Have you ever felt so depressed that you wanted to give up? In What It’s Like to Be the First Person in Your Family to Go to college, Liz Riggs acknowledges the hardships many first generation college students face. These students become so overwhelmed that they begin to contemplate the idea of finishing school. Correspondingly, In Controlling Your Destiny, Guadalupe Quintanilla reports that she was the architect of her own destiny despite the never ending contradictions (330). An overview of both Controlling your Destiny and What It’s Like to Be the First Person in Your Family to Go to College emphasizes the inevitable challenges that first generation [college] students face. However, many prevail and become successful by navigating through these challenges. …show more content…
I knew that my family was having financial hardships already and I did not want to add anymore on. My family always wanted me to go to college but we never knew how we were going to afford it; my grades weren’t perfect nor did I play sports. Things soon took a sharp turn when I received a positive result from a pregnancy test.
The thoughts on furthering my education soon vanished. How could I go to school when things needed to be done? I needed to work in order to provide for my son. Society tore me down, teen moms can’t make it in this world, they’re narcissists. How is she going to take care of a child when she is one? I spent countless amount of hours crying. I knew I had to finish school, despite the constant criticism. When I first applied to school, I was nervous. I felt like such an outsider, no one else has a child. Who can I relate to? I wanted to drop out before I even started. Everyone was right, I can’t do
The documentary, First Generation, follows four first generation college students who try and balance the hardships of working, sports, being part of a lower socioeconomic status and handling the challenges of learning how to apply and cover the cost of hefty college tuitions. In this paper, I will discuss barriers that some students experienced, the benefits of attainting a college education as a first generation student and some of the challenges individuals faced once they were accepted into college.
So what can other first generation college students do to avoid what has happened to Sarah? The answer lies in directing a passion towards learning and education in students and their families that will build self-motivation and avoid the negative predispositions of being the first in the family to attend college. While Sarah has not been attending the University of Miami for too long, her experiences thus far have given her a very good understanding of her position in this academic community, and nevertheless, gives a representation of first-year, first-generation college students. Sarah is only one person though and may not be fully representative of the population of first generation college students, but as a member of this community, Sarah’s input is essential to the ideas and views of the students in this group.
In the fall of every year, high school graduate begin this journey toward personal success, whether living on campus or with parents. There is a sense of maturity many of them feel when beginning this journey with the goal of graduating college and receiving the best credential possible to getting a well-paying job. “She Can Play That Game, Too” by Kate Taylor. Demonstrate a very important issue many college students face when beginning of this exciting journey. T...
The author, Julia Brookshire Everett commenced the article, “Public Community Colleges: Creating Access and Opportunities for First Generation College Students”, by first characterizing first- generation college students and also expounding on the difficulties first-generation students encountered when acquiring post-secondary degrees. According to Everett (2015), the term ‘first- generation college student’ was first coined in the 1960s in order to regulate student eligibility for federally financed programs to aid students from low-income households.
How does being the first in one’s family to graduate from college impact one’s desire to finish college? Some of the major barriers first generation college students face include lack of motivation, lack of support, and low income finances. Some freshman students might lack the motivation to do well in school because of the lack of appropriate role models or mentors in the academic environment. These difficulties can be tied to lack of support at home; the parents might not be concerned about their child's education, maybe the parent lacks the ability to guide them through college, the parent might not have the process of having not navigated it themselves. Parents might feel embarrassed that they don’t have any knowledge to help them through college.
First generation college students are students who comprise a distinct minority within most institutions of higher learning. These groups of students are the first generation of students in their family lineage to attend a college or university (Allwood, 1966). Due to the lack of family guidance in navigating through the college experience, first generation students face an array of obstacles upon entering the realm of higher education. These students are less likely to obtain their bachelor degree due to finance, family support and retention, all which ultimately limit their college experience. Not only do these students experience issues migrating through high school into college, they also lack the necessary resources some students need to achieve higher standards. For instance financial assistance, mentorship, and other motivating factors that can help a student grow into a professional.
“First-generation,” a term that has recently began to permeate through our discourse surrounding education. Yet, secondary education institutions have found difficulty settling on a definition that fully captures the distinct and incomparable experiences and backgrounds of students. The definitions of a first-generation college student varies from institution to institution; ranging from having no parental figures who ever attended postsecondary education, to having one or more members in the immediate family who did not obtain a bachelor degree.
Most first generation college students are significantly older than the average, approximately 24 year of age (Pascarella et. al 2004). The surrounding low-income environments that many of these students are raised around can explain this late age. This financial pressure can also explain another category of first generation students, preparation (Chen & Carroll, 2005). These students are often less prepared to enter the college life. They have not been exposed to the necessary preparation needed to succeed on college admissions tests and furthermore don’t meet the performance requirements that universities and institutions require. Analyzing the prefaces that surround the environment of first generation college students aids in understanding current problems faced in college as well as assist in proposing solutions for this subset of
As a first-generation college student, the process of applying to colleges was not only an overwhelming experience, but it was a lonely one. My parents did not understand why I would spend hours perfecting my essay or why I worried too much about paying for college. When college decisions started to come in the mail, I was ecstatic that I got into the
A first-generation college student is someone whose folks didn’t attend or graduated from college. Many times, students face this reality and have no one to rely on. Some of the challenges this students face are unique psychological challenges. Although there is upportive staff in college, one of the most important roles of a family is support. Their family may see their entry to college as an insult or misunderstood their reason for wanting to have a major. In families, role are assign to each member such as working, cleaning or taking care of others. When one of the family members decides to interference with this system to attend to college, this one leading the student to a loss of personality.
Being a first generation college student has been my biggest struggle in life. For years, I was told to attend Allen Community College before any big changes of course I didn’t listen. For years I was told I wouldn’t last in a big university, I have been told I will be unprepared and behind. I have been told that three out of five first generations students do not complete a degree. Being told something isn’t possible is a hard thing to deal with.
In the 21st century, if an individual decides to make a major commitment or resolution, they have the utmost support from their peers and family members. However, when a first-generation college student decides on furthering their education, the dearest people close to the student seem to disappear. Linda Banks-Santilli (2015) claims that first-generation students apply to a single college and without the help of a parent (para. 13). Although Banks-Santilli does not say so directly, she assumes that the students can not afford multiple application fees and the students are unsure on how to determine which college is a good fit, as their parents have not taken them on a college tour. I agree that first-generation students have far less help
This shocking, life changing, news had me at a stand still in my life I didn’t know what to do. Seeking advice from my family I turned to them and what I should do, most of them had told me I should take a break from college and settle into becoming a mom and pick school back up later on,“I didn’t want to leave. But it felt like that was maybe the reality of the situation.” Maybe taking a break from college was the best option, I hadn’t even decided on a major at this point in life, why did I think going to college and bring a life into the world was something I could
People around the world are asking the golden question: Is college worth all of the hassles and cost? High school students debate the ideas of college in classrooms around the country and world. If the end-all-be-all goal in life is to be successful, college is the first step to obtain success. Parents question the reasonings behind spending thousands of dollars on furthering their child’s education if “making it” in their career is not a guarantee for the price. Although costly, college is a phenomenal investment to make in oneself; leverage in careers make the financial benefits in the future and academic advantages more worthwhile.
It is often said that education should come before anything else. “Education is the most important factor in the development of the country” (“Education”). However, this is not always true in terms of the success of one’s collegiate career. Education is not every student’s top priority, and there are many ways to live successfully after college without focusing on the academic part as your top priority. Only about 30 percent of Americans complete a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s, with another 10 percent completing an associate’s degree by then (Paulson). Not everyone’s top priority is academics, with many alternatives and goals to pursue, many people drop-out or simply stop trying and eventually flunk out. H...