Video: Advice from a first-generation UW-Green Bay student—’Be Brave’

Fearlessly facing challenges, UW-Green Bay’s recent grad Paige Anderson ’21, was a resilient first-generation Psychology student pursuing her dreams. Her advice, “Go for whatever opportunities that UW-Green Bay has to offer even if you don’t think you’re going to get the position, the internship, the research assistantship, go for it. …You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”

Advice from a First-Generation UW-Green Bay Student Transcript:

I’m really proud to be a UW-Green Bay Phoenix. I’m a first-generation student and so, just being at college is already a big deal for me however I didn’t think that I would have the opportunity and the capability to be this involved. I’ve been a TA (Teacher Assistant) for a number of courses. I’ve been a student researcher since my sophomore year of college. I’ve been extremely involved across the Psychology Department and so, just adding one more thing that I can say I contributed to really makes me proud to be here.

I have four jobs and four internships so, I’m busy as a person but I’m driven, I’m motivated, and it’s because I have so much to lose. Otherwise, if I don’t do well, I mean, what I want in life is not something that happens overnight, it’s something that I have to really work towards, and by doing these things along the way in my educational career I’m going to get to be that person that I want to be in 10 years. It’s not really about worrying about who you’re going to be in 10 years, it’s just what am I going to do today, how am I going to be brave today and get through whatever I have to do to get eventually to that stepping stone.

I’m pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology so, for me, it really allows me to expand what I know and really get a feel for what else is out there as far as experimental methods. I will be eventually working with people as a career but learning about animal models, and how drugs affect the animal brain, how those different assays that we study, how those really implement into the real-life scenarios that I will be working with.

Go for whatever opportunities that UWGB has to offer even if you don’t think you’re going to get the position, the internship, the research assistantship, go for it. A lot less people really go for these types of experiences than you think and there’s no reason you shouldn’t go for it, you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. So, please just go for it, be brave, take the shot to do it because it’s paid off in the long run and it will continue to do so.

Video by Sue Pischke, Marketing and University Communication