Succeeding in life when statistics say you won’t can be a daunting task, but that didn’t stop BYU Marriott finance alumna Genesis Hinckley from chasing her dreams. Being raised in poverty in a single-parent household was difficult, but Hinckley was determined to make something of herself. Now as a first-generation college graduate and Google employee, Hinckley has found her success and is inspired to help those who were raised in similar life circumstances escape the poverty cycle and give back to others in need.
Life for Hinckley as a child had its challenges. Her parents divorced, and her father left the country when she was young, leaving her immigrant mother to raise three kids on her own with little money. The family moved often due to Hinckley’s mother having frequent job opportunities around their home state of Virginia. Hinckley’s mother worked long hours trying to provide for her family, which made helping Hinckley with her homework difficult. Hinckley recognized early on that she would need extra help to accomplish her goals, so she learned to utilize her resources to find success in her schoolwork.
Hinckley would stay after school and ask teachers for extra help on her assignments. When it came time to apply to college, she asked school counselors and people from church to read over her college essays. Hinckley worked hard because she wanted to do whatever it took to further her education in hopes of better life circumstances. “I was blessed with a desire to succeed,” says Hinckley. “I dreamt of a life where I wouldn’t have to worry about money.” Despite the challenges she faced, Hinckley was confident in her abilities to overcome her struggles.
Hinckley was accepted to BYU and started her college career in 2015. When deciding on a major, Hinckley wanted to challenge herself and was drawn to the finance program at BYU Marriott. “I have always loved numbers, and finance just felt like a good fit,” says Hinckley. She appreciated her time in the finance program and enjoyed meeting and working with those she described as “awesome people.” Hinckley’s experience in the finance program taught her the importance of working with a team to accomplish a goal, something that would ultimately help prepare Hinckley for her future career at Google.
Working for Google had always been a dream for Hinckley, but originally the goal seemed unattainable. However, Hinckley reached out to others for help like she had before and was able to reach her goal through an internship. With the assistance of a BYU Marriott alum, Hinckley got her shot to show why she’d be a good fit at Google. She worked hard to prepare herself for the internship interview and to set herself apart from other candidates.
Hinckley’s hard work paid off, and she was offered the Google BOLD Internship to begin in May 2018. Since graduating from BYU Marriott in fall 2018, Hinckley has returned to Google to continue her career as an ads support strategist. “I’m proud of myself for having gotten one of the most sought-after jobs,” says Hinckley. “Working at Google is truly a dream.”
Another dream of Hinckley’s is to help others who come from similar life situations. She started her blog “Genuinely Genesis” to accomplish this. Hinckley hopes that her blog can help open the conversation about the struggles of growing up as a minority in poverty. She wants her story to show others that you don’t need to come from money to succeed in life.
One of Hinckley’s proudest accomplishments is being a first-generation college graduate who graduated without a dime of debt. Though that is uncommon for someone from her life circumstance, she wants others to know that college is possible for them too.
Hinckley loves her current job and hopes to one day use her blog as a platform to help others as a public speaker. “In the end, my lifelong dream is to be able to inspire those little girls and boys that are going through what I went through,” says Hinckley. “I want to be able to help minorities succeed in a world where statistics aren’t in their favor.”
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Writer: Natalie Heidemann
