First in your family at college? So is Liah.

[00:00:08] >> My name is Liah Straub I'm a sophomore here at Virginia Tech and I am the vice president of 1G at VT which is the 1st generation student organization here at Virginia Tech. So I think my biggest hesitancy with coming to Virginia Tech was that I was going to be jumping into the dark neither of my parents had experience with college so they couldn't really offer me any advice as to like how I was supposed to navigate my schedule, my classes like even when I supposed to eat and I think that I was really nervous about not being able to succeed just because I didn't have any advice coming in from my close family members but I think upon coming to Virginia Tech I found support with with the organization 1G at VT. [00:00:48] And any questions that I had about like when should I do this or like you know what's the best place even stuff like what is the best place to eat at on campus were really answered by my peers and friends and I found that group. I applied to five universities and I got accepted into every single one but after I got accepted I was like how do I decide which one do I go to and you know what if I had to commit one before they give me financial aid I had so many questions about just all of that. [00:01:13] I really was so nervous about like going in the big groups of people in the dining halls and even just like walking across the drill field because like I've always been anxious in, like, social situations and I was like God I'm going to be so nervous about this and like everyone here at Virginia Tech that I've interacted with have been so it's nice and like inclusive and like they're not really judgmental people they're all here to learn. [00:01:37] Coming here without anyone from high school that I knew and just virtually alone was terrifying to me I've always had trouble kind of making friends and I was like there's no way i'm not be able to rebuild the friend group that I had in high school. But I found that joining organizations especially the academic team that I'm on, I made a great group of friends from there and I found a good group of friends at 1G at VT, and even in my classes I made some really good friends and I was like it happens a lot easier than I thought it would be that would be like a big struggle but you can put yourself out there basically and people come to you. [00:02:14] My GPA in high school was like a 4.43, 4.45 somewhere in that area and I was like even though I was so far above that scale and even though I had taken so dual enrollment classes I was like, they don't see that they just see me as a number. [00:02:28] But like in reality those are just factors that kind of help to be boost me after I'd gotten accepted there I didn't really feel like I'd really earned my spot at Virginia Tech when I actually did and I still had a really hard time accepting that I remember one time I was talking to my mother and she was like basically she's more those like you're crazy they want you here because you're like smart intelligent you've done all these things in high school you've accomplished so much better still like you know I was getting this because like they want me for that number and if they don't they want you here so you can thrive.