A Status to be Celebrated: How Stonehill College Supports First-Gen Students from Orientation through Graduation

Inherent Dignity

As stated in its mission, Stonehill College “is a community of scholarship and faith, anchored by a belief in the inherent dignity of each person.” This lens is applied when creating support programming for first-gen students, as well. Over the past few years Stonehill has been revamping – and amping up – its first-gen programming, creating more intersectional and campus-wide support models for incoming students who are the first in their family to attend college. Overall, roughly 22% of all students enrolling at Stonehill identify as first-gen, and we expect that number to grow in the coming years. As such, our suite of support offerings is growing, too.

In developing new programming, Stonehill is intentional in utilizing cross-campus collaborations to provide holistic support to our first-gen students. First-gen success relies on partnerships in all divisions of higher education from enrollment, financial aid, student affairs, academic affairs, all the way through alumni support. This inter- and intra-divisional approach allows us to begin to address the larger, systemic barriers that first-gen students face when navigating the higher ed system on their own. Through the tireless work of our Intercultural Affairs Office which oversees our student-led Gen-One dialogue group and serves as the home of Stonehill’s first-gen social support, to our first-gen-specific offerings in the First-Year Experience and Leadership Office which leads the first-gen welcoming programming at orientation and beyond, to the First-Gen Scholar Program, a newly launched initiative that lives in the academic affairs division (which is profiled below), Stonehill is moving forward collaboratively to support all aspects of the first-gen student experience.

The First-Gen Scholars Program (FGSP)

In order to expand our reach and support our first-gens throughout the entirety of their tenure at Stonehill College, we piloted the First-Gen Scholars Program (FGSP) during the 2020-2021 academic year. FGSP is a thematic, four-year transition program that is designed to provide academic, professional, financial, and social support to incoming first-gen students. Knowing that intersectionality is paramount with any successful first-gen program, students with a higher financial need are given priority for admission into the program. Our First-Gen Scholars are also given purposeful space to unpack the kaleidoscopic complexity of a first-gen status. To support these efforts, Stonehill has created a First-Gen Working Group that includes representatives from Academic Advising, Residence Life, Career Development, Intercultural Affairs, Admission, and First-Year Experience and Leadership. This cross-campus representation is pivotal in creating well-rounded programming that considers all facets of the student experience.

Our First-Gen Scholar Program was created using research-based techniques and protocols that increase student engagement, sense of worth, and retention. The program aims to support first-gen students in all areas, connecting them with administrative and peer mentors across campus not only to increase visibility of this student population, but also to celebrate and uplift those who are first in their families to go to college. We ask students to reflect on their own experiences and decide what being first-gen means to them, personally. Knowing the first-gen population is not monolithic, Stonehill prioritizes individual experiences and highlights student voices whenever possible. When asked what advice a current First-Gen Scholar at Stonehill would have for an incoming student, Jessika Crockett-Murphy – Class of 2022 Student Government Executive Vice President – says, “A first-gen status is not a disadvantage. Wear your first-gen label like a badge of honor. You are breaking glass ceilings and changing your family’s history.” She goes on to add, “I feel honored to be first-generation and I hope you do as well. Stonehill has an amazing support network for students like us to make sure we know our worth and we can excel at college.”

More to be Done

It is this sense of pride and confidence that we strive to cultivate, but we know there is much more to be done. This upcoming year, Stonehill will induct its first honorees into its newly chartered chapter of Tri-Alpha, a first-gen-specific honor society. Together as a community of scholars, we continue to work to dismantle the systemic barriers that exist for first-gen students, increasing our efforts to celebrate the first-gen status and destigmatize what is means to be first at Stonehill College.