First-generation college student Maggie Crosby appreciates the support of college communities like First & Proud at 草榴社区 (UAH). The spring 2025 graduate of the UAH College of Nursing will receive her second bachelor鈥檚 degree during commencement on May 5, 2025, at the Von Braun Center.
Ann Marie Martin | UAH
鈥淵ou wanted it enough to apply. You wanted it enough to start. You have to want it enough to see it through. It鈥檚 the see-it-through part 鈥� year two or three, when you鈥檙e right smack dab in the middle 鈥� that鈥檚 when it gets hard. But you wanted it enough to start, and you can鈥檛 forget that.鈥�
First-generation college student Maggie Crosby never forgot. The spring 2025 graduate of the College of Nursing at 草榴社区 (UAH) offers that reminder to her first-gen peers, plus advice and encouragement for successfully navigating the journey.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard as a first-gen student to not have a lot of people to look to for advice. I was a first-generation high school graduate as well as a first-generation college graduate.鈥�
Crosby鈥檚 collegiate perspectives are well tested. After graduating from high school in Maryland in 2014, she went to Mississippi State University, where she met and overcame challenges on her way to an educational psychology degree, her first. Now she鈥檚 ready to receive her second degree, this time from UAH, on May 5. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 emphasize enough the importance of finding your community in your faculty and staff. In my first degree, I did not do that until near the end, and you can see a reflection of that in my grades. The minute I joined my degree program, my grades skyrocketed because I found professors and faculty who supported me. Even though I might not have had as many family members to ask for advice, I had that in my faculty and staff.鈥�
Crosby urges UAH first-gen students to connect with First & Proud, a part of UAH鈥檚 Academic Success Advocacy Program (ASAP). Their office is located in Room 200 of the Student Services Building.
Mississippi State had a first-gen movement on campus, too, but Crosby didn鈥檛 hear about it until she was already well into her college career.
鈥淚 loved my time at Mississippi State, but I remember recalling how nice it would have been to know about that program when I was struggling during my first semester and I had no idea what to do, where to go, what my options were, what my resources were.鈥�
Available resources are great, but students have to be willing to use them. Crosby knows from personal experience that first-gen students can be hesitant.
鈥淭ake whatever help you can get! I think a lot of first-gen students have a problem with asking for help because we were raised in families where you do it by yourself. You fix it yourself; you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and asking for help is a very hard thing to do.鈥�
Crosby sees first-gen resources in a different light.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not asking for help if the resources are already there. It鈥檚 taking advantage of what is provided to you, especially financially. I like to think of it this way: You鈥檙e paying for these services. You鈥檙e paying for the opportunities to take advantage of these things. That鈥檚 what they鈥檙e there for.鈥�
After Crosby graduated with her first degree in 2018, she worked for a long-term care facility in Arkansas. When her husband鈥檚 job moved them to Huntsville, she decided to pursue her interest in nursing. When she arrived at UAH, she found a ready-made community in the College of Nursing.
鈥淚t was very easy to connect. You have a specific schedule of classes, and those teachers are pretty much set. Sometimes it changes, but for the most part, they鈥檝e been teaching for several years. The community of professors and staff, like every single one of them, they鈥檙e all nurses. Some of them have higher degrees; they鈥檙e nurse practitioners; they have Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees. They all have been exactly where we鈥檙e going.鈥�
That community of experience and understanding helped Crosby flourish. During Honors Day on April 4, she received the College of Nursing Dean鈥檚 Award, which exemplifies outstanding academic and professional achievement in a graduating student. The award is based on overall GPA, leadership in preprofessional organizations, community involvement activities, and service to the university and the college.
鈥淣ursing school is one of the hardest things I鈥檝e ever done. One thing they say to us in the College of Nursing is never forget why you started. This goes back to first-gen in general. You wanted it enough to start. You have to want it enough to finish and see it through. I had to keep telling myself that through nursing school.鈥�