First-gen Student Success Through Leadership

St. Mary’s College of Maryland is proud of its students and proud of their accomplishments. Here are a few examples of successful leadership projects completed by our students:

• St. Mary’s College of Maryland Track Club, which in 2021 will become the college’s first intercollegiate track team

• “The Good, the Bad and the In-Between of Black Culture,” a documentary on the everyday lives of young Black college students

• Forum on College Affordability, a panel discussion featuring two state legislators, the state secretary of education, and the College’s president

• “College Declassified: Tips on How to Survive Your First Year” presentation and production of the First Year Student Guide

These projects were developed and implemented by DeSousa-Brent Scholars at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Leadership projects and their impact are a significant method used to engage first-generation students with the college and drive them toward success and graduation.

We challenge our first-generation students to not only survive but also to thrive at our College. Our goal is that they become engaged community members who transition into campus leaders, and in much the same way as high expectations in the classroom leads to greater academic achievement, we’ve found that high expectations for leadership produces students who make a significant impact on campus.

DeSousa-Brent (DB) has a primary focus on first-generation students, specifically on both their student retention and success. An integral part of the program requires that students take a two-credit course entitled The Leadership Project. This is a project of the students’ own design often with a focus on diversity and inclusion. The goal of this assignment is to connect students to the College and its resources, ultimately allowing students to pursue their passion on campus and contribute to the greater college community.

We’ve found that high expectations for leadership produces students who make a significant impact on campus.

DeSousa-Brent leadership projects support student success and retention by connecting students to campus resources, providing them with opportunities to work through temporary failure in a supportive environment, and to help them build resilience. The leadership project course requires students to develop their project syllabus, identify key benchmarks along the way, and work through campus procedures to pull it off. This often requires reserving space, finding campus partners to work with, such as the Wellness Center, Office of Sustainability, or Student Activities, and consulting with them through project implementation. The weekly class introduces students to methods and approaches to leadership, which they apply through their projects. This provides both an academic and leadership immersion experience that propels students toward greater campus leadership.

The results speak for themselves. St. Mary’s College hosts one student per year as a student trustee. Four of the last six student trustees have been DeSousa-Brent Scholars. In a 2019 issue of our college magazine, The Mulberry Tree, five students who exemplified the public honors college student were featured: three of them were DeSousa-Brent Scholars. For a program with only eleven percent of the student population, these statistics are telling.

We encourage other institutions to see their first-generation students as potential campus leaders. First-generation students are looking for opportunities to shine and contribute; with your guidance and mentorship, they will.