If Tashir B. could go back and tell his younger self one thing before starting college, it would be this: Your major does not define you.
When he arrived at college as a biology major and student-athlete, he certainly didn’t know that yet.
Tashir had left his New Jersey home to attend college in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was studying science and taking the first steps toward a future he thought he understood.
But as a first-generation college student, simply getting there had already required him to figure out plenty on his own.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to do this. I have no one to talk to about this,” Tashir remembered thinking as he navigated the college application process and FAFSA for the first time.
His family supported him every step of the way, even though they had never navigated the college experience themselves.
Finding His Own Way as a First-Generation Student
Moving several hours from home added another layer to Tashir’s first college experience.
There was independence, but there was also the realization that everyday responsibilities were now completely his own. Classes, laundry, meals, schedules and everything in between became part of learning how to navigate college far from family.
“When you’re the first in your family to do things, no one really understands what it comes with,” Tashir said.
Being first also carried a certain pressure.
“You could be the first one to pass or the first one to fail,” he said. “You feel like you’re representing your whole family and your whole community.”
But Tashir came to see another side of being first.
“The path wasn’t paved before you, so you can make it your own way,” he said.
The significance of being first became especially real at his undergraduate graduation.
“When I saw my family on the side clapping, I realized, ‘Wait a minute, I really am the first one,’” Tashir said.
From Biology to a New Direction
Tashir entered college on a track scholarship and planned to study biology.
A few months into his first year, he stopped running track and began looking for another way to get involved on campus.
That search led him to a new organization called the Student of Color Working Group.
At first, he joined because he enjoyed planning and decorating events. Then, when the organization’s president prepared to graduate, Tashir was faced with a decision: step into leadership or potentially watch the group disappear.
He stepped up.
In the process, he discovered how much he enjoyed advocating for students who looked like him, shared some of his experiences or were also navigating college as first-generation students.
Soon, those interests were following him back into his science classes.
“I was in my bio labs thinking about diversity and inclusion,” Tashir said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore, but I’m already too far in my journey. So let me just finish this out. I already know my next steps.’”
He completed his biology degree.
Then he changed direction.
Wanting to return to New Jersey and be closer to family, Tashir began searching for graduate programs that matched the work he had grown passionate about.
Rowan University was the only graduate school he applied to.
Today, he is pursuing his M.A. in Diversity & Inclusion.
Becoming the Resource He Once Needed
Graduate school brought Tashir to Rowan, but it also gave him an opportunity to turn his own experiences into support for other students.
Alongside his studies, he serves as a graduate coordinator for interfaith and spiritual exploration within Rowan’s Center for Belonging & Student Engagement. The role has been a perfect way for him to gain experience in the work he cares about while helping make graduate school financially possible.
His work centers on helping students feel seen, supported and comfortable exploring an important part of who they are.
For Tashir, that responsibility feels personal.
“I’ve been in so many rooms where I was the only person that looked like me or sounded like me or had beliefs like me,” he said. “So now I am that resource for students.”
It’s a role he didn’t necessarily picture for himself when he started college.
In fact, Tashir laughs remembering that someone at his undergraduate institution once tried to get him involved with interfaith work.
He avoided it.
“Look at me now,” he joked.
The experience has also shown him how much a resource, conversation or sense of connection can matter to a student.
“Every time I’m meeting with a student or going to a student’s event or a club event, I learn something new,” Tashir said.
But helping students and studying diversity and inclusion are only part of Tashir’s story.
It Started With a Bag of Brownies
Growing up, Tashir watched his aunt bake for family gatherings.
She made pound cakes, cookies and other desserts, and he remembers sitting in the kitchen watching her work.
Years later, while still in high school, he decided to try baking for himself.
He made a batch of brownies, put them in small plastic bags and handed them out around school for free.
His classmates loved them.
Tashir wasn’t convinced, though.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re just saying that because they know me,’” he recalled.
So he kept baking.
At the time, his early venture was called Desserts with Tahh. What started with brownies grew as Tashir experimented with new treats and discovered that he enjoyed not only baking, but also coming up with ideas and creating an experience around the finished product.
By 2020, he decided to take the business more seriously. During the COVID-19 pandemic, with more time at home, he began building what would become The Ballard Bakery.
Today, he still runs the business himself.
And lately, he’s been in what he calls his “gourmet popcorn era.”
“I think people think popcorn should be just butter or caramel,” Tashir said. “But when you dive into the different flavors, people really enjoy themselves.”
The Yard Sign That Caught His Attention
When Tashir first arrived at Rowan, The Ballard Bakery already had customers and experience at vendor events.
But much of that audience had been built while he was an undergraduate student in Massachusetts.
Back in New Jersey, he was essentially introducing the business to a new community.
Then one day, Tashir noticed a yard sign on campus.
It was advertising Rowan Roots Market, a pop-up market through the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship where Rowan student and alumni entrepreneurs can sell their products and connect directly with customers.
No one had told him about it.
He saw the sign and applied.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to get in or not,’” Tashir said. “But I have previous experience for vendor events. So I was like, ‘Let me just apply and see what happens.’”
He got in.
While prepping for his first market, Tashir was already thinking like a business owner.
What if too many customers showed up at once? How would he manage the table and checkout by himself? Would a new audience respond to what he had built?
“I was more like thinking about every problem that could happen and solve it before it actually happens,” Tashir said.
Once the market began, those questions turned into lessons.
Selling directly to Rowan students helped him better understand his audience, what caught their attention and what kinds of products they wanted to try.
When Competition Became Community
Before one Rowan Roots Market, Tashir remembers receiving the layout showing where each vendor would be stationed.
He noticed something immediately.
The Ballard Bakery had been placed next to another baking business, Sweet Thang Boutique Cakery.
His first thought?
“Wait a minute, this is going to get really messy because we’re both baking businesses.”
Instead, Tashir reached out to the owner on Instagram before the event.
They started talking.
Then they became friends.
During the market, rather than competing for every customer, they sent people to each other’s tables.
“We became so close that now we talk all the time,” Tashir said. “From Rowan Roots Market, we were able to create a bond.”
Where Student Life and Entrepreneurship Meet
On campus, Tashir was a graduate student studying diversity and inclusion and a graduate coordinator helping students find connection and belonging.
At Rowan Roots Market, he was an entrepreneur selling the business he had built himself.
For the first time, those worlds began intersecting.
“I think that’s the biggest blessing of all of this,” Tashir said. “It helps students understand before they enter the real world that two things can be true at once, and that different parts of who you are can come together and make sense.”
Students he might never have met through his graduate role discovered him through The Ballard Bakery.
Then they learned about his work on campus.
Some eventually came to his office.
“It just made a bridge for both things to happen at the same time,” he said.
Rowan Roots Market also changed what Tashir imagined for the business itself.
“The market has just lit a fire under me,” he said. “It pushed me to do more, to explore more, to be more creative.”
750 Buckets of Popcorn
One of the biggest tests of Tashir’s creativity came when Rowan’s Division of Marketing & Communication invited him to represent Rowan Roots Market and student entrepreneurship at Defy Definition Live, a celebration of Rowan University’s new Defy Definition brand.
Defy Definition reflects the idea that students do not have to fit neatly into one interest, discipline or definition of success. At Rowan, they can explore different paths, bring seemingly unrelated interests together and define what comes next on their own terms.
To Tashir, that idea already felt familiar.
For the event, he created “Defy the Blend,” an interactive gourmet popcorn experience that invited guests to mix flavors freely and create combinations that reflected their own tastes, with no “right” blend to follow.
Attendees could create their own “Unwritten Blend” by mixing flavors freely or try “Prof’s Pick,” a signature combination of red velvet, caramel and banana pudding inspired by the Rowan community.
It was unlike anything he had done before.
The Ballard Bakery had served large events, but those typically involved products that could be packaged ahead of time. This time, Tashir had to prepare and serve hundreds of popcorn creations live.
Many of the flavors were brand new, too.
“The first thing that was going through my head was, ‘How am I going to do this?’” Tashir said.
For four days, his world became popcorn.
“I just smelled like popcorn,” he joked. “I was seeing popcorn. Popcorn was just everywhere.”
And not every batch went according to plan. Just hours before the event, Tashir discovered several pans had burned on the bottom. He threw them out and started again.
“I was going through it in the kitchen,” he said.
But the event came together.
For the first-generation student who had learned to approach unfamiliar opportunities by saying, Why not try?, taking on something he had never done before felt fitting.
Reaching for Bigger Goals
Tashir is now in his final year at Rowan.
After graduation, he hopes to continue working in higher education, eventually pursue an Ed.D. and build a career in student affairs, student engagement or diversity and inclusion.
But his journey so far has also taught him not to put too much pressure on knowing exactly what every step will look like.
That is one of the lessons he hopes other first-generation students take from his story.
“Don’t think that your story is too little or don’t think that your background puts you in a box where you can’t do things that other people are doing,” Tashir said.
That mindset has shaped other parts of his life, too. Tashir self-published Echoes of Grace, a book reflecting on his own journey from biology to diversity and inclusion.
His advice is to explore, meet people and take opportunities that might not seem connected to the plan you started with.
After all, if Tashir had stayed focused only on the path he imagined when he entered college, he said, he might still be studying biology somewhere.
Instead, each unexpected turn helped him discover something else about himself.
“Take a risk,” Tashir said. “Do those things because you’ll understand what is important to you and things that you value. I think that’s all a part of the college experience.”
Which brings him back to what he would tell that younger version of himself.
“Your major is actually a toolkit,” Tashir said. “It’s not something that defines you, but you should define it.”
About Rowan
A top 100 national public research institution, Rowan University offers bachelor’s through doctoral and professional programs in person and online to nearly 25,000 students. The fastest-growing public research institution in the Northeast and among the country’s top 10 fastest-growing, Rowan offers a thriving multidisciplinary environment with a strong emphasis on practical research in health care, engineering, science and business, while ensuring excellence in undergraduate education. Nationally recognized for innovation, high-quality, affordable education and public-private partnerships, Rowan is one of two universities in the U.S. to offer M.D., D.O. and D.V.M. degree programs.