First Gen Fridays - Dr. Nikole Patson

First Gen Fridays - Dr. Nikole Patson

FIRST GEN FRIDAY: Professor of Psychology, Nikole Patson

First Gen Friday is a monthly first-person narrative written by other first generation college students who are now fellow faculty, staff, and students at Ohio State Marion. The goal of the stories is to provide advice to other first generation college students and create a sense of belonging among the campus community.

My area of specialty is cognitive psychology, which is the area of psychology that focuses on normal human cognition like memory, language, attention, etc. My research focuses on language comprehension. I'm especially interested in how we create meaning from sentences when we hear or read them. I do language research in my lab in Marion but also at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), in the language sciences lab.

I grew up in a small town just outside of Flint, MI. It was a working-class community. If you were a kid in my town, one or both of your parents probably worked in the factory for GM. (For me, it was my dad.) Although our parents worked in them, we grew up knowing the factory wasn't an option as jobs were being outsourced and factories were closing all the time. Living through that kind of economic devastation, there weren't a lot of examples of professional careers I could look to for inspiration, and honestly, I don't remember thinking about any particular career path as a child. However, I was a good student, so I knew I wanted to go to college after graduating high school.

I had never set foot on a college campus until I started taking courses, so being a college professor wasn't something I could have ever dreamed of becoming. That said, there are things about my childhood that hint at what I'm doing today. I loved to read and was always fascinated by words and their meaning. I wrote stories and (bad) poetry so that I could explore and play with words. But I equally loved science. My favorite TV show was Mr. Wizard, and I loved to replicate his experiments at home.

Most of all, I loved learning. Swartz Creek had a very small public library. At some point, I could no longer find books I wanted to read that I had not already checked out. My mom would drive me to the (much bigger) Flint Public Library on Saturday mornings and I would walk through the stacks running my hands along the spines of the books looking for something new to learn about. However, I kept coming back to one theme and that is how we humans create meaning. I think what fascinated me about language is that it is the one tool we have that allows us to translate our inner worlds and share them with others. However, it is an imperfect tool and sometimes leads to miscommunication and conflict. I love the challenge of understanding how language works and sometimes doesn't work.

When I started college, I chose to major in psychology but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my degree. I only knew that I wasn't interested in being a therapist. In my sophomore year, I took a cognitive psychology course in which I learned that psychologists studied how language works! I was excited because in high school I had loved my English courses but didn't feel like an English major was the right fit for me. The cognition class helped me realize I could bring my interest in science and psychology to my other interest which was how language works and become a language scientist!

I'm very proud of my history and the challenges I overcame as a first-generation student. However, as a college student I didn't always feel like I fit in. Sometimes it felt like all the other students understood things that didn't make any sense to me. My classmates always seemed to know about internships, research opportunities, and scholarships before I did. In fact, I didn't even know to ask about those things. I always felt a step behind. I wish someone had told me back then that I felt that way because many of my classmates were getting advice from their parents. My parents were extremely supportive of me going to college, but because they hadn't gone themselves, they couldn't tell me what opportunities to look out for and they couldn't answer questions for me when I was confused about decisions I had to make.

If I could give advice to other students, especially first-generation students, it would be this: Don't be afraid to ask questions. I know it can be tough and sometimes embarrassing to admit you don't know something, but everyone at Ohio State Marion is here to help. We don't expect you to know everything right away. If something is confusing, it's just because you're not familiar with it yet.

Another piece of advice is to remember that college isn't just about earning a degree. It's also about building your professional network. When I look back on my own college days, I often found answers to my questions through casual conversations. Joining clubs and attending campus events are not only fun but also great opportunities to meet people who might know things you don't. Networking is crucial for finding a job after graduation. Many people hear about job opportunities through someone they know. Every connection you make in college is a step towards your future success.