About Us
OUR STORY
Inspired by Michelle Obama’s experience as a first-generation-to-college student (first-gen), we recognize that often unthought of inequities, such as furnishing a dorm room, can have a significant impact on a student’s college journey.
In her book, Becoming, Former First Lady Michelle Obama reflected on her experience attending Princeton as a first-gen student. She wrote that she didn’t have the “vocabulary” of college and cited the dorm packing list as an example. “Nobody had explained to me the meaning of ‘extra-long’ bedsheets on the school packing list, which meant that I bought myself too short bedsheets and would thus spend my freshman year sleeping with my feet resting on the exposed plastic of the dorm mattress.”
This unknown was illustrative of so many other college unknowns for her. Here is how she described her experience of going to college: “It was like stepping onstage at your first recital and realizing that you’d never played anything but an instrument with broken keys. Your world shifts, but you’re asked to adjust and overcome, to play your music the same as everyone else.”
My Dorm Room is helping students from low-income backgrounds including those that are first-generation-to-college to create a residential space at college that will serve as their second home. Their college dorm room will be the site of their next phase of personal development.
OUR MISSION
At My Dorm Room, our mission is to foster a positive college experience and instill confidence in students from low-income backgrounds, including first-generation-to-college, by providing them the means to create their own dorm room to study and rest, eliminating a social and financial stress.
Our Founder &
Board of Directors
Debbie Billet Roumell is known for her passion and dedication to support and bring about change for families and children in need. She has served in executive leadership roles in nonprofit organizations with a mission to address the obstacles facing under-served families, seniors, and youth. Through advocacy, direct service, education, and building community partnerships, she has a strong track record of taking bold steps to advance equity in pursuit of a more just and inclusive society.