WASHINGTON – Transitioning from high school to her first year in college was tough for Emily Doglio.
Yes, Doglio had some typical issues that her fellow classmates at Brown University also struggled with. She was homesick when she stepped foot on campus at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island. But Doglio said she also ran into problems because she was so unfamiliar with the college landscape that she was forced to navigate.
“I had an idea in my head of what colleges were going to be like but I don’t think it was the accurate idea,” said the 20-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., who concentrates in political science.
Doglio’s dad immigrated to the United States from Uruguay. Her mom spent her early years in Puerto Rico. Neither of her parents graduated from a four-year institution.
Doglio is among a rising population of college students growing up in immigrant families and seeking the benefits of an American college education.
Some of them are also the first in their families to attend a university – so-called first generation students. Many lack the guidance from parents or siblings who have completed four years of higher education, or are acquainted with the culture and the ins and outs of the vast American college system.
“Being a first-generation college student is inherently by definition a deficit in some way,” said Matthew Rubinoff, director of I’m First, a nonprofit where first-generation students share experiences, make friends and learn from each other. “You don’t have parents who went to colleges who could be helpful to you, not just getting to colleges, but getting through universities.”
As the number of students from immigrant families studying at American universities has increased, the institutions are finding it difficult to keep up with the financial and emotional stress put on these young people.
Many universities have launched academic support programs and extended financial services, but some students still feel barriers between themselves and their classmates.
For Doglio in her early experience, it meant not knowing how to seek assistance from professors and TAs on campus.
“Academically, I had a lot of problems asking for help, [and] knowing what you are entitled to, knowing what [the] professor-student relationship look like, knowing when you could talk to the TA, knowing what you can ask them, stuff like that,” said Doglio
Matthew Rubinoff said “You have first-generation students who come from rural backgrounds, suburban backgrounds, even mid-income backgrounds [but] are still at a disadvantage and often struggle in succeeding in college, because they don’t have the same support and encouragement from parents and families.”
Rubinoff said the power of peer influence such as having role models who have the personal experiences of completing higher education is a motivating factor for many first-generation students.
“It’s a very isolated feeling that you are the only one and there are no other people like you who are trying to go to college and get a degree, so making sure to let first-generation students understand that they are not alone, that there are many who have come before them and others that are on the journey with them that they can lean on for support and inspiration and advices and encouragement [is important].”
Nana Agyemang, a student at George Washington University, was born in the U.S. to parents who emigrated here from Ghana. She is not a first-generation student, but has struggled with the financial burden of college.
“My friends would go out to eat all the time, they would go out shopping. I never had those kinds of fun. I never could afford to do those things,” said Agyemang, now heading into her senior year, majoring in journalism. “I think in a way that kind of limits my amount of social life.”
To pay for her tuition, Agyemang took two jobs on campus while enrolling in five courses.
At Columbia University in upper Manhattan, Amelia Colban, 20, a freshman and first-generation college student from San Diego, said she worried about picking up
“unanticipated costs when spending time around people with more flexible budgets.”
At Brown University, sophomore Viet Nguyen is trying to help students cope with homesickness amid other problems. “A lot of the first generation students do come from lower social economic backgrounds, so they can’t afford to have their parents to fly out [to visit] during Thanksgiving weekends, or to have their parents fly in to help them move in” to campus housing.
Viet Nguyen, 20, was born in the U.S. after his parents moved here from Vietnam.
Nguyen and Doglio are the co-presidents of Brown’s First-Generation Student Group, an organization that offers resources including counseling, and Google hangout to help first-generation students at Brown connect with each other.
Both Nguyen and Doglio also take part at 1vyG, an initiative created by first-generation students at Brown in January 2014 to help first-generation students at elite schools deal with the socio-economic gap between themselves and their classmates. It holds annual conferences for student representatives and conducts research to identify the best practices for first-generation students.
1vyG is representative of a trend of student-founded organizations at institutions across the country. Student members of 1vyG span eight university campuses including Columbia, Cornell and Princeton.
Rubinoff, in a phone interview, said to help first-generation students feel more comfortable in both the social and academic settings, colleges and universities could look to peer influence. One example would be to establish a peer mentoring or a faculty mentoring program that helps connect younger students with upper classmen or professors who also come from underprivileged backgrounds.
Rubinoff started I’m First as a nonprofit online community in 2007. Its parent organization is the Center for Students Opportunity, which is based in Bethesda, Md.
I’m First has 141 full college partners and 47 associate partners. Rubinoff said more institutions are embracing the drive to support first-generation college students because of the diverse social-economic family circumstances that shape first-generation students. The website also serves as a search tool that helps locate supportive programs colleges offer for first-generation students.
“Many first-generation students struggle to relate to their professors and wouldn’t believe that many of their professors come from similar backgrounds,” Rubinoff said. “Some colleges have successfully identified their faculty and staff who are first generation, and develop programs to help their first-generation students. That’s wonderful and amazing.”
Grace Chan, communications coordinator of Questbridge, a nonprofit organization that links high achieving students from disadvantaged families with universities, said many of the kids she works with.
“come from environments where not a lot of students attend four-year colleges… When they are in that environment, it’s hard to see outside of that.”
Questbridge gives scholarships to students through its flagship National Match Program, which offers four-year scholarship program to low-income high school seniors and help them admit to selective colleges.
Rubinoff said several universities including University of Kentucky, MIT and University of Redland in California have robust support programs for first-generation students.
Despite the assets available to first-generation students, many of the first-timers struggle to navigate their way through the complex environment of higher education, especially when it comes to obtaining financial support and grappling a vigorous school curriculum.
Doreen Mohammed, 21, a senior who studies human rights at Columbia University, has experienced some of these challenges. Doubtlessly echoing the complaints of many college students, she finds the financial aid process confusing.
“There’s this appearance that we are here help and support you. Yet whenever you need help or support, you are always expected to go figure it out on your own,” said Mohammed, who grew up in Queens after herparents immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh in the 1980s.
Alex Espana, senior assistant dean at Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, said first-generation students at every school on the Columbia University campus have access to resources and support programs.
Both Doreen Mohammed and Amelia Colban belong to the First Generation Low Income Partnership in Columbia, a student group established to “create a safe space” for first generation students. “Knowing people in similar situations really open doors. Because having lack of financial access could cripple people,” said Colban.
For Doglio, self-assurance is also a huge part of being a first-generation student.
“You need to know that you deserved to be at your school. You deserved to have the features that are available to you. That professors and TA that are available to you, you deserve their attention, that’s a big part for a lot of students,” said Doglio.