Katelyn Cano works as a user research for a tech company in San Francisco and is also the author of a handbook for first-generation college students. As a one year-old baby, she had a life-saving surgery, which led to her mantra, “You’re alive for a reason. Keep going.” She has a stuffed elephant that was given to her while she was in the hospital sitting on a shelf in her home to remind her to keep going on long and hard days.

Katelyn if a first-generation college student who put herself through undergrad and grad school. During grad school, she discovered there were other students who lived through and were living through struggles as first-generation students similar to her own. She looked on Amazon to see if there was a handbook for first-generation college students that mixed personal experience with practical guide. When she did not see books that were useful for students, she decided to just write one herself. “More than Before” was released in September 2017 to tell students everything she wanted to know when she was in high school, undergrad and grad school. It is now used by educators at several high schools and colleges in the United States.