Ayshea: With graduation on the horizon, I reminisce on my time in the African American Studies masters degree program. I remember my first course, The History of African American Education, and how it unraveled everything I was taught in my Missourian high school about Black educators and schools. I look back on a transformative course, Blackness in U.S. Public Schools, and how the class and its people supported my emerging research interest and my career switch from physics to education. And lastly, but certainly not least, the course Women and Slavery continues to sit with me, as that’s where I learned the depth of Black women’s resilience. My time working towards my masters gave me the space to sit with my ancestors. I learned from and listened to their struggles, their resistance, and their joy. I gained a further understanding of what it meant to be Black, both historically and contemporarily, and the beauty that is inherent to Blackness in this world.
As a first-generation student, I thought that receiving my bachelors was as far as I would go. But through the immense support from friends and family, I began my journey pursuing my MA in Afro-Am and my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. I am so thankful to the people I met along the way who let me ramble on and on about my research topic and who jumped in excitement after submitting (and defending!) my thesis. This journey wasn’t easy, but it was definitely worth it.
Ziyen: Here we are, it’s May, and I am graduating with a master’s degree. I always thought when I was younger that I wanted to go to college. My mama, my teachers, my elders confirmed this memory. When I drove to my first move-in weekend for undergraduate at a seemingly huge state college, I arrived with nothin’ but a book bag and small plastic tote bin or two. I didn’t know who I was, like most freshman undergrads, but in addition, I also had no idea what I wanted to do or how to do it. When I think back to how I made it through undergraduate college, I think back to my academic advisor, Shana, a beautiful Black woman, with know-how, and a guiding hand. She alone was the reason I did not drop out of school my first year. I learned through her, and the graduate students teaching many of my classes, that graduate school existed and that furthering my education was not only a possibility but it was also within my grasp if I wanted it.
I am beyond grateful for making it this far in graduate school and for the first-gen students that have pushed me to keep going. I look forward to celebrating all of the graduates who have gotten this far, especially those who had no one to model after, the ones who paved the road with the friends and the elders they met along the way, the first-generation college students–‘cause graduating as a first-gen and making it this far hits different–and y’all really did that!
Note: Ayshea and Ziyen graduated with their masters in African American Studies on May 9th, 2026 and are continuing their studies and research as first-generation college students in the Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Hope Kelham is the photographer and editor of The SoulFolk Collective.
