When Sharon Harris advises first-generation college students, she knows exactly how they feel.
The South Boston native and her brother were the first in their family to attend college, and because of that, she said, “I didn’t know all the proper steps to get there. The process was very daunting.”
Harris went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from JMU and an MBA from Virginia Tech, thanks to the encouragement of her mother, a Tultex employee who was laid off. “My mother always stressed academics, and she wanted us to go to college because she did not,” Harris said.
