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.
Kaden Chumbley is entering his second year as Assistant Athletics Communications Director for UTSA Athletics, working primarily with the Roadrunners’ baseball and women’s tennis teams. He is a first-generation college graduate from Texas Tech University.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a first-generation college graduate?
Kaden Chumbley: “I am a first-generation college graduate from a small oil town in eastern New Mexico. The reason I’m a first-generation college graduate is because my parents got offered jobs right out of high school and they took them. It means a lot to be first generation from the town I’m from just because there’s a lot of job opportunities right out of high school, so not a lot of kids go to college. I decided to take this route.”
Q: How is attending college as a first-generation student a unique experience?
Kaden Chumbley: “The difference is that you really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into it. You can read about it and everyone’s experience is different but with no basis to go off of, you really don’t know what to expect and you’re kind of adapting. I think that’s a really good trait to have – to be able to adapt and learn as things come at you, and then just being able to deal with that.”
Q: How much pride do you take in working at a university that serves such a large population of first-generation college students?
Kaden Chumbley: “I take a lot of pride in it. When I found that out, I thought it was pretty cool. Most universities, in my experience, didn’t feel like a community of first-generation students. I knew there were organizations, but I wasn’t really involved. Just to know that there are so many students who are first generation here, you can just relate to a lot of other people.”
Q: How important are athletics to first-generation college students?
Kaden Chumbley: “I can speak for myself that in high school, I wasn’t really planning on going to college unless it was for sports. I wasn’t blessed with the athletic ability to move on and play. But in my search of college athletics and certain jobs, I figured out that you can work in college athletics. That’s kind of why I switched gears and decided that college was something that I wanted to do to be able to continue to work in sports.”
Q: What is the most valuable trait that you bring to your job as a first-generation college graduate?
Kaden Chumbley: “It’s the adaptability. Learning things as they come at you and being able to take the information and adjust how you do things. You learn it and it’s your first time experiencing it, so you just deal with it.”
Q: What advice would you give to other first-generation college students?
Kaden Chumbley: “I would say talk to your professors. Once you get to college, you find out that the professors are nice and they’re here to help. Any chance you get, talk to your professors and build that relationship. They can really help you out. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of several professors that I had.”