First in the Family
Ever since elementary school, my grandma has proudly exclaimed at any chance she gets, “Liza will get a PhD!” Because I exceeded familial expectations in grade school, my family expected me to attend college. And while my grandma and the rest of my family have always been my biggest cheerleaders, I feel an enormous amount of pressure to excel in college and to further my education, a pressure that other students don’t face. This is because I am a first-generation college student, unlike many other students at Wash U. Because I lacked knowledge of and access to SAT prep, college counseling, essay guidance, best strategies for choosing a school, and much more, applying to college and getting into Wash U was challenging enough as a first-gen student. However, I didn’t realize how difficult life would be once I was actually in college. Unfortunately, the concerns I have from being a first-gen student have been largely unaddressed at Wash U.
Learning about meal points, time management, Greek life, and campus involvement was a culture shock at arrival, one that many students don’t experience because they have grown up being familiar with the institution of higher education. Before coming to Wash U, I had never met anybody involved in Greek life or with an advanced degree, but a majority of my peers have familial connections to and knowledge of these integral college experiences. At home, nobody ever taught me how to use a syllabus to my advantage or how to approach a professor about struggling in the course. But it wasn’t the ignorance of college life that made the transition difficult—it was the casual stories that my friends told. Hearing fellow students mention their mom’s sorority sisters, recall their dad’s experiences in medical school, cite their parents’ help on an essay or a coding assignment, bring up what occupations and connections their family friends held, and even being able to engage in conversation about their course material with their family, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to reconcile my upbringing with their experiences.
Professionally, first-gen students lack a network, and I was no exception. I am lucky enough that my four-year advisor is first gen, but other first-gen students are not usually that fortunate. Many of those I have encountered do not seem trained in identifying and understanding first-gen concerns; this ignorance has been especially apparent for me in professors, faculty advisors, career counselors, and SHS mental health counselors. These interactions can look like “Where did your parents go to college?” to “Why don’t you just use your parents’ network to get an internship?” If faculty and staff more clearly understood the first-gen college experience, they would be much more helpful in guiding me and my fellow students to not only better integrate into Wash U, but help plan first-gen students’ success. My experiences surely overlap with being low-income and a first-generation American, among my other identities, but my experience as a first-gen student deserves dedicated attention and support.
At Wash U, there exists a phenomenon of using “catch all” spaces to address the concerns of underrepresented students. Wash U established the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) to “support and advocate for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from underrepresented and/or marginalized populations.” The CDI serves students from marginalized—and often overlapping—populations, anywhere from the black community to international students to LGBTQ students, using similar resources to cater to vastly different needs. The CDI serves a crucial function on campus, but this does not mean that Wash U could not better serve students by supplementing the CDI with more customized resources to support a variety of populations. Using programs like Cornerstone’s TRiO and The Office of Student Success’s Deneb STARS, Wash U aims to address concerns of economic diversity, serving low-income and first-gen students. In reality, concerns that come with being low income and setbacks that arise from being first-gen require distinct approaches and resources. In the future, I hope to see initiatives that not only serve the individual needs of first-gen students, but also clearly name first-gen students as the target audience.
I need academic and professional resources as well as a community of first-gen students. Even when looking for what support is offered for first-gen students, I wasn’t even able to find statistics on how many first-gen students attend Wash U. The unofficial number of first-gen students is 6 to 7 percent of the undergraduate population, but this data is taken from the Common App or FAFSA, wherein the person filling out the information may incorrectly self-identify because of the vague wording of the question. Regardless, the first-gen population is significant in size, but Wash U has no programs that explicitly state in their mission that the primary community they serve is first-gen students. The only Wash U program that explicitly even includes support for first-gen students is TRiO, a federally funded program for first-gen, low-income students. Unfortunately, being accepted for a TRiO grant is few and far between since the federal government only provides a limited number of grants. Low-income, first-generation college students outnumber the available number of grants and spaces in Wash U’s TRiO program, and most are turned away from the program’s benefits and stipends. Additionally, some firstgen college students are not low income and thus automatically do not qualify for the TRiO program. Consequently, a significant number of first-gen students on our campus are left without support. Even when programs like TRiO serve some students, all first-gen students are left without resources that address the specific needs that come with being first-gen.
On the other hand, our peer institutions have robust resources for first-gen college students. Schools like Northwestern, Emory, Harvard, Penn, and Vanderbilt have extensive resources, dedicated spaces, and strong administrative support behind centers and programs for first-gen students. The First Generation, Low Income, Immigrant Network at the University of Chicago is available to students, faculty, and staff of those communities. The Network provides programs like First Generation Conversations with professors, where first-gen students can interact with faculty. It also offers panels, listening sessions, socials, and a directory of first-gen staff and faculty. Robust peer and faculty networks, specialized orientation guides, and professional tools for first-gen students common are well-established at schools of Wash U’s tier. These resources are just examples of what could create a community of support at Wash U.
Matt Newlin, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at the Brown School and a first-gen student himself, is working on creating these kinds of
resources and building a first-gen community on our campus. His short-term interest is in building groundswell of smaller initiatives to “hopefully give the administration that there’s clearly enough of a need and enough of a population who is asking [for these resources] to consolidate and centralize [these efforts].” These smaller efforts look like advising a student group for first-gen students, as well as a campus wide first-gen marketing campaign. He remarks that many prominent figures at Wash U are first-gen, including Dean McKay of the Brown School and even Chancellor Wrighton. Modeled by the Green Dot campaign, Newlin hopes that this project would highlight “those role models and aspirational figures to normalize [first-generation students] across campus.” This project would not only serve to inspire first-gen students, but also create a wider online directory of first-gen faculty and staff that have volunteered to support firstgen students, which is common at our peer institutions.
[pullquote]Even through all of his efforts, Newlin doesn’t think there will be much change without ‘a student-driven ask for resources and advocates.'[/pullquote]
Ultimately, he hopes that these efforts will culminate in an office that supports first-gen and low income students through academic, social, and mentoring programs called the Office of Access and Opportunity. In this office, Newlin aims to create a “mentor program where my Brown School students who are first-gen would mentor first-gen undergrads who are interested in grad school.” Among the goals of the office are to provide financial literacy workshops, summer bridge programs, and resources to help students navigate the hidden curriculum of college. The office would also build partnerships with other programs for underrepresented students like TRiO and Deneb STARS. One of the most pressing concerns to Newlin is “better training faculty and staff to understand the first-generation experience if they are not first-generation themselves,” citing experiences of students that have felt isolated from Wash U offices and resources. The Office of Access and Opportunity would provide trainings to staff and faculty to create more equitable experiences across campus. Not only would the Office of Access and Opportunity deliver academic and professional resources, but would also create a social meeting space for first-gen students to convene. The community essential to surviving college as a first-gen would have a home if Newlin’s plans will come to fruition. Despite all of his efforts, Newlin doesn’t think there will be much change without “a student-driven ask for resources and advocates.”
[pullquote]When challenging diversity at WashU, it’s important that we prioritize first-gen students in our demands for equity.[/pullquote]
Newlin is right. Our administration will not create these resources until it is held more accountable by students. First-gen students and concerns have not been brought to the forefront of student and administrative discussion of campus socioeconomic diversity. When challenging diversity at Wash U, it’s important that we prioritize first-gen students in our demands for equity.
Liza Sivriver ‘20 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at lizasivriver@wustl.edu.