Southwestern Oklahoma State University's First-Generation College Celebration
November 8

2021 First-Generation College Celebration

SWOSU's second FGCC is being run in tandem with a First Generation Essay Contest. Students are being asked to answer the prompt "Why Did You Choose to Be the 1st (Generation)?" in a short essay to be considered anonymously by a panel of interdisciplinary faculty. The contest finalists will be announced at the First Generation Celebration held on November 8th, at which there will be food and drink, networking opportunities with local first generation business owners, and faculty readings of their own response to the prompt. The student that takes first place will be awarded a $500 scholarship, with other rewards for 2nd and 3rd; however, all students who submit have a chance for excerpts of their essays to be featured on the SWOSU website. Students can read the rules of the contest and submit their essays on the SWOSU website, which can be found here. 

Read the press release here. 

2020 First-Generation College Celebration

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, SWOSU's first FGCC was remote. Students wrote to Academic Support Center director, Dr. Wendy Yoder, if they were a part of the 40% of SWOSU students that are first generation and received a button that said "Proud to be 1st at SWOSU." First generation faculty received magnets with the same slogan to put outside their office doors, or another workplace space. A banner celebrating SWOSU's first generation students was also displayed in the atrium of the campus's Thomas P. Stafford Center. A press release for the event can be found here.