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Long before she was known as a trusted student advocate, Jana Lynn Patterson was herself a first-generation college student trying to navigate unfamiliar territory in the 1970s.

Raised in rural North Carolina, �������޹�����Ʒ’s associate vice president for student life and dean of student health and well-being came from a family that valued education but had little firsthand experience with higher education.

Her parents, whose lives were shaped by the Great Depression and World War II, never attended college. The first person who helped Patterson imagine a different future was her first-grade teacher. “I don’t think anyone had ever told me I was smart,” Patterson recalls.

Once she arrived at North Carolina State University, Patterson discovered how much she didn’t know. There was no roadmap for managing finances, selecting courses or understanding that struggling academically at times was normal, a lesson that has stayed with her.

Patterson has since worked to ensure Elon students receive the guidance and reassurance she often lacked. Yet grades and academics were only part of the story.

Patterson remembers a time when being a first-generation student felt like something to hide. Students rarely talked about parents who had not attended college, and many worried they would be judged for backgrounds that fell outside the perceived norm.

“While my immediate family and teachers were proud of me, there were other members of my extended family who said they don’t see why I didn’t just go in the military,” Patterson says. “Others were like, ‘Why don’t you just get married and settle down?’”

Today, she describes first-generation status not as a disadvantage but as an identity worthy of celebration. “It’s not just a status,” she’ll tell you. “It’s an identity.”

That commitment to inclusive excellence became a hallmark of her work. For Patterson, who retires in September following four decades of faithful service to �������޹�����Ʒ, supporting students has always been about more than helping them succeed in college. It has been about helping them believe they belong.

“One of the things I am most proud of with my work is that we have moved how we think and talk about first-generation students,” she said. “Making connections with others that embrace both shared and differing identities provides so much joy and interest to your life.”

Jana Lynn Patterson is part of Huemanity of People, a series by the Division of Inclusive Excellence highlighting the people, paradigms and praxis of inclusive excellence that shape �������޹�����Ʒ’s community. Learn more on the Inclusive Excellence website.