Last summer, first-generation college student Jenny Rogers took the trip of a lifetime.
A Mississippi State University student, Rogers traveled with the filmmaking group “Roadtrip Nation,” which films a documentary of college students on a road trip across the country every summer. The students drive an RV and interview successful professionals around the country. Most of the people Rogers would interview on her trip were, like her, first generation college students.
Rogers is from Vancleave, though she moved around while growing up. Though no one in her immediate family completed college, Rogers’ mother taught her to read before Rogers started elementary school.
“I think my mom instilled that love of learning in me, and I carried that with me throughout high school,” Rogers said.
Rogers’ mother died when she was 9. Rogers’ father, who struggled with alcoholism, was much less involved in Rogers’ schooling.
“He always knew that he didn’t have to check on my report card because I was doing well,” Rogers said.
During high school, Rogers took advanced placement classes and eventually graduated with honors. It was difficult to apply for college because her family could not help her — no one could help her fill out financial aid forms. She eventually applied to MSU as an independent student because she could not get her father’s financial information.
“I didn’t know how to do any of that, so it was frustrating having to go to the financial aid office and figure out how to fill out those forms and try to work the system,” Rogers said.
The first year at college was rough for Rogers, who was trying to be involved in campus social life and keep up with academics, all while dealing with tough finances. By the second semester, she still had not declared a major, so she took a career planning class. The class was taught through Roadtrip Nation’s curriculum.
The students cold-called professionals to interview them about their chosen careers. The professor of the class pulled Rogers aside specifically and suggested she apply for Roadtrip Nation’s summer trip.
It wasn’t until she had been approved to go to the second round of the application that Rogers realized how important it was that she was the first in her family to attend college.
“It hit me in that moment…I cried,” Rogers said during an interview with The Dispatch on Tuesday. “That was the moment when I really felt like I had accomplished something because up until that point, I felt like I was wasting time and money being undeclared.”
On the road
The next summer, in 2014, Rogers flew to California to begin her journey with “Roadtrip Nation.” She and three other first generation college students spent the next 35 days driving a green RV named “Carl” around the U.S.
They stopped in Hollywood, California, the New Mexico desert, Birmingham, Alabama, and other places. They interviewed successful individuals, including Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
And it was all filmed for Roadtrip Nation’s documentary “Why Not Us?”
Rogers’ favorite stop was Seattle.
“We landed in Seattle and we hadn’t even gotten out of our Ubercar yet and I was looking around and I said, ‘I could live here,'” Rogers said.
She also loved interviewing Nikki Cooley, the first Navajo woman to get a Colorado River guiding license.
“She was the first interview where it hit me, ‘Oh, she’s really being open and letting herself be vulnerable,'” Rogers said. “It finally felt like it wasn’t just us being vulnerable, it was her as well.
“Her interview was very spiritual,” Rogers said. “We were near the bottom of the San Francisco Peaks which is a very important mountain to Native American culture. To be sitting with a Navajo woman and having her speak Navajo to us at the bottom of these mountains was really amazing.”
For Rogers, the best thing about the road trip was that it made her realize she was doing the right thing pursuing an education and that she could pursue her own interests without worrying about what other people wanted.
Back home
Because of her roadtrip, Rogers decided on her major: graphic design, with a concentration in typography. She said after meeting successful artists on the trip, she now wants to pursue what she loves.
Rogers now lives on MSU’s campus where she works with the Freshmen Navigators, a group which works with freshmen who did poorly in the first semester to help them improve their grades.
Roadtrip Nation will air on PBS this spring.
Rogers hopes the documentary will encourage students to pursue a career built around their own interests. She added that students could talk to anyone in their field of interest to get more information about their career choices the way she did. More broadly, Rogers hopes the documentary will encourage and inspire everyone, not just students.
“I just hope they feel that any struggle they’ve gone through, they can use to empower (themselves),” Rogers said. “Their past doesn’t have to hold them back in any way.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.