Knowledge Community Spotlight: Student Affairs Partnering with Academic Affairs

Supporting First Generation Students

First generation students are a growing population of students on our college campuses and it is important for every institution to review how they are supporting needs of these students. First generation students as defined by the Center for First Generation Student Success:

“…indicates first-generation students come from families where their biological parents did not complete a four-year college degree.”

What is your institution doing to support this growing population of students? There are many opportunities for members of the Student Affairs Partnering with Academic Affairs to think about how we work together support students, programs and research in general, but what are we doing to support our first generation student across our region. NASPA has partnered with The Suder Foundation to support the Center for First Generation Student Success to engage in research and best practices across the nation as we continue to support our first generation students. The center has a lot of great resources that are free for all institutions to use and support their programs. Check out their website for more information.

https://firstgen.naspa.org/

We also have some institutions within our region that are being recognized as First Forward Advisory Institutions and First Forward Cohort Institutions, which is a new program to support best practices across the nation. https://firstgen.naspa.org/programs-and-services/first-forward/first-forward

First Forward - Advisory Recognition – Kansas State University

First Forward – Institution

• Colorado State University
• Doane University
• Metropolitan State University of Denver
• University of Kansas
• University of Nebraska-Omaha
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Washburn University
• Wichita State University

Let’s celebrate these institutions for the great work they are doing in our region to support first generation students on their campuses. What are you doing? Feel free to send me an email of the best practices that you are doing on your campus, so I can share them out to our group in the future [email protected]