Supporting First-Generation College Student Success

Lisa Nunn—sociology professor, director of the Center for Educational Excellence at the University of San Diego, and author of College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life (2021)—asserts that FGCS’ self-reliance often results in them reaching out for help only as a last resort. To ameliorate this, she suggests reaching in: establishing mentorship routines that support students long before students finally reach out. Nunn states that preemptive strategies, such as those suggested throughout this guide, help FGCS students navigate higher education more efficiently, minimizing the setbacks from trial and error and saving time by avoiding strategies that ultimately yield few benefits (Nunn, 2021).

Julie Carballo, Assistant Dean of Students for First Generation and Military Affiliated Initiatives at North Central College and Founding Director of Cardinal First, recommends that instructors encourage students to view “help-seeking” as a regular practice of successful students, not only struggling students. She suggests reminding students that resources such as The Writing Place and Academic Support and Learning Advancement (ASLA)—while free to access—are actually services already paid for by tuition, fees, grants, and scholarships.

Jesus Galvan, Assistant Director of Northwestern’s Student Enrichment Services, emphasizes that empowering students to advocate for themselves is key to accountability and success. He shares several ways this can be cultivated in the classroom. To define and establish accountability, instructors and students can set clear expectations for communication, and instructors can remind students of important considerations as they approach deadlines. Throughout the course, instructors can normalize and recognize unexpected challenges and conflicting schedules students may face, encouraging them to reach out for the support they may need. This approach helps to keep lines of communication open, allowing instructors and students to work together to prevent or resolve potential issues.

Although FGCS typically have experience and developed skills when it comes to balancing family and work-related responsibilities, they can benefit from further guidance in developing time management and study skills for an academic context. Taking time to help FGCS envision ways to align their professional skills and their educational skills is another important form of anticipatory socialization that will better prepare FGCS for future career success. Planning how and when one will accomplish academic assignments is essential to negotiating schedules and other responsibilities, and many students can benefit from learning how to block off dedicated time for academic work. Scaffolding assignments by breaking large projects into smaller, sequenced component parts is a useful way to model this in the classroom. 

Additionally, encouraging or incorporating peer support can help students to recognize the value of peer study and prompt them to schedule time for it. It is especially valuable to incorporate peer support during class time, as many FGCS have outside commitments that make it difficult or impossible to connect with peers outside of class.

Positive interactions with professors, peers, and staff are an important aspect of students’ academic success, motivation, and retention (Watts et al, 2023). Keeton et al (2022) assert that “faculty-student interactions are central to shaping social and academic outcomes for college students, particularly for FGCS and students of color.” Consider the roles you play as a formal or informal adviser/mentor and how you can direct students to resources, such as conference-funded scholarships, that they might not know about. For instance, Northwestern provides funding that offset the financial barriers of valuable opportunities including unpaid internships (Summer Internship Grant Program), study abroad programs (Summer Aid & Scholarships), and undergraduate research (Academic Year Undergraduate Research Grants and Undergraduate Research Assistant Program).

Let students know that office hours are student hours: a good opportunity to discuss scholarship opportunities, professional networking, and available resources in addition to course content and study strategies. You may also provide examples of questions students might come to office hours with. Consider making office hours a potential course requirement, and ensure office hours are accessible to students who live and/or work off campus by holding a range of office hours, including opportunities to meet virtually and in the evening.

Examine the hidden curriculum of your course and make it explicit. Examples include your expectations for students, how you assess participation and in-class discussion, and how you will grade particular assignments. Rubrics are an effective way of making expectations and criteria transparent. Visit our Grading and Rubrics webpage for details and examples. Rachel Gable, author of The Hidden Curriculum (2021) writes: “At the very least, making the hidden curriculum explicit will provide many first-generation college students with a clearer guide to ‘how it’s done.’ Even better, to make the hidden curriculum explicit by identifying, examining and debating it in public is to acknowledge that the rules we assume to be ‘how it’s done’ can be redrafted.”

Reach out to students early in the course and be explicit about connecting them with campus resources (Keeton et al, 2022). Consider including not only a list of resources in your syllabus, but short explanations of what they are and what they can do for students (Nunn, 2021). Throughout the course, remind students of those resources in class. For instance, consider displaying a specific resource website on the board as students come into class or saying, “Your final paper is due in two weeks. This is a good time to make an appointment at the Writing Center, where they can help you develop an outline, review a draft, or proofread your final version.”

There are several ways to improve the likelihood that students will take advantage of such resources. When introducing resources, Julie Carballo suggests stating that the resources are included in the cost of tuition and are tools utilized by successful students, not just struggling ones. She also suggests providing a warm handoff, a “simple and personalized way to introduce someone to new connections and thus broaden their network” (Felten et al., 2023).  An instructor, staff member, or mentor can facilitate a warm handoff by personally introducing a student to another faculty/staff member, either virtually or in person. Consider having students visit a writing center or tutoring session as a potential course requirement, encouraging students to take advantage of these resources whether or not they feel they are doing well in the class.

Transparency and clear communication benefit all students. In the classroom, Keeton et al (2022) advise making expectations about the syllabus, assignments, and classroom engagement clear. This eliminates guesswork and allows students to plan accordingly. At the degree level, pathways to degree completion must be clear, and program outcomes should be relevant to the world (The Boyer Commission, 2022). Clarity, however, does not mean policies must be rigid; instead, articulate flexible policies, such as those on accepting late work, in your syllabus. Michael Fitzpatrick reports that Northwestern students have expressed appreciation for such clear, flexible policies.

To communicate with students clearly and effectively, Keeton et al suggest using multiple means of communication to reach students, especially those showing signs of struggle (2022). Such modes include email, Canvas announcements, and in person conversations before or after class. Consider scheduling check-ins with students at key points throughout the course (before the drop date, midterm, and so forth) so students can make informed decisions about whether or not they will be successful in the course. At these check-ins, faculty can provide support and clear guidance on what steps students would need to take to succeed in the course.

Scaffolding is “a process of strategically breaking assignments into steps that sequence and support learning” (Keeton et al, 2022). Breaking down assignments in this way allows students to practice the building blocks that compose more complex assignments while also providing regular opportunities for feedback. Scaffolding can also be applied to lesson plans and course development as instructors can scaffold learning experiences that bridge preexisting student knowledge with course goals for new learning. By connecting new content with preexisting knowledge, students gain a better capacity to articulate their deepened understanding.

“Equitable assessment should work to ensure that learning outcomes, and how we assess those outcomes, are done in ways which do not privilege certain students over others; that data-informed changes are not benefiting one student group over others; and that assessment efforts are not conducted with only one dominant perspective or voice leading the process” (Montenegro & Jankowski, 2020). Using an equitable assessment framework, provide regular assessment and feedback so students can chart their progress and identify areas for growth as early as possible. Searle’s website has robust resources on Assessment.

Student engagement in social and educationally purposeful activities supports first-year students to achieve higher grades and overall satisfaction, as well as persistence to the second year of college” (Griffin et al, 2022). Because FGCS typically have less time to devote to extracurricular activities than their continuing-generation peers, consider incorporating social and educationally purposeful activities into your syllabus. For instance, consider carving out class time or time typically devoted to traditional homework assignments to attend a campus lecture, museum exhibit, or campus production. Look for opportunities directly related to course content that allow students to engage with one another and the campus community.

To encourage students to make use of resources to engage in campus activities, Julie Carballo suggests articulating the value of engagement on campus in terms of leadership, network building, and skill building—areas of development that prepare students for future employment, graduate school, and life after college. However, Jesus Galvan reminds us that time and money are often interrelated deterrents to engagement. Therefore, it is best that opportunities taking place outside of class time be both optional and free of charge. Northwestern’s Student Activities Assistance Fund provides support for activities that incur costs to students.

Supporting an integrated approach, collaborative learning has been demonstrated to deepen learning, promote student retention and self-esteem, improve critical thinking and metacognition, and to expose students to diverse perspectives (Qureshi et al, 2021). Collaborative learning may occur in pairs or groups, and examples of activities include small group discussion, peer editing, simulation activities, and the use of collaborative technologies such as Perusall (available through Canvas). Read more about inclusive teaching and collaborative learning in Principle 7 of Northwestern University’s Principles of Inclusive Teaching.

Instructors often have little control over the spaces they and their students use on campus. However, faculty members—especially those in leadership positions such as Chair or Director of Graduate Studies—can advocate for how spaces are created and used. Architects, interior designers, and university administrators recognize the needs of FGCS students, asserting that campuses benefit from accessible kitchenettes, showers, and laundry facilities (Edelman, 2023).

Consider whether students in your departments or programs have access to places to store food brought from home; secure belongings, books, and winter gear; comfortably express breast milk, and so forth. Share resources available within your departments and around campus. For instance, Northwestern has lactation support and rooms across campus, like the one located at the Searle Center.

Exploring how students’ education, work, and future careers benefit their communities helps to mitigate achievement guilt, making Community Engaged Learning particularly impactful. The Boyer Report, a nationally recognized agenda for U.S. research universities to enhance undergraduate education, shares that students benefit from early introduction to career opportunities, emphasizing that the ability to pictures themselves in a career and see the trajectory from their education into that career increases motivation toward degree completion.

In Teaching Across Cultural Strengths (2016), education scholar-practitioners Alicia Chávez and Susan Longerbeam delineate a spectrum of cultural epistemologies that range from individuated (individualistic) cultures to integrated cultures (those that value collaborative, holistic, contextualized learning). They argue that western academia traditionally values individuated learning (e.g., the preference for single-authored papers in many disciplines), warning that “students from integrated cultures and educational experiences find few of their own natural modes of learning within the highly individuated educational cultures of most college classes” (Chávez and Longerbeam, 2016). Honoring students’ cultural strengths and modes of learning bridges students’ college careers and lives outside of school, helping to ease possible feelings of disjuncture. Teaching Across Cultural Strengths offers practical advice for balancing both individuated and integrated approaches in the classroom. Additionally, Principle 3 of Northwestern University’s Principles of Inclusive Teaching provides asset-based teaching strategies which harness students’ cultural strengths.

High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are a set of eleven teaching and learning practices that have been empirically demonstrated to benefit educational engagement, learning, and persistence. Recognized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, these practices have especially significant gains for students whose demographic backgrounds have been historically underserved by higher education. Examples of HIPs include capstone courses and projects, community engaged learning, and common intellectual experiences such as those offered by Northwestern’s One Book. Learn more about the eleven practices on our High-Impact Practices focus area page.

Encourage students to acknowledge and take pride in their accomplishments, including maintaining solid grades, overcoming challenges, receiving scholarships and grants, being admitted to honor societies, and making the dean’s list. Developing self-awareness of personal accomplishments helps to maintain motivation, a key factor in student retention (Watts et al, 2023). Michael Fitzpatrick notes that this is especially important at an institution like Northwestern where there is much competition among the student body. He suggests that instructors remind students that there is no one perfect path to graduation, and individuals should determine their own way: the one that is best for them.