The Superpower of First-Generation Students: A Discussion with D'ric Jackson

Get ready for an exhilarating journey as we welcome D'ric Jackson, a first-generation college student turned advocate, who is reshaping the narrative around higher education. With a background inspired by the '90s Spider-Man series and a dedication to psychology, Derek's unique lens turns an often daunting experience into a thrilling adventure, a superpower even. He's not only been there but has also forged a path to empower others like him, and if there's anyone who can understand the leap of faith first-generation students take, it's him.

You may wonder, what does Spider-Man have to do with higher education? Well, Derek expertly draws parallels between the journey of Miles from the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and that of first-generation students. Both have no blueprint to follow, yet they take on enormous challenges, embodying audacity and resilience. Just as Miles grows into his role as Spider-Man, first-generation students too, can transform their unique experiences into a positive identity and culture. 

As we wrap up our chat, Derek delves into the crucial role authenticity, mentors, and supervisors play in a first-generation student's journey.  But it's not all about grand gestures; small moments of compassion and guidance can make a world of difference.  Buckle up and prepare for a deep-dive into the world of first-generation students, blending higher education and pop culture in a way that you've never experienced before!

D'ric's bio:
My name is D’ric (Derick) Jackson, and I serve as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Office of Undergraduate Education at UT Dallas. Specifically, I oversee First-Generation Student Programs: A student success program for students who will be first in their families to earn their bachelor’s degree in the United States that I helped launch in 2019. I also serve as a class instructor for the First-Generation Student Success Course offered to the First-Generation Living Learning Community. I am a first-generation college graduate from UT Dallas, earning both my bachelor's degree and master’s degree from UT Dallas. I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Higher Education at the University of North Texas. I consider it an honor to pay it forward to my fellow First-Generation students.  A fan of Spider-Man since I was five years old, I firmly believe that “With great power comes great responsibility”!

Please help others find this podcast by rating and reviewing wherever you listen!

You can find me at https://www.firstgenfm.com/ and on LinkedIn. My email is jen@firstgenfm.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hi and welcome to First Gen FM, a podcast for educators who want to learn more about serving, working with, celebrating first generation, college bound and college students. Welcome, derek, to First Gen FM and to you. I'm talking today to Derek Jackson, who is the assistant director, recently promoted. I saw the assistant director of the University of Texas at Dallas and he is also a PhD student at North Texas. So double whammy of congratulations. That's really awesome. I'm sure it keeps you busy.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Oh, absolutely. I'm super excited to be a guest here on First Gen FM. I love the name and, yeah, I've definitely been busy, but it's very fulfilling work that I'm doing. So I'm always very energetic and very focused on what I'm doing for not just myself, but other first gen students and for my colleagues as well. So I'm super excited to be here today.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Fantastic. So so, derek, you're in college or you graduate college. When was the spark that made you say, like you know what? I am going to work in education and I want to work with first gen students.

Speaker 2: 1:32

So I actually love this question and it actually goes back a little bit to my personal philosophy with centers on a spider man. So when I was five years old, I would watch on repeat the 90s spider man animated series, which is the, in my opinion, the goat of the animated series, but that's another debate for a different time. I really internalize great power, great responsibility, and ever since I came into high school I realized I was really interested in human interaction. Now, high school, derek when I have described it like that, but that is what I wasn't doing. So I majored in psychology and got my master's degree in psychology, both from the University of Texas, of Dallas, and it was during my graduate degree, my master's degree, where I kind of came to realize that I was a really big fan of using positive psychology and social psychology to better the experiences of students who are in higher education. As a matter of fact, my master's capstone project looked at the effects of narcissism on grade point average. Surprise, surprise, the narcissist were getting higher grades. But there's another story that I was able to tell, with their motivational pathways and that sort of thing. But it was during my master's program that I realized oh, this is what I really like to do.

Speaker 2: 2:54

I was fortunate enough to connect with different faculty members at UT Dallas who allowed me to go in her place to a conference over in Los Angeles, first time I'd ever been to the West Coast, first time my feet ever touched the ocean, like I was the first ever on a beach. And so it was. I had. The ocean is vast too. I, a Texas kid, like saying the ocean, like you know, it was really really something. But then after that that led to a couple of other connections that I made, and then the said connections okay, there's this position at UT Dallas. I think that you will be really good for it. And so I applied and I will be celebrating five years of working for UT Dallas at our office of undergraduate education on October 29th. It'll be five years to the day.

Speaker 2: 3:45

So, UT Dallas bread. That's when I worked there. But, to answer your question, I had been going on a journey, discovering what I loved about psychology and then, when I got into my master's program, I discovered, okay, specifically, I like the application to success in higher education and I am a first generation student. So when my supervisor, who is one of my biggest mentors on the planet and in my career I was here, she approached me with the idea of starting first generation student programs, because she too is first gen and so that's when it just took off. So that was in 2019 when we started, and I'm super happy to be here today talking about it.

Speaker 1: 4:31

That's awesome. So you made it through the pandemic and all the excitement that that created, especially for gen students.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Yeah, I just, I love the, I love the Spider-Man reference and you know, we met at a pop culture presentation in Kansas City at the first generation student success or the student success conference, specifically about first gen students, so that ties in nicely. And then so you took all this and you took all your knowledge and you created you didn't create first generation week, or maybe you did at UT Dallas and you decided to theme that as first gen is your superpower. Like, tell me about, tell me how that came about, and then, you know, break down some of the things you did and what you decided to include or not include.

Speaker 2: 5:22

Yes, absolutely. So when we first started, we discovered that, hey, there's this national first generation celebration today, which is on November the age, and so we did a resource fair in 2019 around that time. And so when we were in you mentioned the pandemic when we were in the pandemic, Courtney and I, we were throwing everything we could just to keep students engaged, and so we were all behind the screens in November of 2020. So we decided, hey, let's make a week out of it, and so we did a week long of events virtual events, games, like we did the virtual resource fair and we were able to pull it off. So I'm very thankful to my colleagues for that.

Speaker 2: 6:06

The next year, in 2021, we did it again, and then in 2022, it was when we started to think about okay, what theme can we pick Now? I have to give an enormous amount of credit to Courtney, my supervisor, because she knows how much I love superheroes and how much I love Marvel, and it was her idea to like hey, what if we made a comic book theme? And I was like, of course, there is a big push in first generation student success and the research and the literature and professionals to highlight the positive nature of being first gen. So really using affirmative language and moving away from this deficit. Talk like oh, we're here to help you, no, no, we're here to support you because you already have it in you. It's almost like you have superpowers.

Speaker 2: 7:03

Right, and it's just that you're needy and you're draining the resources Exactly, and so I thought about myself and it's like being driven by this sort of like approach and motivation to desire to succeed, not just for ourselves, but for our families and people who support us. It operates like a superpower, so we wanted to celebrate that and in 2022, I had formed at this time, a very powerful connection and relationship with Dr Latanya LT Miles, who also was in Kansas City and she's a big flash band, so we had a multi-verse situation. Here was more DC, and so she was our keynote speaker for first generation celebration week, 2022, first year and super power, and that's what she focused on. We watched a screening of Spider-Man into the spider-verse, because Miles Morales is a first generation student and, even though Peter Parker's biological parents went to college, richard Parker is a renowned scientist. He grew up with his aunt and uncle blue collar workers who did not go to college. So, by all intents and purposes, peter Parker had the first gen experience as well.

Speaker 2: 8:23

So this, we really centered on this and we really wanted to make sure that we highlighted this with our students. It was throughout the keynote address in the movie screening. We did it when we invited students to apply to talk to the president of UT Dallas and his vice presidents as president members, really highlighting a first generation, the identity being the superpower, and it continued on into our faculty and staff presentation. We talked about our needs assessment that we conducted that provided the blueprint for first generation student programs and into the resource fair as well. I showed up to the resource fair, not in full Spider-Man costume, but I did wear my hoodie. So very nice hoodie that is the Spider-Man hoodie. So the theme was maintained throughout the entire week and it's something that we continue to lean into today. So that was, that was sort of the origins and the genesis of first generation being our superpower.

Speaker 1: 9:29

That's awesome. And how was the student, how was the student faculty staff reaction when you started to bring in movies and comics and Spider-Man to the discussion of the first gen student experience?

Speaker 2: 9:43

Yes. So I was blown away by the positive reaction and I've always said some. You know I have colleagues have like hey, do you connect so well with your first year students because of the comic book stuff? And I was like, well, yes, but yes, yes and no right.

Speaker 2: 10:03

So the authenticity that we bring that Courtney and I bring to our focus would captures the imagination in the hearts of first generation students, and they, in turn, capture hours, and so that was on full display during celebration week 2022 for the screening. There were students who came to the screening dressed up. If you want, after this talk, I can send you a couple of photos. There were students dressed up as video game characters, anime. There was another student who dressed up as Spider-Man.

Speaker 2: 10:38

There was a student that dressed up as Batman, and so the the the response was was very positive, and I have to say that my Courtney, for the first time, I had never seen her dress up as Captain Marvel before. I call her Captain Marvel not just because she only she slightly resembles Captain Marvel like once you see her, you can't unsee it but just the role that she has in my life personally, as it's emblematic of that and so she dressed up as well. I think it was a year and 2020 she ought to costume, and so she was really embracing it as well. So this is spreading all across our campus and it's very fitting that we will be having a pop culture talk in just a few weeks for first generation celebration week 2023, but the response was very positive and I'm so lucky and thrilled to have seen it.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Yeah, oh, I can imagine that that would have. That would have been a big hit. Tell me, what kinds of what did you pull from the movie? So that students would would see the connection to their own experience and that of Miles Morales and Peter Parker. So that because, because it I mean it clearly wasn't just let's watch a movie, it's. This is part of the experience and this is part of look at, they have superpowers, so do you? So how did you make those connections?

Speaker 2: 12:06

Absolutely so what I tell my students all the time when I talk about miles, miles, and this is especially true in the comics but just reflected in the movie as well. When Miles first tries to be Spider-Man, he's not very good, you know. He has a lot to learn and thankfully he has an aged Peter Parker to sort of guide him. But it's a lot like being a first generation student and navigating the hidden curriculum and higher education. When we first start there is no blueprint for how to do this. Peter had no blueprint, miles had no blueprint. He was thrust into this role because he was bitten by the spider. And also in this movie spoiler alert the present Peter Parker dies and there is no Spider-Man. So he has to take over or he feels compelled to. Much like first generation students feel compelled to seek this degree out to support their family and set our families up for generations to come. So it's a leap of faith that is a big theme of into the spider verse, the first movie. It's a leap of faith to decide to go to college when sometimes there are familial pressures to just go straight into the workforce. There's an immediate return versus spending this time and a lot of money to go into your undergraduate and get the bachelor's degree, but the return on that is substantial, can be substantial. So Miles not very good, but he links up with very important mentors and he, you know, he finds a love interest as well. And spider Glenn Gordon Stacey.

Speaker 2: 13:50

But the the theme that I tried to capture is it's a leap of faith. It's okay to not be great at first, but you don't know this now. But you will know how to be Spider-Man later on. And, most importantly, I tell my students the third famous anybody can wear the mask, anybody. Once you embrace your superpower, embrace the positive attributes that come with being a first-generation student, you can wear the mask as well. You can go out and be a positive representation of our first-gen identity and culture and also set ourselves up and set your family up for generations to come. You literally are a hero for the next generations. The U of T Dallas president talks about this during his conversations with first-generation students. He talks about his grandfather who served in World War II and was able to go to college because of the GI Bill. And his grandfather went to college and because of that his father went to college and now his son is a president of the university. So it really has generational implications for that leap of faith.

Speaker 2: 15:06

And by the time we're recording this, it's midterm season at UT Dallas and all across the country, and it's okay that if things aren't quite going the way we planned, how are we supposed to know how this was going to go? We've never done it before. Nobody before has done it before. So it's about a leap of faith hanging in there, and I really love to use Miles and other first-gen heroes as an example for what digging in and believing in yourself and investing in yourself and the people around you can really do for you.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's so true. I work with first-gen college-bound students as well, as well as the retention piece once they get to university. And there was a great line in the Spider-Man movie that LT queued me in on. That was about Spider-Man saying he didn't get into the institution he applied to and Dr Strange, who obviously had been through college and medical school, said, well, why don't you call them Peter Parker was like what I can do? That? Yeah. And so those messages are everywhere for our students, if we can just point them out and say there's a lot of good information, even though you think you're just watching a movie there's a lot of good information out there about your own experiences, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:29

For sure.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Yeah, so are you doing similar things this?

Speaker 2: 16:34

year, yes. So this year we're taking a little bit of a spin on it and this year's famous first-gen celebrities, or VIPs, all of these first-gen students, all 4,000 plus of them, are VIPs for not just their entire not just for this week their entire academic career. But we're really highlighting it this time and again, leaning into the heroism of being a first-generation student, we're inviting UT Dallas First Generation alums to network with students on Thursday November the 8th or the 9th no, the 9th, sorry, thursday November the 9th. And speaking of partnerships, we were able to cultivate one with other first-gen heroes from Capital One. I want to especially shout out Catherine Lovett, who is our main partner and also I would describe her as a first-gen hero as well. She does incredible work and Capital One and her colleagues do incredible work with first-generation students. She took time out of 4 Afternoon to come and talk to our first-gen students about LinkedIn, and this first-generation student right here learned a lot about LinkedIn during that time and she and her colleagues will be returning working with us for our professional networking event with first-gen alums and recruiters, and so it's like one big collaboration, almost a Avenger style, with Capital One and us and our first-gen students.

Speaker 2: 18:05

It really highlighted the fact that they are true VIPs. Yeah, and I said, like I mentioned earlier, we're having Bert Dravayas work with us and deliver a presentation about how to use pop culture to elevate the voices of first-generation students. Just a pop culture and, just in my mind, a brilliant thinker Bert is and I had a really positive interest as you did as well with him and so really looking forward to him sharing his experience and his expertise with faculty and staff for our VIPs and first-generation students and, of course, we'll be talking to the president again with a new group of students and we'll be doing our resource fair as well. So the heroic and heroism things verbiate throughout all of our activities that we're really putting a spotlight on our first-generation students. This year. I call them our VIPs.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Yes, I love it. I just immediately thought like first gen's assemble right.

Speaker 2: 19:11

And then you just bring it all in.

Speaker 1: 19:13

You know, and they all get together. That's awesome. That's such a good idea of VIPs. I love that you're really doing things across the continuum. It's not only first-year students or only the college students. You're bringing back the first gen alums to share their experience as first gen professionals yes, and then bringing in people who work with the first gen professionals, who are recruiters first gen themselves, and that is just such a nice synergy with all of those folks together.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Absolutely, and you touch on something very profound, and that's that the first gen identity carries with us beyond undergraduate, beyond graduate school. Like I was a first-generation undergraduate student, first-generation master student, I'm a first-generation doctoral student, I'm a first-generation professional. I want to highlight an example of how the first gen experience continues to follow us. My supervisor, courtney, was invited to participate in a I believe it was a talk or a grant. She's acquired many grants and she was invited for an opportunity that I called for, a bio sketch, and she had a first gen moment. She was, like, what is that? Had to seek out, like, what is a bio sketch? Do you want me to do a self-portrait? Do you want me to show you how my circulatory system works? These aren't the questions she was asking, but that's what I'm thinking when I think about bio sketch. And so this was a perfect teaching moment for both of us Because, like, this identity carries with us, like into our professional lives, and so it's always something that we will be learning and just reinforcing our skill set and being able to and this is what's so important to me personally being able to tell my students about this, being able to tell them hey, I just had an experience the other day where I didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 2: 21:12

But this is what I did to find out what was going on. I went to a research symposium a couple of days ago. Never been on one of those before, like I've been to conferences, but like not a symposium. And so now I can tell my students, hey, so this, when I say symposium, this is what they mean. So a bio sketch and the symposium and going to do this, these are all things that we can go back and tell our students about. They say, hey, this is how the first year I did it and it continues to impact us in a positive way, because we're always learning and elevating our game and, most importantly, sharing with the continuing generations of first year students.

Speaker 1: 21:53

Yeah, I just love what you said there about it's continuing. It's part of you. It's part of you who you are and it goes with you as you have all these new experiences. And I want to ask you what is a bio sketch? So that all of us can learn now what a bio sketch is, Cause I've never heard that expression.

Speaker 2: 22:16

Yeah, from what I understand, it's just a brief outline like almost like a biography, but in a professional sense. So my bio sketch will probably start at the end of undergrad. Well, I graduated from UT Dallas in 2015 with my bachelor's and then I continued into my master's program, earning a master's degree in psychology, where then I discovered that I have a deep passion for applying positive and social psychology to students, success and higher education. Now I am assistant director for first year racial student programs and the cultural scholars program at UT Dallas, where I continue to apply my knowledge and skills for the betterment of the first year racial students, not just at UT Dallas, but nationwide and worldwide, and I'm so happy to be here writing this sketch.

Speaker 1: 23:02

So and then you'll include that little pencil drawing of yourself.

Speaker 2: 23:07

Of my circulatory system exactly.

Speaker 1: 23:11

I love it, you know. The other thing I was thinking of as you were talking about this is, I mean, I love kind of the story of the hero's journey and one of the reasons I love that and you just touched upon it when you were like a symposium and like I'm going to go to that or I don't know what this is, but I know how to find out and I'm going to ask other people in that the hero's journey, whenever you see it on the screen or read it, they always ask for help. They always need someone to as a mentor or guide or to give them the help they need so they can get to that hero status. And knowing that that's not a glitch, that that's an expectation asking for help I just think that's such a great message, not just for first gen students, but especially for first gen students.

Speaker 2: 24:01

Absolutely. It's something bad. It carries with me every day that I walk into, walk on the campus. There's always something that I can be leveraging for my own betterment, with the people who care about me and care about my success. I have people in my office. My supervisor is my main person, who is my mentor, but I have other mentors in their office as well. I'm gonna be sharing this with them if they want to listen to this podcast.

Speaker 2: 24:32

I wanna shout out all of my colleagues in the office of undergraduate education. Every one of you in some way influence me every single day, and it's because of them that I'm able to continue to learn and grow. Even I was fortunate enough to hire someone who, and so now I have someone who reports to me and it felt like I was having a, and I put and I told my wife this I mean this in the most professional way but I feel like I'm having a child, like I have someone who is I'm going to be responsible for, and what an awesome responsibility. That is Awesome in the terms of excitement and awesome in the terms of enormity of the task. I have someone now who I can influence in a positive way, provide mentorship to, in the same way that Courtney has done that for me and everyone has done that for me in our office. And now I am a first gen professional, first gen hireer.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Right first gen supervisor.

Speaker 2: 25:40

First gen supervisor 100%. So Ashley is incredible. She has a lot of patience and provides a great balance for me and I could not think of a better person to have this experience with. So yeah, absolutely Every single day I walk in. I literally just heard my cats close a door. I literally just heard them close. I'm pretty sure it was the pantry door, but I'll deal with that later, right, but definitely we can leave that in because I'm sure some cat owners can relate to them closing doors.

Speaker 1: 26:20

Right right, Cats doing things during interviews? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 26:25

So but yeah, I'm influenced and touched every single day by my colleagues and, as a first generation professional, this is something that I want to impress upon our first generation students that it is the most important thing for us to have our village and our cheerleaders and our supporters. I put my heart and soul into my recommendation letters because I know someone did that for me. And so again, great power, great responsibility. I have the ability and the power to support someone's application for graduate school, medical school. I've written recommendation letters for students who are currently I think Sabrina might be like a third year medical student and like. These are things where and Courtney has written over 400 recommendation letters in her career this is not something that we think about, it's not at the front of my mind. Me, bro, I'm writing recommendation letters. That's not what's happening, but when I sit down and think about it, it's very humbling to know that this is what we're doing for students, especially our first generation students, who need advocacy and need support in amplifying their voices and their experiences.

Speaker 1: 27:46

Yeah, I think I'm not going to remember the exact quote, but I think Toni Morrison had a wonderful quote about with any power that you have, it is your responsibility, your obligation to lift up others and empower them to get to where they want to go. And, like I said, she said it much more beautifully than I just did, but I mean it's a really powerful quote. Like, we may not think that we have a lot of power, but we really do, and letters of recommendation is a perfect way to lift up others and pass that on.

Speaker 2: 28:21

Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Yeah. So let me ask you this I always like to conclude with advice that you'd give to a listener who's in a high school working with college bound first gen students or in a college, and with this first gen program that you did with being a superpower or being a VIP, what are some recommendations you'd make that maybe they could implement at their high school or at their college?

Speaker 2: 28:51

Yeah, absolutely, and so I think the the main thing is being their supporter. You don't have to have all of the knowledge and People. I believe this is Maya Angelou, because Courtney culture all the time. People may not always remember what you say, but they'll always remember having me feel.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Yes, yeah, so if you can make someone feel that is the most powerful thing that you can do. Yeah, I have. My main goal is Does the student feel even in Modicum better? Leave in my office then when they came in? If they do, I've done my job and I've fulfilled my responsibility. No matter what your capacity is like mr Flores, the fact that I still remember his name Tom Flores, from my high school, the fact that I can say his name, he made me feel some type of way about being able to apply to UT Dallas. Yeah, and that was a high school. And the same thing continued throughout all of my undergraduate career, especially in moments of doubt where I, you know, was questioning can I do this? And Even in when I was first starting in my role, like, can I actually do all this stuff? Because imposter syndrome is a real thing.

Speaker 2: 30:20

Yes, it is and sometimes it takes a compelling force, like a mentor, supervisor. It's how you. I've experienced that too, and so I'm here to tell you that you absolutely can do it. And what I tell students now, especially during midterm time oh man, I'm super stressed out. It's like you have survived every other stressed out time up until now. Mm-hmm, we are, we're back in the office. Yesterday was a bad day. Okay, we're gonna check our boxes and we're gonna succeed today.

Speaker 2: 30:52

So it's just small things like that and it may seem small, but the impact that we have just in our everyday interaction. Someone one of my colleagues Said during a panel discussion that I was on. She said if Derek has ever had a bad day, I've never noticed it, and that that meant a lot to me Because, of course, we have days and they will retire and we're not really feeling it. But I Was. I just switched into a different gear.

Speaker 2: 31:23

Whenever I'm around Courtney or from around other students and I just get overcome with. I have a first-year student in front of me who has a very unique story and I have, within this 30-minute time frame, the ability to just make them feel. That's what my first-year student success course is all about. Sure, sure there is positive psychology embedded throughout the syllabus. Everything that I do every week is in a very Intentional sequence, sequential order that's based on positive psychology research in that whole line.

Speaker 2: 32:00

But if I cannot deliver it with compassion, deliver it with authenticity and Make those students feel, then it's all for nothing. So my ability to capture their imagination, to make them feel authenticity those are my web shooters. My ability to climb walls, my spider senses that's all of that, my super strength. And be able to deliver in your own way and whatever Position you are in, from high school through higher education and beyond, you have that same ability. And, just like I said earlier in the podcast, anybody can wear the mask and you can too. You can be somebody's first-year hero. I just in the smallest ways, and so I just want to shout out every one of you who are listening to this podcast Thank you. You're doing incredible work and you are somebody's first-year hero, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:56

I love that. It's so true. It's so true Especially on those days where you may not think you're making a difference. You really are by by seeing the students and the young people who they are and then lifting them up. Sometimes I think of it. As you know, we're holding on to some of their grit because it gets worn down in them by all the things they're, they're facing. But we can remind them of the strengths that they have, of the experience that they've had before they come to us, that they've been through, and so they have everything it takes to take those experiences and translate them into the college arena and academics, you know, and we, and that's that's something that we can give them and, of course, while they're giving us all their gifts, and of who they are and other knowledge.

Speaker 1: 33:47

So I love that. I love that you shout out all the people who have helped you in your experiences too. Recognizing, recognizing that we stand on the shoulders of others and we've had others reach down and pull us up is is Meaningful.

Speaker 2: 34:08

Very meaning. The way that I describe it is if anybody who's seen Avengers in game Remember the part where Captain America is standing there. He puts on his shield, he straps it to his arm, in his injured arm getting ready to face Thanos. All of a sudden, sam Wilson comes on to the radio. Cap a, sam, yeah, I'm on your left.

Speaker 2: 34:32

Portals open, people come in when it comes to higher education, that's, I feel like Captain America and in that scene and the people come through the portals is Gen Z and everyone who looks and everyone who comes after After me that we've helped to support and I know that it can be I could be 50 Something years, like it can be years from now, when those portals open, but I know that they're gonna open and to be able to just hold, hold it down, holding the line down until they arrive and then give you that approval, the head nod as they use their gifts that we've Helped them see in themselves and and supported them and how cultivate that. It's truly gonna be a beautiful thing. Yeah, and that's why I think about on those days was a man this is.

Speaker 2: 35:27

Looking is looking kind of like Thanos out there, but I don't know what ultimately happened to Thanos, and so I see this no differently.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yeah, beautiful way to wrap this up. So, derek, if, if people want to reach out to you, they wanted to either talk to you more about the programming that you did for first gen celebration week, or just reach out to you To learn more about symposiums and biosketches, where would they find you?

Speaker 2: 35:56

Absolutely so you can email me at dricjaxson at UT Dallasedu. I promise you I'm probably the only person on earth who spells their name like that, so I won't be hard to find. Okay, I go to UT Dallas, that edu, and you look me up in the directory. If you go to first gen dot, ut Dallas edu, find me there. If you follow us on Instagram, we are on the road to 1000 followers. No, that's child's play for some influencers out there, but we are on the March to 1000 followers at UTD At UT Dallas. I'm sorry, first gen's at UT Dallas, first gen's. And while you're on Instagram, follow LT's account first gen and juice as a wonderful, wonderful first-gen account. But you can find me there, derek Jackson Dricjaxson at UT Dallas, at UT, if you have any questions and as a first-gen student?

Speaker 2: 36:57

there's no such thing as a silly question you can ask me anything.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Yep, agree 100%. Well, Thank you so much, derek. This has been a great conversation. I hope you enjoyed it too, and I did, and I hope you listener Enjoyed it as well too. You can find me at first gen FMcom, or you can also email me at Jen that's J E N at first gen G E N FMcom, and I'd love to hear what you think and who you might like to have me talk to on my next podcast. So thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you again next week. Thank you, derek. Thanks everybody, bye, thanks everybody.