UTSA Athletics is a national leader in supporting first-generation student-athletes. Throughout the 2025-26 school year, GoUTSA.com will spotlight the department’s first-generation student-athletes, coaches, administrators and staff.
Taryn Madlock will be a junior on the UTSA Softball team in 2026. She is a first-generation college student from Boerne, Texas.
Q: How is attending college as a first-generation student a unique experience?
Taryn Madlock: “I feel like the difference is that I don’t have any standards or expectations on how I’m supposed to go through college. It definitely brings an open mind and optimism that I don’t have anything that I’m expected to do, so I just get to freely go and make my own story.”
Q: Why is attending college and graduating important for you?
Taryn Madlock: “It is important to me because I get to flip that chapter in my family’s story and I feel like that’s the same for the rest of the families. I feel like my generation, we’re prioritizing college and education, so I feel like that will just be a huge future success for us.”
Q: How impactful is it to attend UTSA, where approximately 45 percent of students are first-generation, including more than one-third of student-athletes?
Taryn Madlock: “It’s very impactful being surrounded by a bunch of first-generation college students and it’s encouraging being in the classroom with them and being able to go through this journey together.”
Q: How important is competing in athletics to first-generation college students?
Taryn Madlock: “Athletics, I think, is the gateway for first-generation college students. A bunch of people out of high school don’t know what they want to do, so they kind of go off and figure it out on their own. With athletics, it gives us an opportunity to go figure it out while we’re competing and in college.”
Q: What advice would you give to other first-generation college students?
Taryn Madlock: “Don’t put a timeline on your dreams. If you have dreams, achieve them and go after the goals that you want to set for yourself.”