May graduate Sindhu Belki, who dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child in Qatar, knew she’d have to leave home to pursue a career in aeronautics.
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Read moreGoal 3 of UA's Strategic Plan is dedicated to enriching UA's learning and work environment by providing an accepting, inclusive community that attracts and supports a diverse faculty, staff and student body. Read the UA Strategic Plan.
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies/Director of the Speaking Studio
College of Communication and Information Sciences
From first-generation student to professor, Brooks uses life experience to help UA students.
“I went to college because that’s what you did in order to make it out of the community that I grew up in,” said Adam Brooks, Ph.D., an associate professor in Communication Studies. “That’s what you did to provide a better life for yourself, so that you could have opportunities that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
Brooks said his father worked in sales “in the time when you didn’t need a college degree for any kind of job.” When his father’s job was eliminated after his company was bought in the early 2000s, Brooks said his father struggled to find a job because he did not have a degree. Because of his family’s financial troubles, they saw a college education as a “key to success.”
By 2004, Brooks was a first-year student at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Four years later, he also became the first college graduate in his family. But both at home and in school, Brooks said the expectations of being the “first” carried weight which would impact the rest of his life.
Drawing upon his experiences, Brooks often shares valuable insights with first-gen students.
