? ?
- My story is very personal.
Why I do this work is very personal.
So, I am born and raised in the city of Milwaukee.
I went to kind of, what I would say,
the creme de la creme of schools.
I felt very prepared to go to college.
I had been a part of the PEOPLE program.
I had been visiting UW-Madison for every summer
since I was in middle school
for pre-college camps of some sort,
and then, the PEOPLE program, and I absolutely felt ready.
I mean, I graduated top of my class.
I was good. [chuckles]
And then, I came to UW-Madison's campus,
and I just, as I would say to my students or my team,
I epically failed, you know, my first semester.
I completed my first semester with a 2.0 GPA,
and I was on academic probation. - Wow.
- And I don't even know what happened, you know?
It was kind of like you thought that you were ready,
and I think that, you know, as you put language to it now,
it's like the culture shock, the first-generation piece
and not now knowing how to navigate,
even though you had all of these things around you,
I just completely didn't get it,
and I think I got caught up in just so many other things.
I was a STEM major at the time,
and I was taking, you know, a terrible credit load
that I would never tell anybody else to take.
I took 17 credits my first semester,
three of them five-credit courses.
It was just a terrible idea.
But again, I didn't have that intentional advising.
I didn't have, you know,
somebody who was really, walking,
and maybe I won't say that
because I was in the PEOPLE program,
but I didn't take advantage of it.
I think, when I first started,
I thought I had it all figured out.
I mean, I was a smart student.
- Let me tell you, Tiffany, your story is my story.
- Tiffany: Exactly.
- I failed, and I had never gotten like less than a B
my whole life. - Tiffany: Exactly.
- And I was like, how is this possible?
So was part of a program and a STEM major.
I'm like, how did this happen?
So, hearing you, I'm like, we cannot be the only ones.
- We're not because I've had this story,
I've talked about this multiple times,
and I get that often.
These students who graduate the top of their class
or who are doing very well
are not guaranteed to succeed in college.
- Angela: Watch more Why Race Matters online
and on the PBS app on your phone, tablet, Roku,
or any other streaming device.