I am James Williams. I'm a first-generation graduate, and I'm an assistant
professor in the retail, hospitality, and
tourism management department.
What is the biggest barrier to communication? People in my family they always talked about how much they made
an hour, and they work very hard
physically and they never really
understood what a college degree could
do for them. But with me being the first
to graduate, it was like I was I was
doing it for the whole family. It was
like everybody was walking across that
stage, and it just took me into a whole
different world that I never even
thought existed. What is the objective...
I actually noticed you know from teaching
the honors students, even though they
come in with high GPAs, some of them are still first-generation graduates so they
still struggle, "Can I really do this, you
know maybe I was good in high school but
does it really translate over to college?"
So it's always a hidden fear... "but you
got to understand the audience..." I think
they should just be excited you know,
that they're one of the ones that's in
college, and if they got here they're
definitely gonna be one of the ones that
finish as long as they have that
attitude.
