Hello! My name is Jasmine Ruiz and I am a first generation college student here at West Texas A&M University. For those of you who are seeing this post for the first time, this is going to be the beginning of a new segment of  stories that will focus on the many faces of first generation students at WT. To kick off these series of stories I wanted to start off by sharing my own.

Aside from being a first generation college student, I was also a first generation high school graduate. I graduated from Palo Duro High school located in Amarillo and  I will also be the first person in my entire family to graduate with a degree higher than a high school diploma. Aside from being a student at WT I also work for Telemundo Amarillo, which is the only Hispanic news station here in the panhandle, but I’ve also been a member of The Prairie as a volunteer reporter. I love working in media and I love writing stories for The Prairie and so it feels good to be writing again after such a long winter break.

I was inspired to start these series of blog post on ” First-generation College Celebration Day.” back in November , when the group of students from the F1RSTGEN organization had a table set up in the JBK spreading the word to students. I was amazed and very surprised that a lot of the students who attend WT are first generation students. I was also ecstatic when I heard about this new organization on campus that focuses on helping first generation students here at WT. I wanted to do my part and be able to help because lets face it, college can be a little scary especially when you don’t have someone there that could help you or if you feel too bothered to ask for help.

When I first came to WT, I was really nervous because a lot of my friends went on different paths after graduating high school, and so the thought of making new friends was really intimidating to me. I didn’t know that I could pick my own classes, I wasn’t aware that books would be so expensive, and I didn’t expect to meet so many people from different backgrounds, it was complete culture shock to me to be honest.

Now that I have shared my own story I hope to share the stories of other students on campus who have has gone down the same path as me in hopes of spreading wisdom and awareness to current and future buffs. If you would like me to listen to your story please contact me through the prairies email at [email protected] or use the hashtag #f1rstgen for I will be looking at this hashtag on a daily basis.

That’s it for today and Go BUFFS! (: