2021 NSE First-Gen Sprint Session

Lori Romano Author

05/14/2021 Added

44 Plays

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Information about first-generation student support at Nebraska.

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[00:00:12.475]Hi, my name is Lori Romano and I'm the
[00:00:14.675]Director of the Center for Academic
[00:00:16.435]Success and Transition, or CAST, at the
[00:00:18.736]University of Nebraska - Lincoln. I'm here
[00:00:21.331]today on behalf of the CAST office and the
[00:00:23.800]Office of Academic Success and
[00:00:25.884]Intercultural Services, or OASIS, to talk
[00:00:28.932]to you about first-generation student
[00:00:30.928]support at Nebraska. First of all, let's
[00:00:33.683]talk about what does it mean to be a
[00:00:36.122]first-generation student. A first-gen
[00:00:38.164]student is a student whose parents or
[00:00:40.116]guardians have not earned a 4-year degree.
[00:00:42.258]So, what this means, there's really no
[00:00:44.402]simple definition. First-gen students come
[00:00:46.753]from a wide variety of backgrounds and
[00:00:49.298]with different levels of experience. Some
[00:00:51.637]students know some things about college.
[00:00:54.459]Maybe they do have a sibling or a parent
[00:00:56.973]that has a little bit of college or went
[00:00:59.308]to school for a little while. And then we
[00:01:02.448]have students like me, who never even
[00:01:04.368]stepped foot on a college campus
[00:01:06.556]before they were actually going and doing
[00:01:09.441]college visits. I remember the only time I
[00:01:12.049]really spent on a college campus was to go
[00:01:14.346]to a Red/White Game at UNL. Why does
[00:01:17.660]first-gen support matter? Why does it
[00:01:19.565]matter if you're a first-generation
[00:01:21.517]student? The thing about being first-gen
[00:01:23.521]is, college is hard. It's hard for
[00:01:25.848]everybody. It's one of the biggest
[00:01:27.439]transitions you'll ever go through in your
[00:01:29.687]life. When you have parents or guardians
[00:01:32.011]or other family who have been there and
[00:01:34.357]done that, you kind of know some of the
[00:01:37.364]rules. It's almost like you speak the
[00:01:39.771]college language. Where a first-gen
[00:01:42.584]student, you just might not know what you
[00:01:44.982]don't know. You might have a lot more
[00:01:47.213]questions about things that other students
[00:01:49.329]seem to just kind of know already. So what
[00:01:52.198]does it mean for students and parents to
[00:01:56.398]be first-gen. Number one, we want you to
[00:01:59.447]know it's okay to ask questions. You don't
[00:02:01.869]know what you don't know. Like I said,
[00:02:04.930]transitioning to college, this is one of
[00:02:07.313]the biggest transitions you're ever going
[00:02:08.982]to make in your life, and there's going to
[00:02:11.170]be a lot of things that are just brand new
[00:02:13.598]that you're experiencing for the first
[00:02:15.994]time. For first-gen students, you can't go
[00:02:17.933]and ask your family about it because your
[00:02:20.621]parents maybe didn't go to college, so
[00:02:22.545]they might now know what the Bursar's
[00:02:25.043]office is. They may not know how to help
[00:02:27.202]you figure out how to pay your tuition
[00:02:29.552]bill. They may not know how to help you
[00:02:31.831]find tutoring on campus, and that's okay.
[00:02:34.420]Offices like OASIS and CAST exist because
[00:02:37.052]we are here to help students through those
[00:02:39.581]things. Students are going to have to
[00:02:42.036]learn things like, how do I set goals,
[00:02:44.668]how do I get myself organized and keep
[00:02:46.311]myself motivated to do my work and to
[00:02:49.149]go to classes. Your students are also
[00:02:51.869]going to be here building a network.
[00:02:53.944]They're going to find people on campus,
[00:02:56.102]find different mentors and faculty and
[00:02:58.053]staff who are going to help them through
[00:02:59.781]this. Again, I was a first-gen student and
[00:03:02.250]if it wasn't for the faculty and staff
[00:03:04.368]mentors that I had, I never would have
[00:03:06.514]made it through college. The one thing
[00:03:08.686]that we want both students and parents
[00:03:10.432]to know is that there is always someone
[00:03:12.248]here at UNL who can help. The OASIS office
[00:03:14.600]and CAST office are some really great
[00:03:17.426]places to start getting connected.
[00:03:19.898]So first, let's start with OASIS. The
[00:03:22.320]OASIS office is all about student success.
[00:03:26.003]They want to promote academic excellence
[00:03:28.327]on campus and also raise awareness of
[00:03:31.121]diversity. They do this through having
[00:03:33.931]different social events and social
[00:03:35.914]engagements as well as a lot of different
[00:03:38.350]student support services. The OASIS office
[00:03:40.927]is open to all students on campus, with
[00:03:43.246]an emphasis on students of color, students
[00:03:45.496]who identify as low-income, and
[00:03:47.998]first-generation students.
[00:03:50.583]One of the best things about OASIS is they
[00:03:52.814]have a student success program. If you
[00:03:55.048]enroll in the OASIS student success
[00:03:57.118]program, you will be paired up with an
[00:03:59.398]OASIS staff member and a peer mentor. You
[00:04:02.045]will take an 11-week, 0-credit,
[00:04:05.118]pass/no pass seminar. There is free
[00:04:08.032]tutoring offered in the OASIS Study Studio
[00:04:11.245]and you can gain personal and professional
[00:04:14.244]skills for college and beyond. There are
[00:04:16.549]also a lot of diversity and social events
[00:04:18.902]and a variety of leadership opportunities
[00:04:21.135]to get you really involved and connected
[00:04:23.415]on campus.
[00:04:25.428]All of you with your students sat through
[00:04:29.007]a session with the CAST staff this morning
[00:04:31.087]and you learned a little bit about what we
[00:04:32.684]do. We really believe that the students
[00:04:34.919]are the stars of their stories here on
[00:04:36.869]campus, and our job is to be a strong
[00:04:38.809]supporting cast, which is why we love our
[00:04:40.762]office name. While we focus a lot on
[00:04:43.527]academic success skills, things like time
[00:04:45.950]management and study skills and reading
[00:04:47.963]and note-taking, we also want to make sure
[00:04:49.796]that we are helping your students
[00:04:52.061]transition into college, so that first
[00:04:53.998]year is really important, but we also want
[00:04:56.202]to make sure we're supporting your
[00:04:58.685]students throughout their time here, all
[00:05:00.607]the way to graduation and whatever they
[00:05:02.829]do beyond this. We make sure that we get
[00:05:04.694]your students connected to other resources
[00:05:06.496]on campus and we try to create a welcoming
[00:05:09.168]environment where they feel like they can
[00:05:11.048]come in and ask us questions at any time.
[00:05:13.296]For our first-generation students
[00:05:15.427]specifically, we have our First Husker
[00:05:17.410]Program, which is specifically-designed
[00:05:19.894]for first-generation students. Our First
[00:05:22.618]Huskers are invited to arrive on campus
[00:05:25.779]before everyone else and participate in
[00:05:28.325]a 4-day foundational event. Our event this
[00:05:31.119]year starts on Sunday, August 15. Students
[00:05:33.869]who are living in Res Halls get priority
[00:05:36.117]move-in on that Sunday. Students then
[00:05:38.718]participate in a 12-week seminar course
[00:05:41.145]that is taught by an Academic Success
[00:05:43.716]Coach and a team of peer mentors. And in
[00:05:46.099]that course, we really dig into talking
[00:05:48.600]about our own personal identities, who we
[00:05:51.543]are, why we're here in college in the
[00:05:54.084]first place, what are some of our goals,
[00:05:56.379]and how do we get there. The Coaches
[00:05:58.732]are going to make sure that they engage
[00:06:01.183]with your students every single week and
[00:06:03.683]again create an environment where students
[00:06:06.094]are really comfortable asking questions
[00:06:08.401]and learning about how to be the best
[00:06:10.647]college students they can be.
[00:06:12.663]One of the other things that we like
[00:06:14.996]to talk to students about is how do you
[00:06:17.215]get involved in the larger first-gen
[00:06:19.447]community, because almost 1/4 of our
[00:06:21.783]entire campus is first-gen. Even our
[00:06:23.114]Chancellor Ronnie Green was a
[00:06:25.544]first-generation student, so if you see
[00:06:27.861]this first-gen logo around campus, which
[00:06:30.082]is in the bottom left of your screen, that
[00:06:32.330]means that this is a specific First-Gen
[00:06:34.946]Nebraska event. Or if you see someone
[00:06:38.968]wearing a button that says first-gen, or
[00:06:42.195]maybe a t-shirt that has first-gen on
[00:06:44.615]it, or there might be a sign hanging
[00:06:46.914]on someone's door, that means that person
[00:06:49.161]who works in that office or who's wearing
[00:06:51.567]that button was first-gen too. There's a
[00:06:53.864]huge community here on campus. We
[00:06:56.317]have a lot of different events through
[00:06:58.652]First Gen Nebraska, things like the
[00:07:01.364]Welcome Back Waffles event, which
[00:07:03.727]we have typically every Spring, where it's
[00:07:06.243]all-you-can-eat waffles right when the
[00:07:08.344]Spring semester starts, and it's a chance
[00:07:10.364]for first-gen faculty and staff to meet
[00:07:12.230]first-gen students. There's also a
[00:07:14.433]First-Gen RSO, which stands for
[00:07:16.518]Recognized Student Organization, which is
[00:07:18.708]basically a club. Our student
[00:07:20.450]First-Gen RSO has been active now for
[00:07:22.878]about 3 years. I'm one of the Advisors for
[00:07:24.994]that RSO and the students have a lot
[00:07:27.818]of fun just getting together on campus
[00:07:30.243]and just doing things like visiting the
[00:07:32.831]Dairy Store over on East Campus for some
[00:07:35.510]free ice cream. All of the first-gen
[00:07:37.830]events are fun and free, and this is a
[00:07:40.211]really great way for you to tap into the
[00:07:42.580]larger first-gen community on campus.
[00:07:45.196]Last but not least, the OASIS and CAST
[00:07:48.581]offices are here to support you as
[00:07:51.377]first-gen families and your students as
[00:07:53.697]first-gen students. Our contact
[00:07:55.681]information is on the screen. Feel free
[00:07:58.564]to call us, log onto our websites, email
[00:08:01.124]us anytime.
[00:08:03.013]We're here to help you. We're here to
[00:08:05.057]support you. Welcome to Nebraska.

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2021 NSE First-Gen Sprint Session

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