First Generation College Students

33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students by Lisa M. Nunn This book gives college faculty concrete exercises and tools they can use both inside and outside of the classroom to effectively bolster the academic success and wellbeing of their students. To devise these strategies, educational sociologist Lisa M. Nunn talked with a variety of first-year college students, learning what they find baffling and frustrating about their classes, as well as what they love about their professors' teaching. Combining student perspectives with the latest research on bridging the academic achievement gap, she shows how professors can make a difference by spending as little as fifteen minutes a week helping their students acculturate to college life.

Academic Library Services for First-Generation Students by Xan Arch; Isaac Gilman Presenting strategies for improving academic library services for first-generation students, this timely book focuses on programs and services that will increase student academic engagement and success.

Clearing the Path for First-Generation College Students: Qualitative and Intersectional Studies of Educational Mobility by Casandra E. Harper (Contribution by); Allison L. Hurst (Contribution by); Véronique Irwin (Contribution by); Anthony Abraham Jack (Contribution by); Judy Marquez Kiyama (Contribution by); Rory Kramer (Contribution by); Elizabeth M. Lee (Contribution by); Robin Minthorn (Contribution by); Ann L. Mullen (Contribution by); Delma Ramos (Contribution by); Thomas Piñeros Shields (Contribution by); Fanny Yeung (Contribution by); Natalie Rose Youngbull (Contribution by); Ashley C. Rondini (Editor, Contribution by); Bedelia Nicola Richards (Editor, Contribution by); Nicolas P. Simon (Editor, Contribution by); Jenny Stuber (Afterword by); Trista Beard (Contribution by); Kim Godsoe (Contribution by) Clearing the Path for First-Generation College Students comprises a wide range of studies that explore the multidimensional social processes and meanings germane to the experiences of first-generation college students before and during their matriculation into institutions of higher education. The chapters offer timely, empirical examinations of the ways that these students negotiate experiences shaped by structural inequities in higher education institutions and the pathways that lead to them. This volume provides insight into the dilemmas that arise from the transformation of students' class identities in pursuit of upward mobility, as well as their quest for community and a sense of "belonging" on college campuses that have not been historically designed for them. While centering first-generation status, this collection also critically engages the ways in which other dimensions of social identity intersect to inform students' educational experiences in relation to dynamics of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, and immigration. Additionally, this book takes a holistic approach by exploring the ways in which first-generation college students are influenced by, and engage with, their families and communities of origin as they undertake their educational careers.

College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life by Lisa M. Nunn College Belonging reveals how colleges' and universities' efforts to foster a sense of belonging in their students are misguided. Colleges bombard new students with the message to "get out there!" and "find your place" by joining student organizations, sports teams, clubs and the like. Nunn shows that this reflects a flawed understanding of what belonging is and how it works. Drawing on the sociological theories of Emile Durkheim, College Belonging shows that belonging is something that members of a community offer to each other. It is something that must be given, like a gift. Individuals cannot simply walk up to a group or community and demand belonging. That's not how it works. The group must extend a sense of belonging to each and every member. It happens by making a person feel welcome, to feel that their presence matters to the group, that they would be missed if they were gone.

Creating the Path to Success in the Classroom: Teaching to Close the Graduation Gap for Minority, First-Generation, and Academically Unprepared Students by Kathleen F. Gabriel This is a book for all faculty who are concerned with promoting the persistence of all students whom they teach.

The Hidden Curriculum: First Generation Students at Legacy Universities by Rachel Gable The Hidden Curriculum draws on more than one hundred in-depth interviews with students at Harvard and Georgetown to offer vital lessons about the challenges of being the first in the family to go to college, while also providing invaluable insights into the hurdles that all undergraduates face.

Teaching STEM to First Generation College Students: A Guidebook for Faculty & Future Faculty by Gail Horowitz This book is intended as a practical guide for STEM faculty and future faculty, who work with first-generation college students. It provides easy to implement strategies that can be utilized in teaching, advising, and mentoring of first-generation students.

Technology and Engagement: Making Technology Work for First Generation College Students by Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon; Ana M. Martínez Alemán; Mandy Savitz-Romer This book is based on a four-year study of how first generation college students use social media, aimed at improving their transition to and engagement with their university. Through web technology, including social media sites, students were better able to maintain close ties with family and friends from home, as well as engage more with social and academic programs at their university. This 'ecology of transition' was important in keeping the students focused on why they were in college, and helped them become more integrated into the university setting.

Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College by Todd Ruecker Transiciones is a thorough ethnography of seven Latino students in transition between high school and community college or university. Data gathered over two years of interviews with the students, their high school English teachers, and their writing teachers and administrators at postsecondary institutions reveal a rich picture of the conflicted experience of these students as they attempted to balance the demands of schooling with a variety of personal responsibilities. Todd Ruecker explores the disconnect between students' writing experiences in high school and higher education and examines the integral role that writing plays in college. Considering the almost universal requirement that students take a writing class in their critical first year of college, he contends that it is essential for composition researchers and teachers to gain a fuller understanding of the role they play in supporting and hindering Latina and Latino students' transition to college. Arguing for situating writing programs in larger discussions of high school/college alignment, student engagement, and retention, Transiciones raises the profile of what writing programs can do while calling composition teachers, administrators, and scholars to engage in more collaboration across the institution, across institutions, and across disciplines to make the transition from high school to college writing more successful for this important group of students.

Understanding Experiences of First Generation University Students by Amani Bell (Editor); Lorri J. Santamaría (Editor) Over the past few decades universities have opened their doors to students whose parents and grandparents were historically excluded from societal participation and higher education for reasons associated with racial, ethnic, socio-economic and/or linguistic diversity. Many of these students are first generation - or first in their family to attend university. While some progress has been made in responding to the needs of these internationally underserved learners, many challenges remain. This edited book features the unique and diverse experiences of first generation students as they transition into and engage with higher education whilst exploring ways in which universities might better serve these students. With reference to culturally responsive and sustaining research methodologies undertaken in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the USA, the contributors critically examine how these students demonstrate resilience within university, and ways in which success and challenges are articulated. Elements that are unique to context and shared across the international higher education milieu are explored. The book is replete with diverse student voices, and compelling implications for practice and future research.The studies featured are centred on underlying theories of identity and intersectionality while valuing student voices and experiences. Throughout, the emphasis is on using strengths-based indigenous and decolonised methodologies. Through these culturally sustaining approaches, which include critical incident technique, participatory learning and action, talanoa and narrative inquiry, the book explores rich data on first generation student experiences at seven institutions in six countries across four continents.

First-Generation and Continuing-Generation College Students: A Comparison of High School and Postsecondary Experiences by Jeremy Redford