2022 First-Gen Sprint Session video

Lori Romano Author

05/13/2022 Added

6 Plays

Description

Information about first-generation student support at Nebraska.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:12.497]Hi, my name is Lori Romano and I'm the
[00:00:14.895]Director of the Center for Academic
[00:00:16.879]Success and Transition, or CAST, at the
[00:00:19.161]University of Nebraska - Lincoln. I'm here
[00:00:21.421]today on behalf of the CAST office and the
[00:00:23.796]Office of Academic Success and
[00:00:26.114]Intercultural Services, or OASIS, to talk
[00:00:28.213]to you about first-generation student
[00:00:30.530]support at Nebraska. First of all, let's
[00:00:33.708]talk about what does it mean to be a
[00:00:36.475]first-generation student. A first-gen
[00:00:38.308]student is a student whose parents or
[00:00:40.608]guardians have not earned a 4-year degree.
[00:00:42.809]So, what this means, there's really no
[00:00:45.375]simple definition. First-gen students come
[00:00:47.325]from a wide variety of backgrounds and
[00:00:49.925]with different levels of experience. Some
[00:00:51.726]students know some things about college.
[00:00:54.309]Maybe they do have a sibling or a parent
[00:00:57.075]that has a little bit of college or went
[00:00:59.525]to school for a little while. And then we
[00:01:02.408]have students like me, who never even
[00:01:04.375]stepped foot on a college campus
[00:01:06.291]before they were actually going and doing
[00:01:08.542]college visits. I remember the only time I
[00:01:11.725]really spent on a college campus was to go
[00:01:14.475]to a Red/White Game at UNL. Why does
[00:01:17.109]first-gen support matter? Why does it
[00:01:19.143]matter if you're a first-generation
[00:01:20.592]student? The thing about being first-gen
[00:01:23.442]is, college is hard. It's hard for
[00:01:25.908]everybody. It's one of the biggest
[00:01:27.642]transitions you'll ever go through in your
[00:01:29.592]life. When you have parents or guardians
[00:01:31.726]or other family who have been there and
[00:01:33.892]done that, you kind of know some of the
[00:01:37.043]rules. It's almost like you speak the
[00:01:39.227]college language. Where a first-gen
[00:01:42.409]student, you just might not know what you
[00:01:44.925]don't know. You might have a lot more
[00:01:47.077]questions about things that other students
[00:01:49.476]seem to just kind of know already. So what
[00:01:52.777]does it mean for students and parents to
[00:01:55.726]be first-gen. Number one, we want you to
[00:01:59.326]know it's okay to ask questions. You don't
[00:02:01.526]know what you don't know. Like I said,
[00:02:04.079]transitioning to college, this is one of
[00:02:06.742]the biggest transitions you're ever going
[00:02:08.827]to make in your life, and there's going to
[00:02:10.560]be a lot of things that are just brand new
[00:02:12.793]that you're experiencing for the first
[00:02:14.426]time. For first-gen students, you can't go
[00:02:16.642]and ask your family about it because your
[00:02:19.076]parents maybe didn't go to college, so
[00:02:21.143]they might now know what the Bursar's
[00:02:24.392]office is. They may not know how to help
[00:02:26.592]you figure out how to pay your tuition
[00:02:28.276]bill. They may not know how to help you
[00:02:30.542]find tutoring on campus, and that's okay.
[00:02:33.860]Offices like OASIS and CAST exist because
[00:02:37.442]we are here to help students through those
[00:02:39.359]things. Students are going to have to
[00:02:41.193]learn things like, how do I set goals,
[00:02:43.726]how do I get myself organized and keep
[00:02:45.975]myself motivated to do my work and to
[00:02:49.943]go to classes. Your students are also
[00:02:51.609]going to be here building a network.
[00:02:54.242]They're going to find people on campus,
[00:02:55.643]find different mentors and faculty and
[00:02:57.776]staff who are going to help them through
[00:02:59.492]this. Again, I was a first-gen student and
[00:03:02.209]if it wasn't for the faculty and staff
[00:03:03.710]mentors that I had, I never would have
[00:03:05.675]made it through college. The one thing
[00:03:08.125]that we want both students and parents
[00:03:09.660]to know is that there is always someone
[00:03:11.709]here at UNL who can help. The OASIS office
[00:03:14.726]and CAST office are some really great
[00:03:17.219]places to start getting connected.
[00:03:19.825]So first, let's start with OASIS. The
[00:03:21.260]OASIS office is all about student success.
[00:03:26.042]They want to promote academic excellence
[00:03:27.976]on campus and also raise awareness of
[00:03:30.625]diversity. They do this through having
[00:03:34.192]different social events and social
[00:03:37.559]engagements as well as a lot of different
[00:03:39.059]student support services. The OASIS office
[00:03:40.743]is open to all students on campus, with
[00:03:42.059]an emphasis on students of color, students
[00:03:44.826]who identify as low-income, and
[00:03:47.942]first-generation students.
[00:03:49.860]One of the best things about OASIS is they
[00:03:52.142]have a student success program. If you
[00:03:54.292]enroll in the OASIS student success
[00:03:57.159]program, you will be paired up with an
[00:03:58.826]OASIS staff member and a peer mentor. You
[00:04:01.343]will take an 11-week, 0-credit,
[00:04:04.975]pass/no pass seminar. There is free
[00:04:07.759]tutoring offered in the OASIS Study Studio
[00:04:11.193]and you can gain personal and professional
[00:04:14.010]skills for college and beyond. There are
[00:04:16.326]also a lot of diversity and social events
[00:04:18.493]and a variety of leadership opportunities
[00:04:21.109]to get you really involved and connected
[00:04:24.275]on campus.
[00:04:25.860]All of you with your students sat through
[00:04:28.626]a session with the CAST staff this morning
[00:04:30.975]and you learned a little bit about what we
[00:04:32.559]do. We really believe that the students
[00:04:34.516]are the stars of their stories here on
[00:04:36.359]campus, and our job is to be a strong
[00:04:38.475]supporting cast, which is why we love our
[00:04:41.010]office name. While we focus a lot on
[00:04:45.456]academic success skills, things like time
[00:04:47.557]management and study skills and reading
[00:04:49.923]and note-taking, we also want to make sure
[00:04:52.006]that we are helping your students
[00:04:53.089]transition into college, so that first
[00:04:54.973]year is really important, but we also want
[00:04:56.957]to make sure we're supporting your
[00:04:58.824]students throughout their time here, all
[00:05:00.207]the way to graduation and whatever they
[00:05:02.523]do beyond this. We make sure that we get
[00:05:04.256]your students connected to other resources
[00:05:05.990]on campus and we try to create a welcoming
[00:05:08.189]environment where they feel like they can
[00:05:10.157]come in and ask us questions at any time.
[00:05:12.390]For our first-generation students
[00:05:14.957]specifically, we have our First Husker
[00:05:17.591]Program, which is specifically-designed
[00:05:20.156]for first-generation students. Our First
[00:05:23.539]Huskers are invited to arrive on campus
[00:05:25.257]before everyone else and participate in
[00:05:28.157]a 4-day foundational event. Students then
[00:05:30.324]participate in a 12-week seminar course
[00:05:33.190]that is taught by an Academic Success
[00:05:35.623]Coach and a team of peer mentors. And in
[00:05:38.673]that course, we really dig into talking
[00:05:41.073]about our own personal identities, who we
[00:05:44.090]are, why we're here in college in the
[00:05:46.623]first place, what are some of our goals,
[00:05:48.089]and how do we get there. The Coaches
[00:05:50.924]are going to make sure that they engage
[00:05:52.590]with your students every single week and
[00:05:54.774]again create an environment where students
[00:05:56.956]are really comfortable asking questions
[00:05:58.757]and learning about how to be the best
[00:06:01.890]college students they can be.
[00:06:03.973]One of the other things that we like
[00:06:05.557]to talk to students about is how do you
[00:06:07.224]get involved in the larger first-gen
[00:06:09.123]community, because almost 1/4 of our
[00:06:11.223]entire campus is first-gen. Even our
[00:06:14.823]Chancellor Ronnie Green was a
[00:06:16.557]first-generation student, so if you see
[00:06:19.607]this first-gen logo around campus, which
[00:06:22.073]is in the bottom left of your screen, that
[00:06:24.974]means that this is a specific First-Gen
[00:06:27.107]Nebraska event. Or if you see someone
[00:06:29.773]wearing a button that says first-gen, or
[00:06:34.373]maybe a t-shirt that has first-gen on
[00:06:36.924]it, or there might be a sign hanging
[00:06:39.074]on someone's door, that means that person
[00:06:41.307]who works in that office or who's wearing
[00:06:43.358]that button was first-gen too. There's a
[00:06:45.841]huge community here on campus. We
[00:06:48.240]have a lot of different events through
[00:06:49.924]First Gen Nebraska, things like the
[00:06:53.073]Welcome Back Waffles event, which
[00:06:56.208]we have typically every Spring, where it's
[00:06:58.458]all-you-can-eat waffles right when the
[00:07:00.256]Spring semester starts, and it's a chance
[00:07:02.123]for first-gen faculty and staff to meet
[00:07:03.890]first-gen students. There's also a
[00:07:06.390]First-Gen RSO, which stands for
[00:07:08.057]Recognized Student Organization, which is
[00:07:09.857]basically a club. Our student
[00:07:11.174]First-Gen RSO has been active now for
[00:07:14.557]about 3 years. I'm one of the Advisors for
[00:07:16.907]that RSO and the students have a lot
[00:07:19.190]of fun just getting together on campus
[00:07:21.440]and just doing things like visiting the
[00:07:23.740]Dairy Store over on East Campus for some
[00:07:26.090]free ice cream. All of the first-gen
[00:07:28.941]events are fun and free, and this is a
[00:07:31.907]really great way for you to tap into the
[00:07:33.775]larger first-gen community on campus.
[00:07:35.740]Last but not least, the OASIS and CAST
[00:07:41.074]offices are here to support you as
[00:07:44.207]first-gen families and your students as
[00:07:45.491]first-gen students. Our contact
[00:07:48.041]information is on the screen. Feel free
[00:07:50.173]to call us, log onto our websites, email
[00:07:51.857]us anytime.
[00:07:55.091]We're here to help you. We're here to
[00:07:57.075]support you. Welcome to Nebraska.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

2022 First-Gen Sprint Session video

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments