The Advisory Board for the Center for First-generation Student Success includes leaders from higher education institutions, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. The board is committed to increasing support for first-generation students as higher education leaders consider student success efforts in our current uncertain times. A recent joint statement outlining the value of this approach can be found here.
Such advocacy on behalf of first-generation students is important; however, words are more powerful when coupled with action. This resource page is the first step in a series of actions to provide higher education leaders with information to amplify their commitment to first-generation student success. We encourage leadership to use and share this information with your teams as a part of institutional decision-making and to rely upon the Center as a resource.
The following reports and fact sheets delineate national statistics about the background characteristics, postsecondary experiences, and outcomes of first-generation and continuing-generation college students in the United States. They provide an overview of first-generation students in higher education and a starting point for institutional comparisons.
The following compilation of resources is specific to operating in response to COVID-19. It includes first-generation student-specific information as well as a dashboard providing weekly updates from an ongoing national survey on the impact of the pandemic to specific resources for supporting the most vulnerable students.
First Scholars® is the Center’s signature initiative designed to scale the support of first-generation student success at higher education institutions. It includes a guided process and framework consisting of both evidence-based approaches to holistic first-generation student success and strategic, institution-level shifts.
The intersectionality of first-generation students is evidenced through the following resources published by the Center’s partners in student success work.
The Center provides several opportunities to celebrate first-generation student success. Our cohort-based First-gen Forward recognition program acknowledges higher education institutions committed to the success of first-generation students. In partnership with the Council for Opportunity in Education, the Center promotes and provides resources for institutions to recognize and celebrate their first-generation students on November 8 of each year.
The upcoming Journal of First-generation Student Success joins other publications of NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and will be managed by the Center for First-generation Student Success. The Journal seeks to publish practice articles that are grounded in research and literature and, reciprocally, research articles that speak to practice.
