Perseverance: Alexa Black’s USU experience as a first generation student

Alexa Black’s Utah State University story is about the Aggie spirit of perseverance.

Black decided to come to Utah State after visiting campus with her parents. She said the campus culture, “felt like home.” Black was also impressed with USU’s diversity and said it was important to her to meet people with different backgrounds.

“I grew up religious LDS and in a multiracial household, so being around different cultures has always been essential to me,” Black said. “USU gave me that option.”

As a first-generation college student, Black said even preparing herself mentally to go to college was a challenge. Things other students took for granted, like writing essays and preparing for the ACT, were made even more difficult because she couldn’t go to her parents for advice.

“I knew I was going to college, there was never a question,” Black said. “But I couldn’t communicate with my parents because they have no experience with college. It made the whole process a lot more work.”

When she finally came to USU for her first semester as a freshman, Black had a tough time adjusting.

“I was one of only two minorities in the house, and it was immediately evident we all came from very different worlds,” she said.

Black added there were many times she thought she wasn’t going to make it. However, after months of hard work and encouragement from her parents, she started to find her place at USU.

Black is graduating this semester with a degree in psychology. In the fall of 2018, she took a research methods course from psychology lecturer Kathryn Sperry. Sperry appreciated Black’s resilience and work ethic.

“She took feedback seriously and has improved in all of her academic skills and just overall professionalism,” Sperry said.

It was in Sperry’s class that Black began to work on a research project that would define much of her career at USU. Her project, a research paper that addressed gratitude and white fragility, made an impression with Sperry. When Black approached Sperry about an undergraduate teaching fellowship and working on a research project with her, Sperry told Black she wanted to use Black’s paper about white fragility and gratitude for a university research project.

“It was a very controversial topic,” Black said. “It was fascinating to me though because I’m a Latin student, and I was working on this project with a Caucasian professor.”

Black’s hypothesis, which positively correlated white privilege with white guilt, was also designed to observe if white cisgender women and white members of the LGBTQ+ community would respond differently on the white privilege scale, considering they are also members of marginalized groups.

After a year and a half of surveying students and entering data, Black found her hypothesis was correct. White minorities, such as females and LGBTQ+ members, were found to be more grateful and, as a result, more willing to learn. White students who felt more guilty overall also had more gratitude.

Black and Sperry submitted the research to the university for a grant and were denied multiple times.

“After the third rejection, I was done,” Black said. “Then, as I sat crying about it, my professor told me to take the feedback and submit my research to a psychology conference that was coming up.”

Even though she thought she was going to get rejected again, within two months of submitting her data to the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Black’s research was accepted, and she was invited to present to the association in April.

Unfortunately, Black will not get to speak at her conference due to COVID-19, but says she plans to continue research work after graduation. She is going to apply to different grad schools and hopes to get accepted at Arizona State University.

“Throughout this process, I fell in love with teaching and decided I want to work in academia,” she said. “I want to be able to work with students and see those ‘ah-ha’ moments. Those are important to me.”

Sperry wants people to know how incredible Black is to work with.

“She has a fun personality but she’s also great to work with because of her work ethic, diligence and persistence,” she said.

For next year’s incoming freshman, Black had some words of encouragement.

“Remember why you came,” she said. “I told my mom I was going to drop out a million times. When you have those moments, just remember who you are and why you are here. It will be worth it in the long run.”

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