I'm Melanie Wilson.
I'm the first in my family to go to college
and graduate.
I am now the dean and Lindsay Young Distinguished
Professor at the University of Tennessee,
College of Law.
My parents worked really, really hard and instilled in me the value of education  because they
didn't have that opportunity.
And it was imparted in me that's the way you
could really be successful.
You could change your life, you could change
other people's lives.
Because to be a first generation student is
to be a leader, and it's to be a leader where
other people know that they can do it.
But I think if you're going to be successful
you've got to develop those relationships.
And I think you have to show a little vulnerability.
You don't want people to know what you don't
know and yet I don't think there's any shame
in not knowing the answers; I think there's
shame in not asking the questions and finding
out those answers.
I really think the university does a great
job in providing resources.
Students just need to reach out and take them
up on it and not feel,
I guess embarrassed by wanting those resources or needing them.
Everybody needs them.
