Oral History Program Tiffany Brower Interviewed by Chelsee Boehm 18 May 2018 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Tiffany Brower Interviewed by Chelsee Boehm 18 May 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The First-Generation Oral History Project began in 2018 in collaboration with Weber State’s First- Generation Club. The commonly accepted definition of a first-generation student is one whose parents/guardians did not earn a Bachelor’s degree. This project was created to capture the experiences of active first-generation students and alumni in an attempt to better understand the challenges that first-gen students face. These interviews explore the difficulties of navigating college, including scholastic and financial hurdles, as well as highlighting current students’ future goals and alumni successes. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Brower, Tiffany, an oral history by Chelsee Boehm, 18 May 2018, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Tiffany Brower 18 May 2018 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Tiffany Brower, conducted May 18, 2018 in the Stewart Library’s Archives Conference Room, by Chelsee Boehm. Tiffany discusses her life and her experiences as a first-generation college student at Weber State University. Alexis Stokes, the video technician, is also present for this interview. CB: Today is May 18, 2018. My name is Chelsee Boehm and we are here with Tiffany Brower at the Stewart Library. We’re going to talk about Tiffany’s experiences as a first-generation college student. The definition of a first-generation student is one whose parents or guardians did not a receive a four-year college degree. Alexis Stokes is on the camera. So to begin, can you tell me where you were born? TB: I was born in Logan, Utah. CB: Did you grow up there? TB: Yeah, I grew up in Cache Valley, in a small town called Newton. CB: What kind of work do, or did, you parents do? TB: My mother is a cosmetologist and she worked out of the home, all of my childhood years. My father worked for a cheese plant called Schreiber Foods in Logan and he did a lot of the maintenance. He’s very smart mechanically, but never received a degree. CB: Do you have any siblings? TB: Yes, I have three siblings. Two brothers and one sister. CB: And where do you fall in there? 2 TB: I’m the third. So I’m in the middle. CB: When did you realize that you wanted to go to college? TB: Well, probably from age 17 I wanted to go to college. I actually had made some steps to go to Utah State University, but at that time in my life I had some family things going on and I felt like I couldn’t juggle things the way that I needed to. I married young and had two small children and I didn’t know anybody that had done that before, and it just seemed so scary to me to go to college. So, I signed up and then I basically withdrew. CB: Did you have people who were kind of pushing you or encouraging you to go to college? Or was it more something you felt that you wanted to do kind of for yourself? TB: Yeah. Not my parents or family, but I had a couple of teachers that really tried to push me and encourage me. A couple of them were actually at the technical college that I went to during high school. It’s called Bridgerland and I did my CNA there. I did a lot of medical type classes there because I felt that the medical field might be something that I would be good at. And I just wanted to experiment and see what I liked. I had a couple of instructors that said, “You need to get your LPN.” I only had one class to take at the university— microbiology and for some reason, just the idea of that just scared me. CB: What do you think scared you about it the most? Was it the stuff you had going on in your personal life? Or just the whole process? 3 TB: The process. I even went to the university and was thinking, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” and, “How do I get signed up?” The people at the college were helpful, but I still felt like, “I don’t know if I can actually go through with it and do this.” CB: So, how did you get from that point, when you were going to go to Utah State, to being at Weber? TB: Experience. Life experience. I ended up attending Bridgerland and I got my medical assisting certificate and then I worked for a little while. Cosmetology was something that was always kind of in the back of my mind because my mom’s a cosmetologist. It was really fun watching her as I was growing up and it was kind of a part of my bucket list. So, I decided to attend Ogden-Weber Tech College and I did cosmetology. After that, I worked as a medical assistant and a cosmetologist and that was really fun and really challenging. As my children have gotten older, they are teenagers now. I realized that I’ve always wanted to do nursing and now is the time. I came to Weber State and it just seemed like the process was easier. I don’t know if it was because I’ve gotten older and I have more experience and I don’t let things scare me like they used to. But, I signed up right away for math, microbiology, and I took the First Year Experience (FYE) course. I think the FYE course was probably the biggest help for me, because it put me in touch with all the resources that were available that I didn’t even know about. So, that’s kind of how I came into Weber. CB: Was there a particular reason that you chose Weber? 4 TB: Well, when I was in high school, I took anatomy and physiology through Weber State and having moved to this area and hearing about how great the nursing program is, I decided to start here. CB: Awesome. So how long have you been at Weber State? TB: I started in the fall of last year. So, it’s almost a year. CB: How are you feeling so far? TB: Really good. I love it. Right now I’m in a really challenging class. I’m in chemistry 1050, so it’s kind of hard. It’s kind of scary. I never even took chemistry in high school, but I am utilizing the tutoring center and asking lots of questions. It’s online so I’m probably driving my instructor crazy. But, I always ask questions. CB: Well that’s what they’re there for. TB: Yeah. CB: So FYE, can you tell me about some of the resources that they taught you about? What were some of the most helpful things? TB: Probably the Stress Relief Center, I didn’t know about that. I had no idea that I could use the gym and so I use that a ton. Really, I feel that physical activity for me is a real stress reliever. It helps me focus and do better in school. So, those are really helpful. Also the non-trad center. It was suggested by a professor that I go to the non-trad center and I’m there almost every single day. I heat my food up there, I do a lot of my work there. The people that are in that center, they help 5 with whatever I need. I ask a question, if they don’t know, they’ll find out. I’ve also met people who are married or have kids. It’s been really nice to have that connection. CB: That’s awesome. So, how do you say your experience is different compared to a traditional student? Obviously, you have a family, but I don’t know, do you feel like a “non-traditional student?” TB: I see what you’re saying. I think it is different in the sense that there’s got to be something magical about coming to college as a young person. You kind of figure out who you are, where you’re going, and you meet people along the way. Whereas, I’m coming out of my life that I’ve already created. It’s completely different. It’s not very magical, it’s really difficult and it’s hard to balance and juggle and, you know, be there for everything. I’ve had to really sacrifice a lot of family time. But my family is really supportive of my goal. I think it’s really different, but in a way that maybe I can’t quite understand because I never went when I was younger. CB: So how do you balance all of those things—your family and are you still working? TB: Yes, I am working. However, I cut my hours from 24 hours a week down to four. So I’m only working about four hours a week. I’m a medical assistant at McKay- Dee on the fourth floor in a pediatric clinic. Before, when I was working those 24 hours, it was really hard. I honestly don’t know how I did it. I didn’t do any family things because I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then I had class Monday through Friday. But now that I’m down to four hours a week, I’m still here 6 Monday through Friday. I sometimes don’t leave until 6:00pm. But at least I have my weekends now. My oldest daughter she’s 19 and she’s not home a whole lot. She’s got her own life going on and then I have a 17-year-old that’s graduating from high school next week. She works two jobs and goes to school. It makes it easier when the kids are a little bit older. They have their own independence. They don’t really want you around a whole lot. I felt like I spent a lot of time trying to get my kids to engage. But, I’ve found that actually not being there as much, they want to engage more. We have more quality, instead of quantity time. CB: Right. TB: My husband has a graduate degree. He totally understands what it’s like to go to college and what it takes and he’s super supportive. He does the cooking, the cleaning, a lot of stuff for me. I’m very fortunate that I can balance things really well because I have a really good support. CB: So you said your daughter is going to school, does she go to school here as well? TB: No, she’s not. She graduated from high school and she’s like, “I’m going to take a break. See what I’m going to do.” And so, we’ll go from there. My younger one, I think it will be the same for her. They’re not quite sure about the whole college experience because they’ve seen me go through it and I think it’s really scared them. I tell them, “No, it’s not that scary.” But it is kind of scary. CB: So, since you started, have you been a full-time student? 7 TB: No. I’ve done nine credit hours each semester. But, last semester I actually did a math course outside of Weber to kind of prepare me to test out of math. I kind of count that in the nine credits. CB: So, this is kind of an obvious question, but what are you studying? Have you been accepted into the nursing program or is that something that you still have to apply for? TB: So, I actually did get accepted. CB: Oh congratulations. TB: I’m going to be going to the Ogden-Weber Tech College, which will then pull me into the RN program through Weber State the following year. I’m going to start in the fall. I had a lot of prerequisites done prior to starting here because I had everything done when I was 17. I was going to do it [become a nurse earlier] and I just got scared. So all I have left really was to get my math done, my microbiology done, do my CNA again, and get a few generals underneath my belt. I applied to Weber for nursing the nursing program but I was denied. I applied to Ogden-Weber Tech and I was accepted. I was pretty surprised. I thought it would take another year. CB: So, how does that process work? TB: You go through Ogden-Weber Tech College and do a year there, where you get your LPN. Then they have a contract through Weber State where not all of the students, but 18 out of the 24 students can go forward through Weber State. It’s still done at the Tech college campus, but it’s all the same curriculum that you’re 8 learning. It’s all the same things, it’s just done in a different location. That’s what I’m going to be doing. After that I plan to do my bachelor’s through Weber State and then work for a couple of years and get some experience. Then I’ll apply for the nursing practitioner program through Weber State, which is a new program. CB: So what will you get you Bachelor’s degree in? TB: It will be a bachelor’s in nursing. CB: So, after earning your nurse practitioner degree, or just in general, what is your end goal? Like, what do you want to do? TB: I want to work in family practice. In talking with a lot of doctors and a lot of students who are becoming doctors or becoming PA’s—a lot of them don’t necessarily want to work in family practice. I feel like there’s a need for that and I feel like I could just see myself working as a nurse practitioner and educating people on how to care for themselves with exercise, nutrition. I just want to do full body care, like a holistic kind of care. Obviously, on the medicine side but I think as a nurse practitioner I’d have more time to spend with my patients and make a difference. I’ve loved working in pediatrics because you get to see these kids grow up. There’s something special about that and I would just really like to experience that more. CB: So between the time you went to school in Logan and then you ended up at Weber State you were working as both a Cosmetologist and a MA, how many hours a week were you working? 9 TB: Well there was a time when I was working 60 hours a week between the two. And it was a lot, it was too much. CB: Yeah, I can imagine. TB: I kind of had to reassess and pull back and find a better balance. Then, it was more like 24 hours at the clinic and like 20 hours doing hair. CB: What kind of setting were you working in as an MA? TB: I have worked in pediatrics at the Budge Clinic in Logan for a Nurse Practitioner, in Podiatry at the Ogden Clinic, and then in internal medicine at the Budge Clinic doing point-of-care labs, which basically was helping patients who are on blood thinners such as Coumadin, Lovenox, things like that. Just doing blood draws, making sure that their prothrombin time and their INR’s [international normalized ratio] are within range so that they aren’t having any bleeding or anything like that. I really loved that because it was an older population. You build a rapport with these older people, they’re just very sweet. So, I did that for awhile and then I decided to try dermatology because it’s very hands on. So I worked for a Dermatologist at the Layton Clinic. I thought, “Wow, this is great. Assisting with minor surgeries and things like that.” I did that for four years and I loved it. It was amazing. The reason why I ended up leaving that and going into pediatrics at Mckay-Dee was the physician that I worked for, she actually left where I was working and I didn’t want to leave Intermountain Healthcare. I’ve been with them for a long time. So I decided, “I’m going to stay, but I’m going to go back to 10 school and I’m going to do pediatrics in the meantime.” That’s kind of how that came to be. I was kind of exploring the possibility of being a surgical tech, because I wasn’t sure if I could really handle going to nursing school. CB: Does Intermountain help you fund wise for school? TB: Yeah, they have paid me some tuition reimbursement, which was really really great. CB: So, I know you have a lot going on between family and school, but are there any clubs or extracurricular activities that you are involved in on campus? TB: On campus, not a whole lot. Unless you count my running on the campus. I love running up the stairs, it’s a really great workout. But I am really interested in health promotion. There is a new club that just started, it’s called The Health Promotion Club. I just joined that and they are going to be having a meeting in July. So, I’m really interested and really excited to start with that. I have participated in Brain Awareness week and that was really cool. I went around to different elementary schools in the area and taught children about the brain and nervous system. It was really fun, I really enjoyed that. CB: How do you think that going to school, and I mean thinking ahead about when you’re finished, how do you think it will change your life or your skill set? TB: Oh it will be huge. It will be huge. I mean as a medical assistant I have a lot of skills, I do a lot of things that nurses do, to a certain point, like injections and drawing blood. But being a nurse, it’s such a huge responsibility. I feel like I’m going to be learning so much like about the human body how it works, how to 11 prevent disease, infection control. It’s just so much more in depth and I feel like my skill set is just going to explode. During those two years you learn so much. I’m really excited about that. It’s going to be really cool. CB: That’s awesome. What advice would you give to a perspective first-generation student who is thinking about going to college, but maybe they are feeling afraid? What would you say to them to maybe encourage them or even discourage them? TB: I would definitely encourage them. I would be honest with them and say, “You know, you should be a little scared.” I don’t think that’s the right word, but just concerned. It is a commitment of your time, of your financial resources, not just you, but if you have family, you need that support. But I feel that the things that you learn, not just academically in college, but just about yourself are invaluable. You can’t buy that. I’ve lived for a while and I’ve had a lot of life experiences. But going to school it really helps you. It opens up a door inside of you that you didn’t even know existed. I kind of feel bad for people that don’t have the opportunity to tap into their potential in this way. For some people, college is not hard or they don’t really apply themselves and really get to know that other side of themselves. I know it’s different for everyone, but for me, I would encourage someone. I’d tell them that they need to speak to someone in the counseling department to get help, so that they know the steps and things to do to be successful. 12 CB: What do you think your 17-year-old self would think if she knew in the future that you were going to get there, get to university? Do you think she would be proud? TB: Yeah, I think so. I knew at 17 I was going to accomplish a lot. I thought I was going to just conquer the world to be honest with you. So, kind of going through life and realizing like, “Wow. Maybe I’m not as great as I thought I was.” As I get older, I realize I used to think that I knew everything and the older that I get the more I realize the less I know. So, I think that if I were to look, I would be really proud of myself for what I’ve done. CB: Absolutely. So what do your parents think of you going to college? Is that something that you’ve discussed with them? TB: Yeah. I talk to them all of the time and it’s usually on my ride home from school. I’ll call my mom and say, “Oh my gosh, I cannot believe how hard this is.” My mom has been really supportive of me and so has my dad. Just saying things like, “You can do this.” I’ve called in tears and I’ve been expressed, “I don’t think I can do this. This is so hard.” They are really supportive and always respond, “You can do this” And that’s been cool to see. CB: And you said that your husband your children have also been supportive. Are your daughters just as encouraging? TB: Yeah. They’re so proud of me. They often say, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re doing this” and “We’re young and we don’t even want to do this.” CB: Do you hope that they’ll go to school? 13 TB: I do. And I try to encourage them to. I don’t pressure them because I feel like it would push them in another direction. It’s taken me awhile to get here and so I think, “It doesn’t really matter.” If this is what they want, this is what they want and they will do it. I think some parents like to pressure and push, but I feel like life is about discovery and no one can discover for you but yourself. So, you just have to let them kind of figure it out and that’s hard. I don’t like it. I’m often say, “You need to do what I tell you do because I’ve got all of this knowledge.” CB: Can you tell me the thing that you are most proud of being a first generation college student? TB: Probably just the perseverance that I have had to have throughout these last two semesters and on. I’ve always been very strong willed, ask my parents, I was always very strong willed. I was born older. I just wanted to go out and do things. It’s been really challenging to jump through hoops, because I think, “My way. I’ll do it my way.” But there’s certain ways that you have to do things. You have to follow certain rules and ways of doing things in college. I’m really proud of myself for just sticking to it despite feeling discouraged at times. CB: Absolutely. Have you had any favorite classes since you’ve started? TB: Yeah. Microbiology was my favorite class. I was seriously thinking, “I should just change my major, I just love this Microbiology.” But then, I was thinking, “No, I don’t want to be in a lab coat and dealing with germs. I’d rather be with people.” I don’t know what it is about Microbiology. It’s just so fascinating. I really liked it a lot.