Hi everyone, my name is Tosin, and I am new to I’mFirst! Blog. I am excited to share things about my experience at St. Olaf and being a first-generation and low-income student. Some of my hobbies include watching Kdramas and playing volleyball.
I am from Saint Paul, Minnesota, but I attend school at a small liberal arts school called St. Olaf that is located in Northfield. My college is only about an hour from Saint Paul, which was essential when deciding what school I wanted to attend. I wanted to be close to home because then I would not get to be as independent as I wanted, but I also wanted to move pretty close, so an hour was a reasonable distance. I also really liked that St. Olaf offered a TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) program to help low-income and first-generation students navigate their college journey. It was nice already to know a group of people with similar backgrounds to me because St. Olaf is a predominately white institution, so I was afraid that I would not be able to make close friends, but SSS helped me form close bonds with people.
I am currently a senior at St. Olaf with a major in Economics with a minor in statistics and data science. I chose this combination because I enjoyed economics in high school, and I have been told that data analysis can be helpful to me in the future, so I added the concentration too. However, after I declared my major, I realized that I did not enjoy Economics, and I started to regret my decision to pursue the major. People think you have to be set on one major coming into college, but that is not the case. I went into college wanting to be an Economics major, and I did not take the chance to explore any of my other interests. Luckily for me, although I am still an economics major, St. Olaf is a liberal arts school, and we must take other classes in other disciplines. Therefore, I could explore my interests in education, psychology, and sociology even though that was not my major. As I reflect on years here at St. Olaf, I wish I had pursued other things, but it is never too late to pursue what you are interested in, and I am glad I was able to learn and grow from my experiences.
There are a lot of ups and downs in college, but if you have the support and confidence from yourself and other people you trust, it is always possible to get through it.
I am excited to share my experiences as a first-generation student and learn more about other people’s experiences!
Thank you.
Tosin