Building on a History of First-gen Support

Sonoma State University’s (SSU) recognition as a First-gen Forward Institution is one step in our efforts to increase the support for and success of the approximately 48% of first-generation students enrolled at SSU. Our commitment to first-gen student success has long been a fixture of the campus’ student success initiatives. As Jesus Garcia-Valdez, Educational Opportunity Program (eop.sonoma.edu) Coordinator, notes, “the First-Gen Forward designation demonstrates Sonoma State University's commitment to underserved and underrepresented students. SSU is meeting students and their families where they are at by investing resources to help identify and remove barriers that prevent these students from successfully transitioning and navigating the complex university system. It's empowering students to believe in themselves and to strategically plan their academics to graduate from SSU.”

Sonoma State has a long history of providing first-gen support through programs like the Educational Opportunity Program and several TRIO programs, including Upward Bound, Upward Bound-Math and Science, Talent Search (precollegiate.sonoma.edu), Student Support Services (triosss.sonoma.edu), and McNair Scholars (mcnair.sonoma.edu). These programs have been integral in our institution’s support of first-generation student success. However, over the years we recognized that many of our first-gen serving programs were siloed and required a greater level of coordination and collaboration to leverage the work that was already being done and develop new and innovative approaches to support first-gen success. With this in mind, we developed and launched SSU’s Center for Academic Access and Student Enrichment (CAASE) in 2018. In a targeted effort to better align and serve all first-generation students at Sonoma State University, CAASE (caase.sonoma.edu) was created to provide a one-stop resource hub of student support services. Placing existing first-gen serving programs under one umbrella promotes the more effective utilization of resources while helping staff members from these programs collaborate on best practices.

Placing existing first-gen serving programs under one umbrella promotes the more effective utilization of resources while helping staff members from these programs collaborate on best practices.

Over the years, Sonoma State has made strides in advancing our support of first-gen student success, but we can do more. While CAASE has allowed for better coordination and collaboration among first-gen serving programs within the university’s Division of Student Affairs, we recognize that there is still a need to expand this coordination and collaboration across the institution. We see our participation in the First-gen Forward program as the springboard to move this work forward.

Moving Forward to Build a Stronger Campus for First-gen Students

As a result of the support we are receiving through our participation in the First-gen Forward program, we have identified institutional gaps and opportunities to develop a more supportive first-gen environment at Sonoma State. We have begun building a committee of faculty and staff from across divisions to move our work forward, and are currently working on initiatives including:

● Identifying first-gen staff and faculty to build a directory that will be available to students.
● Developing a first-gen specific website to provide information about all of Sonoma State’s first-gen programs.
● Conducting focus groups with first-gen students to identify needs that we may not yet have considered.

These are a few of the small steps we are taking to develop Sonoma State as an institution that welcomes, celebrates, and supports first-gen students. We have more work to do and have additional initiatives planned over the next year in order to continue building upon the first-gen positive culture we have established at Sonoma State University.