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.
Angela Lawson is the Stewardship Officer for the Roadrunner Athletic Fund within UTSA Athletics. Lawson served as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Incarnate Word for 13 seasons before moving into the role of Senior Associate Athletics Director at UIW.
Lawson earned her bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University where she played on the Lady Techsters’ 1988 NCAA Championship team. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Tennessee, serving as a graduate assistant for Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a first-generation college graduate?
Angela Lawson: “I’m a first-generation college graduate from Louisiana Tech University. I’m originally from Longview, Texas. Basketball provided an opportunity for me to have a full-ride scholarship to college to receive my undergraduate degree and, through that experience, I also had the opportunity to earn my master’s degree from the University of Tennessee as a graduate assistant. No one in my immediate family has a college degree. It was an opportunity to get out of a small town. If it wasn’t for basketball and that scholarship, I would probably still be in Longview, Texas. It has provided a career for me. I had the opportunity to be an assistant basketball coach, a head basketball coach and a Senior Associate Athletics Director. Now I’m working as a Stewardship Officer at UTSA. My whole professional career has been afforded to me from those two degrees. I’ve spent my whole life in college athletics. I was able to do something that not many people on either side of my family have been able to do. Not that it made me better than anybody else, but it just opened some doors that wouldn’t have otherwise opened. Just thinking about the opportunity to work with Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee; she was a legend in the women’s game. Having the opportunity to be around a leader like that and witness how she handled people and how she treated people, I think she was an amazing example. Just having that memory of someone like her to make an impact on your life is really huge.”
Q: How is attending college as a first-generation student a unique experience?
Angela Lawson: “I couldn’t talk to anybody in my family about, ‘what is this like?’ You’re literally just going out there and figuring it out as you go. I think the great part about it was, being on a basketball team and being a student-athlete, you have other teammates to rely on to help you learn the ropes. I didn’t have any family members to go back to and ask how to handle things but, being part of a team, we all worked together to help each other out and transition from being a high school student and living at home to being a college student.”
Q: How much pride do you take in working at a university that serves such a large population of first-generation college students?
Angela Lawson: “It makes me feel like I fit right in. I’m much older than the student population, but it makes you feel a part of it. It also makes you feel proud. There are still students out there who don’t have this background in their family where their grandparents went to college and their mom and dad went to college. To see some of them get to experience the same things that I experienced the first time around is fun to see.”
Q: How important are athletics to first-generation college students?
Angela Lawson: “I can only speak from my experience, but it was huge. Had I not been part of a team, I would not have gone to a four-year college. I probably would have gone to the local community college and worked a job. It was important to have that team there for support and to bounce things off of. I was homesick and I was only two hours away from home. I wasn’t the only one. I’ve always enjoyed being part of a team, even with my job. I don’t like being in a silo. Just having each other for support makes a huge difference. You’ve got to have a community to identify with or you won’t make it. That’s why I like our intern positions that we have at UTSA in athletics development. We have some students that come and work for us that don’t really have a group to identify with. Being a part of the games helps them feel like they are fitting into the culture and the community of the university.”
Q: What is the most valuable trait that you bring to your job as a first-generation college graduate?
Angela Lawson: “I think it’s being a team player. That’s always been important to me. Whether you’re in a leadership role or you’re following the leader, it’s about being part of a group of people and working together collectively. I like being part of a team.”
Q: What advice would you give to other first-generation college students?
Angela Lawson: “Be smart about where you attend so that you don’t put yourself in a hole with loans. I think that’s really huge. Research if you can stack academic money with athletic money or any other scholarships. Don’t put yourself in a financial hole initially, especially if you don’t know what it is you want to do. My advice would be to make sure you’re not building a line of debt when you get out of college.”