Surviving & Thriving - First Generation Law Students: Resources for 1st Gen Students

The AIRC is a “home-away-from-home" for American Indian and Alaskan Natives (AI/NA) at the University of Utah that works to increase AI/NA student success through advocacy, culturally sensitive academic student-centered programming, cultural events, outreach and social events that enhance academic, cultural and personal growth and well-being.

Our mission is to support and coordinate information, program development and services that enhance family resources as well as the availability, affordability and quality of child care for University students, faculty and staff.

The Center for Disability & Access is the designated office at the University of Utah which evaluates disability documentation, determines eligibility, and implements reasonable accommodations for enrolled students as guided by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and University policy.

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Everyone’s wellness journey is unique. As we explore our own personal wellness, it’s important to remember that being well looks different for everyone and that these dimensions of wellness are interconnected, active and dynamic. Recognizing areas of our wellness that are thriving and those that may need additional support can help us seek the resources we need and take positive steps to become more well.

Supporting you in creating your success here at the University of Utah is the most important thing we do. We know that your situation is unique, so we take time to work closely with you to learn about your particular needs, aspirations, and goals.

TRIO federal programs includes eight programs targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.

The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) at the University of Utah serves as the central resource for educational and support services for women. Honoring the complexities of women’s identities, the WRC facilitates choices and changes through programs, counseling, and training grounded in a commitment to advance social justice and equality.

Drawing upon Bourdieu’s theories of social and cultural capital, a number of studies of the higher education environment have indicated that students who are first-in-family to come to university may lack the necessary capitals to enact success. To address this issue, university transition strategies often have the primary objective of ‘filling students up’ with legitimate forms of cultural capital required by the institution. However, this article argues that such an approach is fundamentally flawed, as students can be either framed as deficit or replete in capitals depending on how their particular background and capabilities are perceived. Drawing on interviews conducted with first-in-family students,this article explores how one cohort considered their movement into university and how they enacted success within this environment. Utilizing Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, this article discusses how these individuals drew upon existing and established capital reserves in this transition to higher education.

Dedicated first-generation research allows for evidence-based decision-making that is critical to student success. This section highlights both foundational research and recent scholarship that informs understanding of the student experience, institutional approaches to programming, and identification of supports and barriers for first-generation students. Timely updates on public policy discussions shaping first-generation student success are also provided.

College students who do not have parents with 4-year degrees (first-generation students) earn lower grades and encounter more obstacles to success than do students who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree (continuing-generation students). In the study reported here, we tested a novel intervention designed to reduce this social-class achievement gap with a randomized controlled trial (N = 168). Using senior college students’ real-life stories, we conducted a difference-education intervention with incoming students about how their diverse backgrounds can shape what they experience in college. Compared with a standard intervention that provided similar stories of college adjustment without highlighting students’ different backgrounds, the difference-education intervention eliminated the social-class achievement gap by increasing first-generation students’ tendency to seek out college resources (e.g., meeting with professors) and, in turn, improving their end-of-year grade point averages. The difference-education intervention also improved the college transition for all students on numerous psychosocial outcomes (e.g., mental health and engagement).

This article refutes the widely held assumption that affirmative action is appropriate either to support only racial and ethnic minorities or to support only low-income students, but that it cannot or should not support both. Pruitt argues that we need not make such a choice and that we should aspire to socioeconomically diversify higher education institutions — including the most elite sector — with low-income students of all colors.

Success in college is not simply a matter of students demonstrating academic ability. In addition, students must master the “college student” role in order to understand instructors’ expectations and apply their academic skills effectively to those expectations. This article uses data from focus groups to examine the fit between university faculty members’ expectations and students’ understanding of those expectations. Parallel discussions among groups of faculty and groups of students highlight important differences regarding issues of time management and specific aspects of coursework. We find definite incongruities between faculty and student perspectives and identify differences between traditional and first-generation college students. We argue that variations in cultural capital, based on parents’ educational experiences, correspond to important differences in each group’s mastery of the student role and, thus, their ability to respond to faculty expectations. The conclusion discusses the theoretical and practical implications of considering role mastery a form of cultural capital.

American universities increasingly admit first-generation college students whose parents do not have 4-yeardegrees. Once admitted, these students tend to struggle academically, compared with continuing-generation students—students who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree. The authors propose a cultural mismatch theory that identifies one important source of this social class achievement gap.

This article conceptualizes community cultural wealth as a critical race theory (CRT) challenge to traditional interpretations of cultural capital. CRT shifts the research lens away from a deficit view of Communities of Color as places full of cultural poverty disadvantages, and instead focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. Various forms of capital nurtured through cultural wealth include aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital. These forms of capital draw on the knowledges Students of Color bring with them from their homes and communities into the classroom. This CRT approach to education involves a commitment to develop schools that acknowledge the multiple strengths of Communities of Color in order to serve a larger purpose of struggle toward social and racial justice.

The Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence provides a variety of services to all University of Utah instructors with an emphasis on best pedagogical practices and strategies for teaching in higher education.