As we support one first-generation student scholarship this Giving Tuesday, we’re taking time to celebrate and learn from our first-gen students and graduates. Nearly 20 percent of the current Birmingham-Southern student body is first-gen, and the resources and guidance for these students are growing.

Cohron with Dr. Louanne Jacobs after her capping ceremony.

For Nikki Cohron ’13, who came to BSC as a first-gen student, her first year was a huge adjustment. She excelled academically and socially at her high school, but she remembers how different college felt, especially when she looked around at some of her peers.

“So many students seemed to naturally know how to ‘do college,’ but I felt a little lost when I wasn’t in class,” Cohron says. “Eventually, I overcame my imposter syndrome and realized I belonged on the Hilltop as much as anyone else.”

Cohron studied education and became close with faculty in the education department. Her time in class with favorite professors like Dr. Louanne Jacobs, Dr. Amelia Spencer ’85, and Dr. Kelly Russell helped her define her career path, and these instructors have since become life-long mentors.

Her time as an education major prepared her for elementary school teaching roles in the greater Birmingham area and led her to earn her master’s degree in educational leadership from Samford University. Cohron also served as an adjunct professor and instructional technologist at BSC and is now pursuing her Ph.D. in educational theory and policy from Penn State University.

“Growing up, school was the place I felt the most at home,” Cohron says. “Even as the first person in my family who attended college, many people in my life pressured me to do something ‘more’ than become ‘just a teacher.’ I resented this flawed narrative of what it means to be a teacher both then and now, but it was, at least initially, a struggle for me to choose teaching.”

During her sophomore E-Term, Cohron took Dr. Andy Gannon’s coral reef ecology course and traveled to Roatan, Honduras. There, she learned about reef life and received her SCUBA certification – a dream come true since she’d always wished to be a certified diver.

Her education courses and other opportunities at BSC further fueled her passion for education and showed her the importance of educational policy. Between her junior and senior year, Cohron served as a Hess Fellow for two child advocacy nonprofits in Montgomery where she saw the work of education policy advocates, advisers, and analysts.

Experiential learning opportunities, plus her classes and close relationships on campus, all prepared Cohron for her next steps in higher education and her role in educating others. She’s thrilled to learn about the ways BSC is continuing to support more first-gen students like her.

“There will be moments, especially in your first months on the Hilltop, when you may feel a little lost among your peers who come from very different backgrounds than you, but I promise, you belong at BSC just as much as everybody else.”

Join the Giving Tuesday 2020 celebration at bsc.edu/givingtuesday.