{"id":22034,"date":"2017-10-24T15:51:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=22034"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:36:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:36:56","slug":"transitioning-graduate-life-first-generation-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=22034","title":{"rendered":"Transitioning to Graduate Life: First-Generation Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS initiative helps students succeed in graduate school<\/h3>\n
\"From
From left, Maria Duran, Leslie Adams and Jennifer Rangel are all first-generation graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In spring 2016,\u00a0Jennifer Rangel<\/strong>\u00a0knew she was about to make a life-altering decision: pursuing a graduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

As the first in her family to attend college, and now, a graduate program, Rangel felt apprehensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the first is always the hardest thing because you have limited resources,\u201d said Rangel, who is now a master\u2019s student in city and regional planning. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you can call home and ask for advice or suggestions \u2013 they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

To provide resources and community for first-generation graduate students like Rangel, The Graduate School incorporated the Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS initiative into the Diversity and Student Success program. These students\u2019 parents or guardians have not earned a master\u2019s or doctoral degree, and in many cases the students were also the first to attend college. UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s Office of Undergraduate Retention supports first-generation undergraduates through the Carolina Firsts program.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst-generation students are among the populations that are at risk of not completing an advanced degree, or even pursuing graduate school at all,\u201d said\u00a0Maria Dykema Erb<\/strong>, co-director of The Graduate School\u2019s Diversity and Student Success program. That\u2019s why The Graduate School has broadly defined diversity to help students from all different backgrounds who may encounter barriers to completing their degrees, she added.<\/p>\n

Prospective students applying for graduate admission in 2018 will be able to indicate the highest level of education completed by their parents or guardians on their applications.<\/p>\n

Erb and first-generation student leaders advocated for this change. \u201cThis will allow us to be able to proactively reach out to the students who fall within the definition of a first-generation graduate student and let them know about the initiative before they even enroll,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS offers programing to help students learn everything from professional development to forming mentoring relationships. Social events are also included to help build community for the students.<\/p>\n

\"Yesenia
Yesenia Merino and Samuel Baxter are first-generation doctoral students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesenia Merino<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Leslie Adams<\/strong>, doctoral students in health behavior, started forming the initiative in fall 2014. Both were 2015-16\u00a0Leadership Development Scholars<\/a>, a program sponsored by The Graduate School to provide student leaders with skills and experiences that also support the professional development of their peers.<\/p>\n

The initiative held its first events in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. \u201cOur plan from the beginning was to expand it to the entire university because we realized it wasn\u2019t just an issue of public health students but an issue more broadly,\u201d Merino said.<\/p>\n

Adams said her transition into her master\u2019s and doctoral program was not seamless.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduate school was, for me, the first time I\u2019ve felt I was on my own,\u201d she said. \u201cThat made for a very clunky transition with lots of mistakes and errors along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams said she was fortunate to have a great adviser coming into her program, but expanding her network beyond that was challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cA huge chunk of graduate school success is networking, and it took me some time to learn how to connect with faculty on a level beyond assignments and grades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel Baxter<\/strong>, a third-year doctoral student in health policy and management, said the initiative helped provide support for insecurities, mental obstacles and gaps that he didn\u2019t know existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helped me embrace the fact that I am the first in my family,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gave me a community to be a part of that understands that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow first-generation graduate student\u00a0Maria Duran<\/strong>\u00a0is in the fifth year of her doctoral program in English and comparative literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked in groups that were student-run and they\u2019re great, but they can also be a burden [to maintain] at a certain point and when that happens, they tend to fall apart,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that The Graduate School is backing these kinds of initiatives is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangel was able to find people going through similar experiences through the initiative.
\nRangel and fellow participants hope to pay it forward. She tells other first-generation graduate students: \u201cAlways be your own self-advocate. Don\u2019t be ashamed to ask. If you\u2019re sitting at the table, let your voice be heard, don\u2019t wait for others to speak for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit the\u00a0Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS website\u00a0<\/a>to learn more.<\/p>\n

By Lauren Houston and Christine Scalora for the Carolina Chronicle<\/a> and the Graduate School<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS initiative is helping fist generation students succeed in graduate school and doctoral programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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