Recent ̽̽ graduate Nerida Williams had a very busy summer. From graduating to applying to grad school, to interning at REACH Prep, to now serving as a ̽̽ resident director, Nerida’s always been focused on supporting the people and community around her. Ahead of , we spoke with Nerida about her experience as a first-gen student at ̽̽, building a campus community, and being comfortable with speaking up and asking questions.
Looking back, what was your early experience like going to ̽̽?
I’m from Chicago. Vermont was a huge jump. I had never had a job before going into college. I was asking myself, “how do I even make my way through here?” I did little jobs around campus through work study. Then COVID happened, and that really changed how I looked at college and navigating it. I started looking at jobs that really led me towards what I wanted to do. I started as a classroom producer, assisting teachers with presenting their online courses during the pandemic. One of the classes was an honors college seminar on inequality. I’m not in honors college, but I ended up really liking the class and finding the subject interesting.
I was telling my mentor Alex Yin about it and he said, “Have you ever thought about the NASPA Undergraduate Fellowship Program (NASPA NUFP)?” and I was like “What is that?” That kickstarted me looking at higher education as a career. I was a resident advisor in the dorms, I was an Eco-Rep, worked with Generation Conscious, I was kind of everywhere. But everything I did was centered around students.
You identify as a first-generation college student. How did that impact your college experience?
It’s one of the things I pride myself on because it forced me to be truly independent. I used to depend on my parents for almost everything, like “Parents, you’ve done this before, help me!” But for college, I had to learn how to help myself. Going into my first year, not knowing all the ropes that other kids who had parents who went to college knew about, and then with the pandemic, it was uncharted territory for everyone, but especially for me. I found my support in affinity groups on campus, like the Mosaic Center. That was where I made friends, I would literally just go in there and have friends to talk to. I had my mentors Alex Yin and Tiffanie Spencer, I called them my academic parents, they showed me how to work on a LinkedIn profile and how to work on a resume, and how to work on these steps that I had never known before. It was so nice to have a little community on campus that I could just lean on to support me and help me. Even my parents are so grateful for the support I had here.
What advice would you give to first-year students, transfers, international students, or anybody new to ̽̽?
My advice is to always ask questions, even if you think they’re stupid questions, because there’s likely someone else around who has the exact same question but is afraid to ask it. There were so many times where I felt like, “yeah this is a no brainer, but I don’t know the answer!” Never be afraid to look like the ignorant person because we’re all trying to learn here! If I didn’t ask those questions to try to figure things out, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Nerida Williams has been accepted to four different graduate schools and is deciding on her next step after her current gap year.