First Generation Students

Our educational system in the university setting tends to cater towards its incoming freshmen. They enter with hopes to discover what their passions are, and others enter with no more than the goal to achieve a paper at the end of 4 years’ worth of “passing” work. We all enter the university setting voluntarily, we sign up for the loans and years of future debt less willingly, but we do it. All for a result that we can benefit from years after we pay off the seemingly infinite amount of student loans. But there is one group of students that professors should be aware of, the ones who come here because their opportunities without a college education are limited, not limitless like they could be for some of their peers, these are the First-Generation students.

First generation students typically have lower levels of parental involvement in their education. (Housel 15) The lack of parental involvement creates a larger dependency of the advice of professors and advisors when encountering challenges during their

(Housel 15) Unfortunately first generation students may find it to be more of a challenge to create relationships around their campus communities, depending on where they choose to attend. It is very easy to feel out of place especially when a majority of their peers are middle or upper class, whereas more than likely the first generation students come from lower classes. These gaps can be filled easier in the classroom, where the professor takes on the role of creating moments for socialization relating to the class. This process allows for a feeling of familiarity to develop among those students that does not involve social classes or what ethnic background they may have. Professors should help their students to form a common ground early on in their semesters, those are beneficial relationships especially for first generation