Piedmont First

We have been working hard to recognize and support our first-generation students here at Piedmont College. Our plan to increase visibility and support for first-generation students consists of several projects. To increase support, we are focusing on three main projects: a portal on our website, which will serve as a central page for first-generation students and their parents to connect them with first-gen-specific resources and information about the support they can access; a series of first-gen educational workshops on topics, including financial aid, creating a routine, organization and class preparation, study skills, and goal setting; and a mentorship program to connect incoming first-generation students to mentors who were first-generation themselves. We have also expanded our First-Generation Celebration event this year to give more students the opportunity to connect and be recognized. 

Celebration 

Last year, Piedmont College celebrated our first-generation students with a two-day celebration. On the first day, we set up a station where students could make an “I am First-Gen'' button,  write on a poster what being first-generation means to them, take a photo at a photo booth, pick up a “1st Gen Proud” placard, and get a free T-shirt. On the second day of our celebration, we encouraged students, faculty, and staff to wear their T-shirts and buttons and post their “1st Gen Proud” placard outside their office or dorm room. We also highlighted our first-generation students and staff on the college’s social media accounts.  

This year, we plan to expand our celebration to eight days total. We’ve created custom first-gen Zoom backgrounds with our new logo that we’ll encourage all first-gen faculty, staff, and students to use from November 2nd through November 13th. We’ll also be set up in the Commons near the dining hall during the lunch hour each day. Students and first-generation faculty and staff will have the opportunity to create a button and grab stickers, bag tags, and key chains with our brand new “Piedmont First-Gen” logo, and record personal video testimonials on what it means to be first-gen for the first three days. On the fourth day, we will have a photo booth with a first-generation background set up for all the participants to come by and take photos with their stickers and buttons. Lastly, we’ll be highlighting first-gen faculty, staff, and students through our social media, school newspaper, and other campus communications the week of November 9th.  

Support

Piedmont College is already in the process of revamping our website, so we plan to roll out the portal for first-generation students and parents at the same time as the College’s new website. The portal will serve as a centralized location for first-generation resources and help connect the parents and students to the information they need to navigate their time here at Piedmont effectively, from application to graduation and beyond.  

Several workshops have already been offered to all students on topics that our first-generation educational series will focus on this semester. In future semesters, we hope to offer at least one session of each workshop that is set aside specifically for first-generation students. Being together for these sessions will help to foster a sense of community between our first-generation population, as well as giving the presenters a chance to tailor the conversation specifically towards issues that may disproportionately affect first-generation students.  

The SAIL program is Piedmont’s existing summer bridge and mentorship program; however, this program is not exclusive to first-generation students. The fall to fall retention rates for our past two cohorts has been 73% and 83% respectively. We welcomed our third cohort in August 2020 and expanded the number of students by more than 2.5 times the previous cohorts. The mentorship portion of the SAIL program will serve as the model for the first-generation mentorship program. SAIL is designed to offer multiple layers of support for incoming freshmen, pairing them with a peer mentor, as well as a faculty or staff mentor. This program focuses largely on the student’s first year; however, the goal is to establish connections that will last through graduation and beyond. The mentorship program would take the same principle and apply it to first-generation students, specifically pairing them with a first-generation peer mentor, as well as a first-generation faculty or staff member. We are excited to build and launch this mentorship program from Fall 2021! 

---

For more information on Piedmont College's approach, please visit their website here.