Becoming A First Generation College Student

Are you aware that at least forty percent of the United States is made up of first-generation students? (Earl, 1987.) Being given the label “first-generation,” by definition, means that a student is the first in his or her family to attend and finish college with a college degree. In Hicks 2006 study, he compared the educational barriers of first-generation students to those non-first-generation students. As a result, Hicks found out the first-generation students had different expectations of college, poor academic abilities, lack of social skills, low self-esteem, and more financial restrictions (Hicks, 2003; Thayer, 2000). There are many challenges that first-generation students face in pursuit of a college degree: academic challenges,

I am a first generation college student that has made it to a higher education. I see myself as the second daughter, that has come out the land of pride and production. I am from Richmond, California, but that’s just where I geographically from, when in reality I came from a strong family of immigrants. My parents both came to the United States as a young 26, and 24-year-old parents of one child. I did not come until two years later that I came, I came into the world, and was already marked with the name of an anchor baby. As I grow up I did not really know what I was, what I did was always question myself, am I just a reason to keep my parents here longer? Why am I called an anchor baby? I felt that I did not fit in but my schools I went to school always had a mixture of students. I did not know what I was or who I was, I had not direct connection to any ethnicity. When I was in elementary school there where a mixture of Whites, Asians, Latinos, and African Americans ethnicities, grow up in a multicultural area I didn’t think about race or class as much as late in life. Race was a topic that I did not really think and talked about until I was placed into a private school that class was visible, and I began to be more aware or class and race. I would not talk about race or class at school, but I would wait to talk about it when I would get home.

Being that I am a first-generation college student, finding guidance as I matriculate through college has been tough. I do not have any family members that have went to college, therefore I solely depend on my university for guidance in my college endeavors and my career path. Due to this, I want to be a part of the TRiO Scholars Program so that I can gain valuable advice, counseling services, and guidance to graduation. The experience that I am seeking in this program is the ability to meet and connect with other students like myself. I believe that to be able to identify with students who have come from various hardships like myself, allows for personal growth and a sense of community. I hope to gain this sense of community by participating

Throughout my high school career, I had a great variety of classes ranging from Civil Engineering and Architecture to Anatomy and Physiology. I was, and still am, interested in just about everything. At the University of North Dakota, I chose to pursue an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree with an emphasis in Health Science and a Minor in Biology. This allowed me to tailor my schedule to include courses I needed as well as courses I was interested in. As evident in my transcripts, I took a little bit of everything and I loved every moment of it. Although I wasn’t yet focusing on a certain career path, I was certain that I wanted to ultimately pursue a career in the medical field. Specifically, I have recently found that chiropractic will allow me to enrich the lives of others while exhibiting lifelong learning

Being a first generation college student is a heavy load to carry due to the constant reminder of having to be a good role model for my siblings. Children of immigrants are often highly expected to excel in their academics and to be involved in extracurricular activities. His/her parent immigrated to the “Land of The Free” in order to receive a better life and to give their children a place to call home. They work from one to two jobs a week just so that we can dig through the pantry, and raid the refrigerator. We sometimes take our parents for granted unknowingly, and constantly fill our heads with a question that we all seem to ask. “How do I please my parents?”, “What do I have to do to make them happy?”. As students we should all be voicing “College!”. Yes, maybe our folks’s dreams have faded away, however that should be our motivation to aim higher; to achieve our American Dream. Throughout our years of education, our very own relatives and teachers have emphasized on the importance of receiving a higher education. I have come to realize that I should not be asking myself “How do I please my parents?”. Instead, “How do I please myself?”, “What will my lifetime goals be?”, “Will it leave my parents hard work in vain?”. Obtaining a higher education will not impact their lives, but will affect yours drastically. My American Dream has always been to become an immigration lawyer that deals with international relations or to become a professor teaching my true passion for

Throughout high school, I have challenged myself both in the classroom and out in my community. By taking the honors classes, while participating in as many extracurricular activities as I can, I have learned the importance of balance and commitment. My school offered many dual-enrollment courses with conjunction to the local community college as well as Seton Hall University. These classes prepared me for the rigorous workload of college classes, while giving me the opportunity to earn college credits as a high school student. In addition to the dual-enrollment program, I have taken several AP classes that too transfer to college credits. I always challenged myself to take the upper-level courses because I want to be as prepared as I possibly

The article “Motivating Firs-Generation Students For Academic Success and College Completion” by Tanjula Petty describes the additional challenges first generation students have to overcome while attending college. A well-heeled diversity and world of opportunities are a few of the positive outcomes of attending college. According to Tanjula Petty (2014), “Yet, the most cited and widely used definition for first- generation students is someone whose parents has not completed a college degree”. Students whose parents did not acquire a college degree, have a lack of support at home. Their family members are not equipped to provide information required for college difficulties students may have. They lack knowledge and resources that students that students with college-educated parents have. The article states that these students are less psychologically prepared for college. Many low-income families do not understand the benefits of graduating from college. First generation students spend more time working and less time studying unlike their classmates. (Petty 2014) Coming from low-income families, many of these students have to divide their time between college and working. Leading students to prioritize money before school. Many work full time while going to school. Working more hours than studying can potentially harm students ' success.

First generation college students are those who are seeking to be the first in their family to earn a degree, according to UCLA. First- generation students can come from low, middle, or high income families without a history of going to college. Families of first generation students can either be supportive of the students plan for a high education or make them feel family pressure to enter the workforce right after high school like they did. First generation students often do not know their options regarding higher education and have fears about going to college and it’s cost. Currently, 42% of UC undergraduates are first generation.

A first-generation college student is the first person in a family to attend college or any type of secondary education. This title “first-generation college student” has created a stigma for so many students making their time in college more difficult than someone who has come from a family of college graduates. First-generation college students often find themselves lost and without the edge of students who come from parents and/or siblings who went to college.

Since 2008, I have attended four different colleges, as well as graduated with an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, and earn a tech diploma in Fire Science. Certain subjects can be a challenge due to my kinesthetic learning style. My best way to learn is working with my hands experiencing physically. For instance, before I attended University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, for Natural Resources. I worked for three different agencies as a Forestry Technician, even though had no formal education in the area, but I still became skilled. Therefore, I went back to college after five years after graduating in 2013 from my first degree. As a non-traditional student back in college, working to earn a Bachelor’s degree. I have taken a variety of classes in social science, psychology, written communication, oral communications, report writing, fire science, General education, First Aid and CPR, criminal justice, natural resources, business math, college algebra, chainsaw, and some other classes in trades. Out of all of these classes the criminal justice, fire science, and natural science areas are my favorite and most interesting to me. My hardest classes I have taken was upper level math and my report

The idea of college is overwhelming, considering that incoming students have to decide where they will live, what they will study, how many hours to take, and especially how they are going to pay for it. Randall S. Hansen, a nationally recognized Entrepreneur, is helping incoming college students everywhere deal with all of those critical ideas about college with his article called “Your First Year of College: 25 Strategies and Tips to Help You Survive and Thrive Your Freshman Year and Beyond” which explains what students should consider doing in their first year of college to make it through. In this article, he emphasizes how much students should think about what they do in their first year when he

After a very short four years of high school where my college studies had also began, I find myself today attending Wenatchee Valley College. Here in Wenatchee I 'm continuing my college career to obtain my associates in arts and science degree in which will receive in the spring of 2016. Prior to choosing courses at WVC, I kept in mind the pre-med major I have planned to take up, and in result I have taken up a biology sequence; major cells, major plants, and the final series, which I plan to take in the spring, major animals. The remainder of my classes consisted course within the humanities, social sciences and the math departments. Between all the late hours I found myself staying up to study and managing a full time job, I would consider my performance a well-rounded decent one. As expectations for prominent academic achievement were imbedded in me from my family and school faculty in high school,

I love the challenge of taking these types of classes and also balancing my busy schedule on top of it. In high school I took the maximum amount of credits allowed and was involved in sports, choirs, volunteer groups and had a job. This year I enrolled in 15 credit semesters and have two jobs on the side. My high school focuses on readying their students for college. All of my teachers and counselors encouraged me to challenge myself and stay involved in the school or community. I have taken this advice to college with me. I pushed myself to get my undergraduate courses done in two years. I prepared myself for graduate school by looking for a job that relates to pharmacy. That way I could be better prepared for the classes that are to come instead of relying on just the general courses I have taken so

What do you think your professor thinks of the new generation of students? Well in this Article of College Students Today: overconfident or just assured? Regardless, they are our future. By a retired professor named Corwin P. King was surprisingly, both inaccurate and accurate about college life. In this article, Corwin King explains how different the new generation of college students are now compared to past college students were. Corwin King also talks about in his article, he explains how students now don’t have the respect like they used to. That college students demand that they pass because they paid for the class. Corwin King also talks about how the newer generation of college students aren’t very respectful and demanding. So he starts to make comments about the new generation college students. So in this paper, I will be seeing how accurate his opinions are in a survey for college students that I posted, and my own personal experience of being a college student.

I had a difficult time adjusting to the college life. My courses were unexpectedly rigorous, which eventually led me to not meet the requirements in order to be accepted into the dietetics program. Many people told me this was not what I was meant to do or that I should just change my career path into something easier. Their ideas just fueled me more to keep going for my dream of being a registered dietitian. I then changed my concentration of study to Community Nutrition, where I received the opportunity to educate low-income populations on nutrition without the credentials of a registered dietitian. This opportunity gave me the chance to teach children that may not have the opportunities I had to fall in love with nutrition. It could be the chance that changes their lives like nutrition did mine, and that was all the motivation I needed.