So you’re starting college soon. It’s a big deal, especially if you’ll be living away from home for the first time. While the amazing experiences ahead will be accompanied by some challenges along the way, there are key life skills that will help you stay on the path to graduation. Mastering these five things could make a difference for you before, during, and after college.

Growing up, Denise LeBeau Bois felt it best to downplay her Native heritage because of reactions she received early in her school life. She also felt judged for being from a divorced family, her mom of Western European ancestry and her father, Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux). As a result, she had the sense that most people outside her family did not expect her to amount to much.