Many of you came to college while still holding responsibilities at home— caring for siblings, supporting parents, translating documents, working to help with bills, managing family crises, or being the person everyone turns to.

These responsibilities did not disappear when you stepped onto campus.

You didn’t just pack clothes and notebooks; you packed your family’s hopes, their needs, and their struggles.

That kind of weight is real.
And it is one of the most profound challenges first-generation students face.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to honor your family, support them with love, and still succeed in your academic journey—without burning out or losing yourself in the process.

You will also learn seven strategies that will enable to overcome this challenge.

This episode outlines challenges facing first-generation college students and offers seven strategies to overcome them.

The strategies include:

1. Learn the System with Purpose

2.Build a Support Network

3. Use Campus Resources Before You Need Them

4. Become Financially Literate

5. Communicate with Your Family About College Life

6. Start Preparing for Your Career Early

7. Embrace Your First-Gen Identity as a Strength

If you are a public university student or a first-generation college graduate, you may not always hear how powerful, capable, and valuable you truly are.

You may look around and see others who had advantages you didn’t—financial resources, mentorship, family experience, or networks that smoothed the path for them.

You may have wondered whether your journey, full of obstacles, uncertainty, and self-reliance, puts you at a disadvantage.

But here is the truth:

Your journey shaped you into one of the strongest executors in the modern world.

Author Malcolm Gladwell has stated that, “Truly successfuldecision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

This raises interesting questions:

1. When do you have enough information?

2. What information is reliable and credible?

3. Who should you rely on or trust for guidance?

Whether you decide to do or not to do something you have made a decision.

You can overcome your fear of public speaking.

You will need to :

1. Practice!

2. Join a group that helps others to improve their speaking skills.

3. Identify and incorporate techniques used by skilled presenters.

4. Eliminate bad and distracting habits.

5. Get past your comfort zone.

Whether you think you can or think you cannot either way you are right. Henry Ford, industrialist

When faced with an obstacle , how do you move from 'cannot' to 'can'.?

Episode 3 builds on the theme- It is not where you start, but where you finish.

Four term senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and NBC News legend, Tim Russert were a generation apart but shared a similar background.

Russert referred to Moynihan as his greatest teacher.

This episode tells the story of how they met and delivers one of the many great lessons Moynihan taught to Russert.