As a first generation college student, Zoe Belknap didn’t decide until late in her senior year in high school that she wanted to further her education.

“I didn’t actually decide I wanted to go to college until February of my senior year of high school,” Belknap said. “I was looking for places that would let me apply for free, and I came across Waynesburg. They had mailed me an application, and I brought that to my youth group and one of my youth group leaders had gone to Waynesburg and he was like, ‘you should apply.’ And then I got in, I toured [Waynesburg], then I came to admitted students day and I just really liked it.”

Belknap is a Bonner Scholar at Waynesburg University, which gave her the opportunity to study in Europe among other things. 

“I started being a Bonner my second semester here,” Belknap said. “I’m in the Honors Program, and I studied abroad last semester. I spent all of the fall in Belgium, and I did my internship there. I did research on childhood parenting, special education, that kind of thing. I did a research project for my psychology major on the connection between ages like childhood trauma and risk taking behaviors, and then I presented on that at two different conferences.” 

Belknap spoke more on her semester abroad, which also included speaking at a conference in Switzerland.

“I got to present at another conference in Switzerland,” Belknap said. “I talked about what we were doing to other students that were enrolled in the same program I was in because the program pairs students with different research groups in three different universities. So I got to go to a conference and meet the other program students that were there in that program, which was like 15 or 20 of us.”

As a first generation college student, many of Belknap’s experiences will guide her through life after graduation.

“A lot of my life experience has guided what I chose to pursue in school,” Belknap said. “I’m a first generation college student, nobody in my family went, most of them didn’t graduate high school and my parents were abusive, so I came from that kind of household, and most of what I want to do with my life is to make sure that other kids like me are taken care of and that they don’t have to go through the same things that I did.”

As Belknap approaches graduation, she spoke to how she feels prepared to confront whatever is thrown at her.

“I knew what I wanted to do, so now I have the tools to go do what I want to do. I feel like, while at Waynesburg, I’ve grown a lot in my personal life, in my faith because I am a Christian. Waynesburg has really been able to help me figure out who I am and exactly what it is I want to do.”