独家优惠奖金 100% 高达 1 BTC + 180 免费旋转

Future in the First

By Kimberly Trujillo

Stepping foot on the freshly cut grass of campus, hearing the chattering of people in the lecture halls, and feeling the rush of a thousand different people going in and out of buildings are the overwhelming feelings of freshman year at the University of Georgia.

As any ordinary freshman, you start planning out what clubs to join, what major to choose and how to make the next couple of years worth it.

That is what life is like as a “normal” freshman, however, first generation students are thinking about more that just what clubs to join. Most first generation students’ thoughts wander to how they will make their families proud, what classes they need to take to graduate on time, and most importantly, how to navigate socially, emotionally, and academically in a school as big as UGA.

Freshmen go into college knowing only the basics on how to succeed in college. The knowledge or support comes from family, friends or high school counselors.

Parents who have gone to college can give their children an overview of what college will look like, or give them advice when classes get hard. While some students may have that kind of support system, first generation students don’t have the same luxury.

Michelle Puente, a college freshman at the University of Georgia, is the first person in her household to attend college and her overall transition hasn’t been as easy as her peers’. While her family is supportive, she recalls the lack of support and discouragement she received from her high school when applying to college.

During the college application process, she didn’t know the difference between early or regular admission. After many stressful days, she visited her school counselor to discuss what steps she needed to take to get into college.

As soon as Puente mentioned applying to UGA, her counselor started to stray her away from applying there.

“He really doubted me,” Puente said. “He wouldn’t straight up say it, but he would suggest I apply to other schools and to not get my hopes up.”

Not only would her counselor advise her against applying to UGA, but he would send her scholarships to other schools that were not to UGA and advised her to take out as many loans as she could.

Her counselor wasn’t the only one that didn’t want to her to apply to UGA. Her French teacher was among the bunch that didn’t feel like she would enjoy her time at UGA because she didn’t have as many connections to people at the school.

Thankfully, none of the negative comments stopped her from applying, and she later received her UGA acceptance email.

Getting an acceptance email was just the first step to the next couple of years at UGA. The hard part was navigating what college life was going to look like and what resources there were going to be to help Puente and students like her.

While UGA does provide plenty of resources for students on campus, some of the resources specifically for first generation just started in the last two years or aren’t being advertised enough.

One of the resources that just started about two years ago is a program called First at the First. First at the First helps first generation students by having them share their experiences and ask questions about college life. It involves activities to help develop confidence and to connect with other students.

Although First at the First is active and supporting students now, it wasn’t here a few years ago for other students. It also isn’t advertised much when it comes to connecting students to resources.

Puente received one of their emails, but that’s the only thing she ever got from them.

“I feel like there should be more outreach or engagement with students. I know First at the First is a thing, but not many people know what that is,” said Puente.

There are programs here at UGA to help students, but for most you have to dig until you find the resources needed to help.

First at the First is just one of the resources provided, but another more well known source is the Division of Academic Enhancement on Milledge Hall.

The Division of Academic Enhancement is split into two parts that help out first generation students.

The first half is the scholarship programs, and the second half is the incentives area that focuses on the support of first generation students. Both halves partner together for various programs, scholarships and grants.

One of the sources provided is the Early Start | Early Success program that starts the summer before entering your freshman year of college.

Early Start | Early Success program is an internal grant through UGA where they have first generation students who start at the university and enter through the freshmen college summer experience program.

Lindsey Coco, Assistant Director for Initiatives, said, “They come in and do an early start through freshman college, and then they matriculate into the TRIO support services program, which is a program to support current students here at UGA. It’s a partnership so those students are all first gen.”

This past summer, UGA had 32 new students come in for that specific program.

The Division of Academic Enhancement partners with those programs and provides scholarships for first generation students.

Some of the main scholarships that are provided include TRIO, Student Support Services, and the McNair Scholars. TRIO programs are nationwide federally funded grant programs that provide services for students from middle school to terminal degrees. TRIO is just the main umbrella that contains Student Support Services and McNair Scholars. McNair Scholars are geared towards underrepresented students that want a terminal degree like a PHD, but Student Support Services is to get students to graduation.

Student Support Services and the McNair Scholars are both very similar with the services they provide; however, the end goals are quite different.

The McNair Scholars resources focus more on providing help with resumes, graduate programs study, how to prepare a CV, and working on personal statements. As for Student Support Services, it focuses more on study prep skills, graduate school tours and cultural enrichment skills to push students towards graduation.

UGA now has about eight different federally funded programs that are provided for underrepresented students, and is geared to help students to be successful.

Sheronte Maxwell, an assistant Director in Access Programs, is in charge of the TRIO programs here at UGA.

She has been working for TRIO for almost 20 years and loves being able to help underrepresented students like first gens have a successful college career.

Maxwell said, “The underrepresented population always seems to be left out. No matter what high school you went to or what kind of background you come from, I think all students need to have that access.”

While scholarships do help first generation students, the Division of Academic Enhancement on Milledge Hall partners with Maxwell for other programs geared towards first generation students.

Although there are some resources and scholarships that UGA does provide, students and many family members are still left clueless about what scholarships are available. Family members that didn’t go to college might have a hard time connecting with their child while their off at university. Michelle Puente knows that feeling all too well, and has a hard time explaining to her parents about what college is really like.

Both of her parents only received a sixth grade education, because they had to drop out to provide for their families in Mexico. When it comes to FAFSA and college applications, Puente had to learn it all on her own.

“My parents didn’t know anything about FAFSA or any of that stuff. It was like if I wanted to go it was up to me. They wouldn’t help me which I guess can be seen as a good and bad thing. It just held me accountable for a lot more things.”

There are many things like school, work and college life that first generation parents don’t understand, but one thing that is certain is that it has taught students like Puente to be more motivated in college.

Puente has expressed that if it wasn’t for her upbringing and being a first generation student that she wouldn’t be as responsible as she is now.

She has worked hard for everything she has, just like other students, but in a different way.

Puente may have to take a different route from most of her peers, but she views it as a way to grow and learn in all aspects of life.

Being a first generation is being able to show that even though their upbringings may have been different from their peers, they can still strive and succeed just like everyone else.

Add a comment

What is your view?

Send

Related posts:

Write for Social Science

Every time I went to a party in university and told someone that I studied psychology, at least one person would ask me, “So you can read minds?” Unfortunately, no. Still, there’s a lot of really…

Hacking XML Data

Code injection is a vulnerability with many faces: from SQL injection to OS command injection. These attacks happen because of a common programming mistake: letting user input pollute executable…

Three Reasons to Write in a Journal

Taking these three beliefs together, it is only natural that I am keen on using a journal to navigate life. Let me tell you how journaling has helped me…as I suggest it to you. When I tell a friend…