Campus News
First generation, lasting impact
Funding from Jacques M. Littlefield Foundation is helping first-generation students succeed and generating research on practices that can support students across the country
Last June, a steady stream of students walked through the office of UC Santa Cruz’s First Generation Initiative, sharing smiling photos of themselves wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with “#FIRSTGEN COLLEGE GRAD” on Facebook and Instagram.
More than 3,600 first-generation UC Santa Cruz students—those whose parents had not graduated from a four-year college or university—graduated this year, proud families cheering them on.
The constant flow of posts barely scratched the surface. First-generation students comprised well over half of the students who earned graduate and undergraduate degrees at UC Santa Cruz in 2019—a striking reflection of the university’s commitment to social mobility.
This celebration has a purpose: By increasing the visibility of students who are the first in their families to attend college, the university can help first-generation students succeed in reaching graduation.
“Highlighting first-generation student narratives builds first-generation students’ sense that they belong and can succeed,” says Rebecca Covarrubias, associate professor of psychology and co-leader of the First Generation Initiative.
Changing the conversation
Assistant Vice Chancellor Gwynn Benner co-leads the program with Covarrubias. She sees the work as potentially creating models useful well beyond the UC Santa Cruz campus.
“We’re trying to change the conversation about what it means to be first-gen,” Benner said.
For the past year, the Jacques M. Littlefield Foundation has supported Covarrubias’ research and Benner’s team of student interns, who provide services based on Covarrubias’ findings. Now the foundation has provided a new gift extending the work over multiple years with the intention of inspiring additional funding.
“No one was looking at their cell phones”
Janely Cardenas Vargas’s exposure to the First Generation Initiative began in 2017 with an event at which Shonté Thomas, director of the African American Resource and Cultural Center, spoke about challenges she faced when she was an undergraduate.
“For the director of a program to say, ‘Yes, this is my experience, I expect it’s your experience too. It isn’t uncommon and we’re here to help,’” said Vargas (Merrill ‘20, psychology, Latin American and Latinx studies). “It broke down the divide.”
Vargas joined the initiative’s undergraduate student planning committee and presented her own first-generation experience at workshops and panel discussions. These events have been especially notable for audience engagement.
“At one panel, I took a moment to look down at the audience,” she said. “No one was looking at their cell phones.”