For 20-year-old Leighton Johnson, carrying the weight of being the first in his family to pursue tertiary education is not only a major achievement, but the beginning of breaking generational patterns.

“If high school leaving certificates don’t count, then I am the first to graduate high school, but I am definitely the first to go to sixth form and now the first to be here (at university),” he said. He called the achievement “an honour to do, but at the same time it makes me feel unique because I am creating my own footsteps”.

Sitting in his dorm room ready to pursue a bachelor’s degree with a major in fine studio arts and a minor in business at Chadron State College in Nebraska, USA, Johnson told THE STAR that the reality of being thousands of miles from home still feels somewhat surreal.