This post is co-authored between Associate Professor Troy Murphy and Anna Lariviere—
Psychology Major, Public Health Minor, and President of the First Generation Student Organization at University of Michigan—Dearborn
I don’t remember exactly how I became aware of it, but I recall feeling simultaneously aghast at how stupid I could be yet somewhat comfortable in my new-found ability to pretend I knew stuff I really didn’t.
I was at the end of my first year of college and I realized that I had been admitted to the wrong school. I was attending the right University in the right city (I wasn’t quite that clueless), but the major I thought I was pursuing was part of an entirely different “school,” or “college”. I didn’t even know what that meant. I thought I was in college . . . I didn’t know there was more than one of them! It was a big state school (not in Michigan) and I had no idea what it meant to be a part of a college within a university – or, for that matter, a school, division, unit, department or discipline!
I was a first generation college student. My parents graduated from high school (though my father insists it was a waste of time and the price of school lunch was way too high) and started working. They were as proud and supportive and caring as any seventeen year old college-bound kid could possibly ask for, but university life was not something they ever experienced. They didn’t know to ask some of the questions any more than I did.
I identify myself as a “first generation college student” above, but to be honest, that was a term I didn’t even know existed until well into my career as a college professor. When I first learned of some of the most common experiences of first generation students – feelings of “imposter” syndrome and lack of belonging, confusion with terminology (and acronyms like castle and chess?), reluctance to seek help or advising and support services, less inclined to be involved in extracurriculars or to interact meaningfully with faculty, etc. — my long-past experiences made sense not just as my own, but as an identifiable group of experiences known as being “first gen.”
Troy Murphy
Associate Professor
Public Communication and Culture Studies
Department of Language, Culture, and the Arts
I started at UM Dearborn as a biological sciences major on the pre-med track, a path I believed was right for me. However, by November of my freshman year, I realized that biology and pre-med weren’t the right fit for me. With a blend of courage and a lot of anxiety, I changed my major to psychology. My grades improved drastically and I immersed myself in the campus community by joining the First Generation Student Org (FGSO). Since then, I have served in various leadership roles and eventually became the president of FGSO. I have been able to participate in undergraduate research in my field, joined the international honor society in psychology, and discovered a passion for public health. I later declared public health as my minor and became an active member of the Public Health Society on campus. For the first time, I felt a genuine sense of fulfillment and happiness in my academic journey.
Despite all the milestones I’ve achieved at UM Dearborn, my college experience hasn’t been without its challenges, particularly when it comes to my family’s perceptions. In particular, my decision to change my major has been a point of contention at home. Conversations with my dad often include remarks like, “Not changing your major again, right?” or “Did you change your major again?” These comments have made me feel misunderstood and unsupported, especially by the person who initially set the expectation for me to pursue higher education. I understand that my family isn’t trying to be unsupportive; it’s just that they haven’t experienced college themselves and don’t fully grasp the complexities and self-discovery involved in this journey. This lack of understanding has often felt isolating, as it means they cannot provide the guidance and support I sometimes desperately needed.
Anna Lariviere
Psychology Major, Public Health Minor
President, First Generation Student Organization
The research on first generation students is now plentiful and growing . We know more about how to ease the transition to college life. We know feelings of belonging are important not just so students feel welcome (though that’s important too!), but are key to new academic terms like persistence and retention. We know there are also financial burdens and systemic barriers that are sometimes greater among first gen students. We know the impact and power of family dynamics, both positive and sometimes stressful, on the college experience. And we also know that there is value in simply recognizing oneself as part of a group, of sharing experiences and resources and knowledge of what being a first gen student means.
Readers of this blog may recall Maya Barak and Mike MacDonald’s fantastic work highlighting “students as partners” and the student-faculty publication, Wolverzine, that grew out of that work. We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be co-editors of an upcoming “special issue” of Wolverzine focusing on First Gen stories.
We invite faculty, staff, and students at University of Michigan – Dearborn to contribute to this special issue. Maybe you have a story to tell, either about your own college experience or your role as an educator. Do you have a statement in your syllabus that is either explicitly or implicitly welcoming for first gens? An assignment or in-class activity? Any stories you tell in class? Role models or former students you sometimes highlight that first gen students can look up to? If you would be willing to be interviewed about your experiences, we’d be happy to do that, too!
We know there are a ton of great programs and faculty on our campus that are already making a difference in the lives of our first generation students. We hope to share these stories of students, faculty and staff in ways that will allow incoming and current students to appreciate both the unique demands of being a first gen student and the commonalities that exist across campus. Please join us in telling your story in whatever way you feel might be useful to incoming first gen students (as we might say to our students, be creative, have fun with this!) It doesn’t have to be a time consuming task– even just a sentence or two will help identify those connections and build a stronger first gen community.
We’ll include the link for submission below, but you have any questions or would like to talk with one of us further, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you. Troy: tamurphy at umich dot edu Anna: alarivi at umich dot edu
https://wolverzine.org/submissions/
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Featured Image Photo Credit: Original Work, Troy Murphy, used with permission