Consider these key facts about first-generation (first-gen) college students in the United States, according to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA):
- Fifty-six percent of all postsecondary students in the U.S. have parents who don’t hold bachelor’s degrees.
- Fewer first-generation college graduates use career-planning services like career fairs and resume assistance than continuing-generation college graduates.
- First-generation college students are more likely to come from low-income or minority backgrounds and to be parents, caregivers, veterans or first-generation Americans.
- Twenty-eight percent of first-gen students are 30 or older.
- Forty-six percent of first-gen undergraduate college students participate in extracurricular clubs, compared to 65% of continuing-generation students.
- Fewer first-generation college students hold formal leadership roles, conduct research projects with faculty members, complete paid internships and study abroad than continuing-generation college students.
At Santa Clara University, first-generation students are identified as undergraduate students whose parents did not complete a four-year college/university degree. There has been a steady increase of first-gen students and as of 2024, there are over 1600 students who identify as first-gen (18% of the student population).
| Year | Total First Year Student Enrollment | Total First Year First Gen Student Enrollment | Percentage of First-Gen Students |
|
Fall 2015 |
1261 |
159 |
12.60% |
|
Fall 2016 |
1317 |
154 |
11.60% |
|
Fall 2017 |
1406 |
147 |
10.40% |
|
Fall 2018 |
1392 |
182 |
13% |
|
Fall 2019 |
1391 |
133 |
9.50% |
|
Fall 2020 |
1259 |
122 |
9.60% |
|
Fall 2021 |
1554 |
178 |
11.40% |
|
Fall 2022 |
1641 |
246 |
14.90% |
|
Fall 2023 |
- |
192 |
15% |
|
Fall 2024 |
1612 |
290 |
18% |
Belonging at SCU
Extensive research shows that having a sense of academic belonging is positively associated with student well-being, academic engagement, and performance, especially for students from historically underrepresented groups (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Walton & Cohen, 2007; 2011 Yeager et al., 2016; Murdock-Perriera et al., 2019; Murphy et al., 2020). At SCU, students who reported a higher sense of belonging led to a higher sense of flourishing.
In 2023, SCU Educational Assessment conducted a study on student belonging, which found that marginalized student groups, such as those of color, lower socioeconomic status, first-generation students, and students with disabilities, reported lower levels of belonging across multiple areas. Commuter and transfer students also faced challenges in establishing connections. These findings highlight the compounded difficulties faced by students with intersecting marginalized identities and the need for targeted interventions to improve their sense of belonging.
Importantly, first-gen and limited income students expressed a lower sense of belonging in institutional, peer, classroom, and major fields as measured in the report. Further statistical analyses showed that there is considerable overlap among the students who identify with more than one historically marginalized group. Students of color (especially, LatinX, black, and multiracial students) are significantly more likely to come from lower-income families and the same groups have a proportionately higher number of first-generation students compared to their white peers. Thus, it is important to factor in multiple, overlapping identities that can affect belonging.
Strategies to Foster First-Gen Student Belonging
Lisa Nunn’s (2021) book College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life provides strategies for increasing three types of belonging:
- Academic belonging: students feel confident, comfortable, respected, and valued in their courses, they are adequately prepared and appropriately challenged, and feel empowered to utilize resources like tutoring, office hours, and writing assistance.
- Social belonging: students have people they call friends, they are socially connected to one or more groups on campus.
- Campus-community belonging: students feel “at home” on campus, and campus reflects their identity(ies) and preferences.
Accordingly, how can we as Instructors design and cultivate inclusive classrooms in which first-generation students in particular feel prepared, confident, valued, and that like they belong? Below are a list of reflection points and strategies to integrate into course design and teaching to help foster belonging for students:
- If you teach intro-level courses, are they pitched towards people new to the material or as a review of what students “should have learned in high school”?
- What are ways you can “reach in” to your students? Are there ways that you can provide regular check-ins with your students? For example, in 33 Strategies, Nunn(2018) suggests selecting five students to reach out to each week for office hours.
- Nunn (2021) cautions us to not wait for first-gen students to go to their RA, CAPS, or professor office hours with concerns, since they are impressively self-reliant. Therefore, what structures can you create to help support your students and minimize ineffective trial and error? How can you facilitate connections for students on campus, such as the HUB Writing Center, Library, Drahmann Center, or Wellness Center with clear descriptions of what each of these resources provides, where they are located, and how to access them? Even better, can you “push in” these resources into your classroom by asking for a class visit or workshop from resources on campus applicable to your course (i.e., library workshop, Academic Technology tutorial, speaker from Drahmann about services provided, etc.)?
Additionally, a recent review of belonging scholarship by the Institute for Higher Education (2024) found that promoting a growth mindset and demystifying the hidden curriculum are two important areas in fostering belonging for first-gen students. Specifically, Instructors can promote a growth mindset by normalizing challenges, motivating students, and providing a diversity of assignments (including low stakes assignments) to demonstrate student knowledge. For example, Canning, White, and Davis (2024) found that post-exam email communication that focuses on growth mindset and practical advice for how to improve learning can close the achievement gap between first-gen and continuing gen students.
Similarly, higher education is entrenched with implicit and assumed unwritten norms and processes, which can present obstacles to belonging and achievement for first-gen students. Therefore, to foster belonging also includes demystifying the unwritten norms and bureaucratic processes apart of college life by minimizing the use of confusing language, providing definitions and explanations for terms in class, and dedicating time in class time to discuss study strategies, how to access and use course materials, and ways to succeed in your course.
Additional resources
- First Gen Forward
- LEAD Scholars Program
- SCU First-Gen Student Orgs
- Visit our Faculty Development DRT pages on Inclusive Teaching, Building Classroom Community, and Engagement
- Nunn, Lisa. (2019). 33 Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation students (ebook from our library) (summary)
- Nunn, Lisa. (2021). College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life
- Nichols, Laura. (2020). The Journey Before Us: First-Generation Pathways from Middle School to College.
- FLI Forward Conference
Page Authors: Cara Chiaraluce, Teaching Professor and Department Internship Coordinator, Sociology and Faculty Associate
Last Updated: October 30, 2024