{"id":1265,"date":"2017-08-16T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2017-08-11T09:24:21","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T13:24:21","slug":"supporting-all-students-first-gen-student-turned-prof-offers-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/supporting-all-students-first-gen-student-turned-prof-offers-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting All Students: First-Gen Student-Turned-Prof Offers Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Hern\u00e1ndez is an assistant professor of Latino\/a studies at Mount Holyoke College. But before\u00a0joining academia, he was a first-generation university student.<\/p>\n

Having\u00a0experienced university life from two perspectives, Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0recently reflected on what\u00a0would have helped make college more accessible to him the first time around.<\/p>\n

He wrote a personal essay featured in\u00a0The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that shares his experience as an 18-year-old and asks, \u201cWhat could today\u2019s universities and colleges do differently for a student like me?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Though he said that financial aid and scholarships would always be appreciated, it was knowledge and cultural gaps between him and his peers that stuck out the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst-generation college students, students of color, foster kids, single parents, veterans, and other “others” shouldn\u2019t be out of the loop of the opportunities and resources that are available. Institutions should do a better job of reaching out to them,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBridge and transition programs make a difference at all stages of education. Especially in college, these programs can create early friendships, a sense of cohort, and answer the unaskable \u2014 What\u2019s a syllabus? Can I say \u2018I\u2019 in my papers? What is a mentor?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez said that feeling welcome or \u201cnormal\u201d is often an impossible goal for a first-generation student and advised that colleges do more to offer support.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so many young people, attending college is a rite of passage that places them on a similar plane with parents or other family members. It draws them closer,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhen you are the first in your family to attend college, it\u2019s the opposite. It tears you away from your family and community. You become permanently dissimilar \u2014 different at college, but also at home, simultaneously. Colleges should recognize that some students are making it in their own way, without a support system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full column.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0<\/em>adobson@nacacnet.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Hern\u00e1ndez is an assistant professor of Latino\/a studies at Mount Holyoke College. But before\u00a0joining academia, he was a first-generation university student. Having\u00a0experienced university life from two perspectives, Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0recently reflected on what\u00a0would have helped make college more accessible to him the first time around. He wrote a personal essay featured in\u00a0The Chronicle of Higher Education\u00a0that … Continue reading Supporting All Students: First-Gen Student-Turned-Prof Offers Tips<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[331],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access","tag-first-generation"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-kp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}