At the Intersection: Understanding and Supporting First-Generation Students

The experiences of first-generation college students are not monolithic. The nexus of identities matter, and this book is intended to challenge the reader to explore what it means to be a first-generation college student in higher education. Designed for use in classrooms and for use by the higher education practitioner on a college campus today, At the Intersections will be of value to the reader throughout their professional career.

 

The book is divided into four parts with chapters of research and theory interspersed with thought pieces to provide personal stories to integrate the research and theory into lived experience. Each thought piece ends with questions to inspire readers to engage with the topic.

 

Part One: Who is a First-generation College Student? provides the reader an entrée into the topic, with up-to-date data on both four-year and two-year colleges. Part One ends with a thought piece that asks the reader to pull together some of the big ideas before moving on to look more closely at students’ identities.

 

Part Two: The Intersection of Identity shares the research, experience and thoughts of authors in relation to the individual and overlapping identities of LGBT, low-income, white, African-American, Latinx, Native American, undocumented, female, and male students who are all also first-generation college students.

 

Part Three: Programs and Practices is an introduction to practices, policies and programs across the country. This section offers promise and direction for future work as institutions try to find a successful array of approaches to make the campus an inclusive place for the diverse population of first-generation college students.

Rob Longwell-Grice, EdD is currently the director of recruitment and scholarship services for the School of Education at UW Milwaukee. Rob was featured in the documentary film, “First Gens,” released in the fall of 2019. Rob is a first-generation college student and his dissertation was a case study of working class, first-generation white males. The study looked at the interplay of social class and first-generation status.

Hope Longwell-Grice, PhD, is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.