A reception in Stokes Hall was part of a weeklong series of events celebrating first-generation students, sponsored by BC's First Generation Club in partnership with University's Learning to Learn office. (Lee Pellegrini)
Learning to Learn is the institutional voice for first generation, low income, and underrepresented students. We foster and support the intellectual, personal, and holistic formation of students as they realize their full potential, navigate the academic and social landscape of college life, attain their goals, and graduate.
We provide holistic, comprehensive and individualized advising. Academic advising focuses on BC’s Jesuit values and assists students in discerning their academic and personal directions. Topics such as time management, nutrition, housing, and developing supportive relationships are discussed.
The tie that binds them all? They are the first in their families to attend college.
Acadmeic services include
UNAS005: Applications of Learning Theory
A three-credit elecive course that teaches students successful methods for improving note-taking, reading, time-management, critical thinking, research paper writing and test preparation skills. Participants begin the process of understanding their own learning styles and strengths.
McNair Scholars Program
The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Program) is a graduate school preparation program for Boston College undergraduates who are both low-income and first-generation college students and/or come from underrepresented backgrounds. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the McNair program prepares participants from these underrepresented groups to pursue and attain doctoral degrees and to enter careers in research and academia.
Graduate School Application Support
We assist students in preparing for and applying to graduate school programs through one-on-one meetings and workshops and by encouraging (and supporting students) to apply to University Advanced Study Grants. We also offer online graduate school exam preparation courses (GRE, GMAT, LSAT).
Graduate Mentor Program
Introduces students to the graduate school process by matching them with a current BC graduate student mentor and providing information on admissions requirements and graduate school life.
McNair Exploratory Program (MEP)
The central purpose of the McNair Exploratory Program (MEP) is to involve first-year students in a conversation with a faculty member about professional career, graduate education, and research. This is a year long program.
Workshop Seminars
Introduces students to key academic, financial, and professional development information. Topics range from academic, career, budgetary, personal and professional development, and financial aid.
Formation activities
Sisters, Let's Talk
Provides a space for AHANA females to discuss issues that affect their social, emotional, spiritual and intellectual growth and develop skills to navigate through a predominately White institution.
Dedicated Intellectuals of the People
Provides a space for AHANA males to discuss issues that affect their social, emotional, spiritual and intellectual growth and develop skills to navigate through a predominately White institution.
BC F1RST- College Transition Program
A two-week summer program that acclimates incoming first generation college students to BC’s campus and resources. Participants build one-on-one relationships with faculty, staff, and administrators and develop community-building, leadership, and self-advocacy skills through small-tailored workshops.
financial assistance
Financial Aid Advising
Assistance in completing financial aid forms, writing appeals, financial planning and BC financial aid information.
Student Supplemental Grants
Qualified students earn a $1,000 financial aid grant (limited funds).
Laptop Loan Program
Supports academic achievement by providing laptops for students to borrow for two weeks at a time.
Angela Zhang '20, president of BC's First Generation Club. (Lee Pellegrini)
Rascon and his fellow club members collaborated with the University's Learning to Learn office on a weeklong series of events in November, held to celebrate the achivements of first-generation college students at BC and elsewhere. A reception in Stokes Hall near the end of the week provided an occasion for "first-gens" past and present to reflect on their experiences and the hard work and helping hands that made their college dreams come true.
"When we got to college, with the idea of becoming scientists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, we found people who believe in us," said Learning to Learn Director Rosanna Contreras-Godfrey, in her welcoming remarks. "This is a chance to embrace our tenacity and persistence, and that of our families."
A National Center for Education Statistics study found that nearly a quarter of high school sophomores in 2002 who went on to enroll in a postsecondary institution were first-generation students. BC has enrolled an average of about 260 first-generation undergraduate students during the past five years, including 263 in this year's freshman class. During the last decade, the percentage of first-gens in the freshman class has ranged from 9 to 11.
First-generation college students have long been the stuff of feel-good stories with classic dramatic elements: the parents' sacrifice to provide their child with the higher education they never had coupled with the students' detrmination to make the most of the opportunity. Boston College has been part of such narratives from its beginnings, when it was founded to educate Boston's premoninantly Irish, Catholic immigrant community.
But the story of first-gen students is complicated and multi-faceted. During their college years, they typically face educational, social, and economic challenges significantly different from those of their fellow undergraduates. College administrators seek to discern the needs of first-gen students and develop the appropirate programs, resources, and suppports, while researchers in academia, including at BC, study the changing profile of first-gen students in the wake of demographic trends and other factors.
All the while, Rascon and other first-gens continue to pursue that landmark college degree, grateful for the opportunity and those who are helping them seize it, yet mindful of the contrast their experiences and impressions present among BC students.
"As the oldest child, there's definitely a pressure to succeed: 'Don't let the family down,'" says First Generation Club president Angela Zhang, a Carroll School of Management junior from New Jersey whose parents, neither of whom completed middle schoool, emigrated from China to the U.S. when they were 18. "I remember feeling self-conscious as a kid about my parents no speaking English, but I also felt belittled if I heard someone criticizing them. Once I got older, I realized how much they went through for their children, working at a restaurant until 2 a.m.—my father was robbed one night during a delivery—and how much I learned from them. My parents trusted me when I handled the paperwork and other details for going to college, so I had to figure everything out on my own."
“"It's not easy being a trailblazer. First-generation students come to campus with a general lack of savviness about higher education, and this manifests itself in navigating the everyday aspects of college, and seeking help for academic or personal issues. They may also have narrowly vocational ideas about higher education, and not even understand its vocabulary. One student who was asked about his interest in the liberal arts said 'I'm not liberal, and I don't want to study art.'”
Such dynamics are critical to understanding college life for students like Rascon and Zhang, say Lynch School of Education Associate Professor Karen Arnold and her former student, University of Georgia doctoral candidate Jennifer May-Trifiletti '10, M.A.'11, both of whom have studied first-generation students. Identifying someone as a first-gen isn't enough, they say: You need to determine the "intersection" of other characteristics, such as family income level (which tends to be lower among first-gen students), primary languages spoken at home, and parents' marital status, as well as the family's cultural background and country of origin.
As Zhang's comment indicates, first-gen students may be the ones who take the lead in most, if not all, of college-related matters due to their parents' difficulties with English or general unfamiliarity with such processes. It's often a complicated, delicate turn in the parent-child relationship.
"It's not easy being a trailblazer," says Arnold. "First-generation students come to campus with a general lack of savviness about higher education, and this manifests itself in navigating the everyday aspects of college, and seeking help for academic or personal issues. They may also have narrowly vocational ideas about higher education, and not even understand its vocabulary. One student who was asked about his interest in the liberal arts said 'I'm not liberal, and I don't want to study art.'"
Given that studies show first-gens are less likely to complete a backelor's degree than are students who have a least one parent with post-secondary education experience, Arnold says it's inclumbent on colleges to be aware of these characteristics and go the extra mile in aiding the students' transition to college.
That's where key providers of support for first-gens at BC, such as Learning to Learn, the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, and University Mission and Ministry's Montserrat Coalition, come in, administering initiatives like Options Through Education, the College Transition Program, the Gateway Scholars Program, and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. Other resources include the Office of Graduate Student Life's Graduate Mentor Program; the Career Center, which has a website aimed at first-gens; and a series inaugurated in the spring of 2018 by William V. Campbell Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond to enable first generation college students in the BC Athletics Department to cultivate connections, share experiences, and learn about campus resources.
But outside-the-classroom connections with faculty members are what first-gens, like most all students, particularly value. Once Rascon was clear about faculty office hours, he says, he would visit his Perspectives course professor once a week. Zhang, who had no idea what "networking" invovled, is grateful to Carroll School Associate Professor of Information Systems John Gallaugher, who put her in touch with his friends and colleagues.
"No one resource can help a first-generation student,' says Zhang. "That's why it's important for different offices and programs, as well as faculty and administrators, to be aware of first-gens and our needs. Instead of having students feel scattered and alone, they need to feel part of a team."
Sean Smith | University Communications | December 2018