This is my take on the interview I had with my partner, Fatoumata Diallo on her upbringing to how she got to where is currently. We scheduled interview questions via text message due to both of our busy schedules and proceeded from there. Fatoumata is a 17 year old college attendee attending Georgia State University’s Clarkston Campus. I say attendee because Fatoumata is in the DECA program which allows her to take college courses as a high school student. She is the first in her family to go to college and she plans on graduating in the class of 2024 with her bachelor’s degree in Biology. She received her k-12 education in the state of Georgia at a variety of schools, which influenced her decision to stay within the state to pursue a higher level of education. 

I made it my responsibility to understand my partner and how she describes herself, academically. She described herself as a hardworking, visual, and flexible person. We share a common factor which is that we both attended the DECA program. This program is for scholars that are very hardworking to earn a chance to graduate high school with both a college associate’s degree and high school diploma which she is taking advantage of. She then mentioned that her best way of learning new material or reviewing past material is to see the material multiple times and make sure to quiz herself. I felt as though this was an amazing habit that she picked up and felt the need to take note of that for myself. Lastly, she mentioned that she is very flexible in the way that she learns so she is very open to new learning mechanisms and feel as though there is no one way to learn anything. 

Fatoumata presented to me that her main goal is to strive to be the best her she can be. She believes academic success is important, and goes on to show this through her work. With her being a first generation student and graduate, she must focus on the most important things for herself right now which is going to the next level. Due to Fatoumata taking advantage of the program that she is in, she is even closer to getting her bachelor’s degree and she plans on finding a job within that field immediately after graduating. During our discussions, she would mention the importance of this milestone for not only herself, but also for her family as well.