At the time of this interview (spring 2024), Awa Mbai was a senior at UNCG. She begins the interview by discussing her parents and brother, her family's immigration experience from The Gambia to the United States when she was five years old, their adjustment to the US, and how her family came to settle in Raleigh where she graduated from Sanderson High School. A first generation college student, Mbai explains when she first started thinking about going to college, how she came to UNCG, and the leadup to choosing her major (Political Science major, Spanish minor). She has worked throughout her time at UNCG, which includes internships with Congressional Representative Kathy Manning’s office (where she subsequently worked as an immigration assistant), the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and National Education Association. She also describes her job tutoring at Cottage Gardens Resource Center and current work at the Roupas Law Firm. At the time of this interview, Mbai served as UNCG's SGA President and has also been involved with the African Student Union, Legal Professionals Association, and Muslim Student Association (MSA). Mbai describes her interest in the SGA, the different SGA leadership positions she has held while at UNCG, and her SGA accomplishments and challenges. Mbai discusses diversity in-depth at UNCG—the ways UNCG supports first generation, refugee, and immigrant students, as well as what the university could do to improve support for those same student groups. Additionally, she discusses UNCG's academic portfolio review process (APR) and the impact of possible cuts. (Note: this oral history was recorded one day before Chancellor Franklin Gilliam released his final course and program discontinuations in February 2024.) Because Mbai's first year at UNCG was the 2020-2021 school year, her freshman year was significantly impacted by COVID-19, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement (she also discusses the realities of her experience as an African woman in North Carolina more generally), the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, the 2020 presidential election, and the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. She also discusses being in Washington, D.C. and witnessing the reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade firsthand. Mbai concludes by sharing her law school plans next year and other goals she has after graduating from UNCG, such as the immigration resource center she hopes to create one day, and she also reflects on UNCG's significance to her.