Whether you are embarking on your first professional position or considering advancing your career, navigating the job search process can be filled with moments of excitement and trepidation. This program provides helpful strategies for participants to consider as they take the next steps in their professional journey and seek employment in student affairs. Learn the skills to transform your job search and become employers' top candidate!

Mid-level administrators often believe they have the hardest jobs within their organization. They are pulled in multiple directions by multiple people with multiple agendas and multiple deadlines. And yet, they do not have as many professional development opportunities designed for their specific needs as entry level professionals and senior-level leaders do. In this program, presenters explore the knowledge, skills, and abilities of successful mid-level administration as well as share advice on ways to chart your own success as a mid-level administrator in student affairs.

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While large numbers of current undergraduate students identify as first-generation, this population continues to earn baccalaureate degrees less often than continuing-generation peers. Yet, first-generation students are shown to have stronger academic and completion outcomes in environments where their needs are understood and thoughtful relationships are established. This live briefing will focus on opportunities for student and academic affairs professionals of all functional areas and levels to become individual and institutional advocates for first-generation student success.

First-generation college student: “a student for whom neither parent attended college or a student for whom neither parent attained a baccalaureate degree” (Ward, Siegel & Davenport, 2012, p. 3). First-generation college students are more likely than their continuing-generation college students to have pre-college characteristics that ultimately place them at an immediate disadvantage to college success (Stebleton, Soria, & Huesman, 2014). However, first-generation college students and higher education leaders have the opportunity to reframe these pre-college characteristics and shift the paradigm to view them as ways to manage stress and ultimately thrive and succeed within the college environment (Stephens, Townsend, Hamedani, Destin & Manzo, 2015). Before first-generation college students even begin attending their first college course, a number of factors will already impede their likelihood of succeeding when compared to their continuing-generation peers (Somers, Woodhouse, & Cofer, 2004). Engle, Bermeo, and O’Brien (2006) stated that “Preparing for and going to college is a “leap of faith” for these students because no one else in their families has done it before them” (p. 5).  

Thus, first-generation college students commonly have no or lower aspirations to pursue a postsecondary education compared to continuing-generation college students (Engle, Bermeo & O’Brien, 2006).

Colleges and universities have an opportunity to shift the paradigm of support for first-generation college students from a deficit approach.  First-generation college students take great pride in succeeding and graduating (Gibbons & Woodside, 2014). However, first-generation students “who dropped out of college believed they needed to figure out how to do college on their own” (Lightweis, 2014, p. 466). Instead, when higher education institutions shift this paradigm, they have an opportunity to not only improve retention rates but also provide a holistic support system for student success. According to Tibbetts, Harackiewicz, Canning, Boston, Priniski, & Hyde (2016), “When the university culture was depicted as more interdependent (with an emphasis on working together, participating in collaborative research, and learning from others), first-generation students performed as well” as continuing-generation college students (p. 636).

This live briefing will focus on opportunities for student and academic affairs professionals of all functional areas and levels to become individual and institutional advocates for first-generation student success.

Learning Outcomes

By participanting in this session, participants will:

• reflect on how they and their institution currently serve first-generation students;
• navigate the shift from deficit to asset-based approaches; and
• construct a plan to become an individual and institutional advocate for first-generation college students.

Navigating higher education as a first-generation college students can be challenging. Becoming faculty and identifying as first-gen adds a contextual layer to the higher education journey that must be discussed and explored!

Presenters will share testimonials and personal narratives about how their intersecting identities, personal backgrounds, and life experiences inform their pedagogy and research practices. They will also share how identifying as first-gen continues to influence their academic identities. As such, the live briefing will focus on the lived experiences of navigating the professoriate to underscore the ways in which academic borderlands have impacted their lives, and especially how they have confronted, challenged, and even crossed these borders. The aim here is to highlight their agency, strengths, ingenuity, rather than to focus on any types of assumed deficiencies.

Learning Outcomes

By attending this session, participants will:

• benefit from “lessons learned” shared by presenters;
• find affirmation and strength in their identities as first-gen (or those who support them); and
• examine first-generation advocacy amid hierarchies of power in academia.

As an ever-increasing number of first-generation students choose to pursue graduate and professional degrees, institutions and student affairs practitioners must respond to the unique needs of these students. This presentation will highlight how colleges and universities can improve their support and programming by recognizing the inherent challenges our institutions present.

The presenters − each of whom has developed and led programming for first-generation graduate/professional students − will discuss 1) the various definitions of a first-generation graduate or professional student, 2) the gaps in knowledge in current research and practice, and 3) ways to build programs and resources through strategic partnerships throughout the institution.

Learning Outcomes

By participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

• identify and recognize the need for support services for first-generation students at the graduate and professional school level;
• recognize the differences between supporting graduate and professional school students; and
• take away examples of models and best practices to their campuses.

Are you finding success connecting with first-generation college students to engage in your institution's programs and services?

This webinar features practitioners leading first-generation college student programs from El Camino College, Santa Clara University and the University of California, Los Angeles sharing their experiences utilizing social media to connect with students, promoting their work on campus and across the broader community. They will share lessons learned and strategies they have developed while expanding their social media presence across a range of platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Learning Outcomes

By participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

• receive an overview of social media platforms and how they can be used to advance first-generation college student programs;
• learn how unique social media platforms can be used to achieve specific programmatic goals;
• understand strategies for starting and sustaining a social media presence; and
• grasp how social media platforms can increase attendance and raise awareness of programs and services.

In anticipation of colleges and universities continuing remote instruction for fall 2020, some newly admitted first-year students and their families may consider attending local community colleges. While these options may appear to be cheaper, more convenient, or more practical, students, especially first-generation college students, may not have a wholistic picture of community college admissions and the process of deferring or delaying admission to a four-year institution. Panelists will bring nuance to this conversation, offer how institutions can offer greater transparency, and share helpful considerations for informed decision-making during this time. Moderated by La’Tonya Rease Miles, Ph.D., Executive Director of First Year Experience & Strategic Initiatives, UCLA.

The VA reports that 62 percent of student veterans identify as a first-generation college student (defined as neither parent completed a four-year college degree). The presenters will share information about first-gen student veteran experiences including common characteristics (through an asset-based lens), barriers to success, and proactive strategies for meeting the unique needs of first-generation student veterans. This live briefing will also share collaborative ideas surrounding First-Generation College Celebration, which is observed annually on November 8.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• understand the intersectionality of first-generation, student veteran identity;
• recognize the characteristics of first-generation student veterans;
• learn ways to identify and proactively meet the needs of first-generation student veterans; and
• explore strategies to advance and improve the experiences of first-generation student veterans on campus.

On January 21, 2020, the Washington State Department of Health confirmed the nation’s first case of COVID-19 (Inslee, 2020). Less than two months later, university officials from across the U.S. suspended face-to-face classes and moved instruction to a virtual platform. By mid-March, universities faced an unfathomable mass exodus of students from campuses. These university-wide closures prompted a collaboration between researchers and college administrators to assess the impact of COVID-19 on first-generation college students (FGCS) across six universities: Bucknell University, Florida A&M University, Rowan University, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Pittsburgh.

In Fall 2020, the research team received 584 completed surveys and 24 interviews from FGCS located across five universities. In this presentation, Dr. Davis will use the data from the mixed-methods study to explore the following two research questions: (1) What does college persistence to graduation look like for FGCS living through the COVID-19 pandemic?  And, (2) How, if at all, does COVID-19 exacerbate already existing barriers? The end of the presentation will be reserved for troubleshooting ideas on supporting FGCS during and after the pandemic.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• assess the extent FGCS are impacted by COVID-19 in school; and
• discuss the varying supports FGCS will need during and after the pandemic.