Network Leader is the second phase of the FirstGen Forward Network. Formerly known as the First Scholars phase, this opportunity serves as a customized approach to intentional institutional transformation.
As a Network Leader, it is recognized that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to scaling first-generation student success. Over the course of approximately twenty-six months, institutions receive a tailored approach to transforming their infrastructures and supports to advance first-generation student success. Utilizing a continuous improvement framework, Network Leaders gain access to diagnostic tools providing critical institutional insight, a host of customized solutions and turnkey toolkits, robust data reporting, and expert guidance throughout the process. This phase of the Network offers institutions the flexibility to shape their knowledge to meet specific needs while aligning with evidence-based outcomes essential for advancing the success of first-generation students.
Institutional who progress to become a Network Leader unlock critical resources to the Network experience:
Throughout the Network journey, institutions gain access to diagnostic tools and advisory sessions to discover and document the current state of first-generation student outcomes, organizational structures, programmatic offerings, and cultural elements critical to first-generation student success.
The Readiness and Progress Audit (RPA) is used as an application to the Network, the Network Member Annual Report, and again as a tool for Network Leaders. The RPA collects data on the ways your institution serves first-generation students. It will be utilized throughout the FirstGen Forward Network experience to collect longitudinal progress data to better learn how your institution is working to strengthen and scale institutional infrastructure and resources for first-generation students.
The Insights Tool is a proprietary assessment designed to facilitate understanding around your institution’s first-generation initiatives and collects staff, faculty, and other institutional members’ perceptions of first-generation support.
The Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP) empowers institutions with more comprehensive data, easier analysis, centralized reporting functions, and better visual representations to help you understand, improve, and communicate student outcomes. The PDP offers interactive dashboards that enable your institution to visualize student outcomes in aggregated and disaggregated forms and an analysis-ready file that lets you dig deeper into the data to find where you can make the biggest improvements on your campus and implement student interventions in a timely manner.
The Leadership Academy at the NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education convenes leadership teams from each of our newest FirstGen Forward Network Leader institutions and focuses on the role of leaders in advancing a national narrative on first-generation student success while offering critical training and professional development.
Institutions will:
Eligibility
FirstGen Forward Network institutions are eligible to apply after their initial year as a Network Member institution. Once selected as a Network Leader, an institution commits to a multi-year experience that requires presidential and financial support for a leadership team to focus on improving institutional cultures and systems at scale.
Now accepting applications for Cohort Six!
We encourage active Network Member institutions to apply to become a Network Leader! Contact [email protected] to receive application information. Our rolling application processes will be open for eligible institutions through September 2024.
Once selected as a Network Leader, an institution commits to a multi-year experience that requires presidential and financial support for a leadership team to focus on improving institutional cultures and systems at scale. The following requirements are part of the onboarding and continuous engagement of institutions.
Enroll in the Postsecondary Data Partnership & submit data annually;
Engage in Network Leader Diagnostic Tools;
Readiness and Progress Audit (RPA);
Insights Tool Inventory;
Participate in the Leadership Academy at the NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education;
Attend monthly workshops and Expert Guidance meetings
Build Continuous Improvement Plans & advance priorities.
Actively contribute to Network peer engagement; and
Submit financial contribution.
The second phase and its personalized approach requires a financial investment from the institution that is based on a number of factors including institution size and type. Individualized details specific to the institution are provided at a later time.
We invite you to utilize FirstGen Forward's resources, follow us on social media, and reach out at [email protected] with other questions. Thank you for your commitment to serving first-generation students!
