sophomore Year, led to me snagging a Website master position within MISA, and fully taking part within the B&E Ambassador program! This led to countless dinners and events with Administration and key figures that have come to B&E. The student Ambassador program also led to me running for and wining one of the two College Representative positions within Student Government Association(SGA)! Here I met my partner Daniel, and ended up with the both of us signing up for the study abroad trip through the B&E to India for two weeks! This was the first pilot trip to the region, so again " Mountaineers Go First!". Luckily, many of the MISA friends I made freshman year were also coming on this trip, so the experience ended up being a blast!

Junior Year, I tried to get as much Student Ambassador experience as I could, and making sure B&E's student had a voice in SGA. In the process of looking for summer internships, I had a interview for HM Health Solutions(Highmark Subsidiary) I used all my contacts and the B&E's Center for Career Development (I basically lived in their office looking for internships) to prepare myself for the interview process, and luckily I ended up securing a position for that summer that ended up going until the end of Senior Year. I also ran again and won the President office of MISA finally. Going into Senior year, I continued my Student Ambassador activities, but now I was focused on getting a job at the company I've wanted since freshman year Deloitte. I went to every event they held and made sure to talk to each of them and recall things we've talked about from the past to build that personal connection. I secured an interview slot, and they assigned me a Analyst that was hired the year before to help with questions and prep, and lucly it was one of my good friends from MISA that Graduated Emily. She gave me every tip and advice possible, so when I went into the interview I was more prepared and confident then anyone else. Having the personal connections also helped me be more at ease talking to them, and I got the Job!

Going into Spring semester of senior year was fine all my classes had professors I knew and my regular clubs and activities were going fine, but then the COVID19 pandemic happened, and I got extremely lucky. My internship was already remote Work from Home and all of my professor had been prepared for a month know, so the transition to online classes was easy and we all stayed productive! Now I am off to work at my favorite company with friends from years past, and I will be able to start giving back and helping other nervous first Gen students when I am on Campus!