First-Generation Student Support NSE Presentation

NSE Author

05/07/2025 Added

55 Plays

Description

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.000]Hi there. My name is Rob Russell. I'm the director of the CAST office here at Nebraska,
[00:00:06.600]the Center for Academic Success and Transition. And for the next few minutes, I'm going to talk
[00:00:11.420]to you about what being first-gen in Nebraska looks like, and then offer some help and tips
[00:00:16.420]to support your first-gen student. So first thing I think is important to get out of the way is to
[00:00:23.060]help define what a first-gen student is and why this matters. So we at Nebraska define a first-gen
[00:00:29.900]student by a student whose parent or guardian does not have a four-year degree from the U.S.
[00:00:35.160]Now, that is a pretty broad interpretation, and it means a couple different things.
[00:00:39.080]If a student does not have a parent or guardian who graduated from a four-year institute in the
[00:00:43.860]U.S. but has older siblings, they're still first-gen. If a student's parent or guardian
[00:00:47.980]graduated from a four-year institute outside of the U.S., we still consider them first-gen.
[00:00:52.880]If their parent or guardian has a two-year degree, first-gen. And there's not exactly a simple definition
[00:00:59.800]but the reason this is important is we want to make sure that every student coming to Nebraska
[00:01:04.400]has that same level of knowledge and they know exactly how and where to get help when they get
[00:01:10.280]here. This is a fairly new phenomenon. I am a first-gen student but I did not realize there
[00:01:15.780]was terminology for that until I started working in Nebraska in 2019 and I graduated from college
[00:01:20.500]a long time ago. And the reason why there's been a push for this is, again, college has changed a lot even in the last 10 years
[00:01:29.700]and there's so much information and there's so many different ways to navigate it that we want
[00:01:34.700]to make sure that not a single person is left behind. And as we'll see later, there's a really
[00:01:39.600]substantial number of first-gen folks at Nebraska. So it's in our best interest to make sure that
[00:01:45.320]every single incoming student who is first-gen understands the resources and help that is
[00:01:51.360]available to them. So what does this mean for students who are first-gen? Well, it means that
[00:01:57.200]they are the first in their family to do this, which
[00:01:59.600]can mean extra stress and pressure, absolutely. It also means they're learning a lot. Baseline,
[00:02:05.240]if everything is going really, really well for a student and they have no other stressors,
[00:02:09.500]college is still going to be stressful and there's going to be a lot of information they
[00:02:13.400]have to parse out. If they start adding other stressors in their life, financial,
[00:02:17.040]if they have roommate issues, et cetera, et cetera, it gets even more stressful and even
[00:02:22.420]busier in their life. Now, that sounds negative, but let me kind of shift to the positive here.
[00:02:29.500]It also means that they're going to be learning so, so much about themselves and so much about
[00:02:34.100]the world. The reality is, as much as we try to prepare students for college when they're in
[00:02:40.160]high school, nothing really prepares them until they're here. Now, I don't want to take away any
[00:02:44.900]of your students' achievements they had in high school. They deserve everything they had. But the
[00:02:48.460]reality was, if your student took college classes in high school, they were still a high school
[00:02:52.460]student taking college classes. When they are a full-time college student, it's a very, very
[00:02:59.400]different experience. They have to learn how to hold themselves accountable, how they're
[00:03:02.420]going to see the world. They're going to meet tons of new and different people. The other thing
[00:03:07.260]they're really, really going to learn themselves, and one of the things that we do in the CAST
[00:03:10.760]office, is help them understand how to take ownership of their education. If they, and I'm
[00:03:16.980]not suggesting they do this, but if your student does not go to class for two weeks, your professor
[00:03:21.280]is not going to reach out to them. Your student has to get up and go to class. They have to get
[00:03:25.400]up and do the work. Their education, and that's incredibly
[00:03:29.300]important thing for them to remember, but also really, really exciting. From my perspective,
[00:03:34.220]when we see students sort of have this aha moment and take ownership of their education,
[00:03:38.320]it is such a cool thing to see. Again, our office is a great office to know,
[00:03:44.360]and we're one of many academic resources on campus that your student's going to learn about,
[00:03:48.700]advisors, academic navigators, career coaches, and lots of other offices that are going to help
[00:03:54.620]them on their journey. If they don't know where else to go, you can tell them,
[00:03:59.200]go see Rob or somebody in the CAST office, and we can make sure if this is not the right place for
[00:04:03.860]them, that we get them to the right place. A good way to think about our office is we are not
[00:04:09.020]advisors and we are not therapists. We're somewhere in the middle. And I think that that puts us in a
[00:04:13.980]very unique position where your student wants to come in to talk about time management issues.
[00:04:19.360]Great. If they need to come in and just vent about their professors, great. We can have them do that
[00:04:24.120]too. So what does first gen mean for families and supporters? Well,
[00:04:29.640]it means more than likely you're sending your student off to do something that you haven't
[00:04:33.080]done yourself. It also means that you're trusting us here, faculty and staff, to step in and be
[00:04:40.000]the support system. And I'll get to that last bullet point in a moment. Those first two points,
[00:04:44.140]I think, really, really important. We here at Nebraska broadly do this work because we love it.
[00:04:51.620]Many of us, myself included, do this work because I wish there was an office like this when I was in college and I wanted to
[00:04:59.000]sort of be the help that I didn't have. And that's the mentality that most of us have here.
[00:05:03.880]We do this work because we love it. We love helping to guide students. We love getting them to that level
[00:05:09.060]they really want to achieve to get to. Right. That's really, really important.
[00:05:12.440]It's OK thinking about that first bullet point. And I can't stress this enough.
[00:05:19.260]It's OK that you haven't done this. And I think I've done this for a very long time.
[00:05:23.320]And one of the best pieces of advice I give to families and friends of students is,
[00:05:28.900]to admit that you don't know something is totally fine. Right.
[00:05:32.700]And I'll be honest, if a student comes in, he has questions about something that's not our expertise.
[00:05:36.580]I will tell them I don't know. I will find someone who does know or I'll send them to the right office.
[00:05:41.580]But it's OK to not know something. And I think that's a really important part of that journey as well, too.
[00:05:45.740]College shifts. Even in the last couple of years, there has been so many changes. It shifts very quickly.
[00:05:51.040]So there's a lot of new information constantly coming in. It's OK that you don't know this.
[00:05:55.380]It doesn't it. It's not a bad thing whatsoever.
[00:05:58.800]The last point I think is really important. You're learning, too.
[00:06:00.460]There's a lot of really fantastic resources, which I'll get into in just a moment that can kind of plug you in to what's happening with your student here.
[00:06:08.240]And having an open conversation with them, what's happening is really the best way to feel like you're a part of that journey as well, too.
[00:06:14.460]Now, that being said, our website, the CAST website, does have some resources specifically for families and students as well, too, if they would like to use them.
[00:06:23.820]The first thing that we offer up, if you want to follow this QR code, it'll take you directly
[00:06:28.700]to our website, which is success.unl.edu.
[00:06:32.140]But the first thing I want to mention is the first six weeks checklist.
[00:06:35.360]And what we do is we take all of the really important stuff that happens in the first six weeks and we distill it down to a bullet point list so students can check it off and make sure nothing important is missed.
[00:06:46.280]But also it's really good for families to print out and bug their students about and students hate when I say that, but that's the reality.
[00:06:54.140]Hey, it's week two. Have you done this? Have you done this? Have you talked to this person yet? We also have a
[00:06:58.540]giant list of navigating campus resources and every single campus resource your student could
[00:07:03.140]possibly need. If your student is unsure of a resource, if they're not sure where to go get
[00:07:08.480]help for something really specific, again, they can come into our office and we are more than happy to
[00:07:12.820]guide them to where they need to be. We also have some really fantastic documents. We have a key
[00:07:18.200]vocabulary and acronyms list because there are a lot of acronyms. We're the CAST office. There's
[00:07:23.400]CAS, there's CASNR. There's a lot of acronyms that sound a lot alike. And there's a lot of
[00:07:28.500]vocabulary that unfortunately I think a lot of people in our head assume everybody knows the
[00:07:32.660]definition to and not everybody does. So we have some sheets on our website that also break down
[00:07:37.040]what a lot of these words and terms mean that you're going to hear throughout NSE, but also
[00:07:42.080]throughout your student's college experience. Now, really quickly, I will say, if you're not
[00:07:48.100]familiar with FERPA, FERPA is a federal guideline that means that we are not
[00:07:52.660]allowed to give out information about your student to anybody. So if you try to call our
[00:07:58.780]office and get information about your student, we would be able to tell you that your student
[00:08:02.680]was enrolled and that's it. And I bring that up because it's really important to establish
[00:08:08.500]communication with your student early on. If you want to know how they're doing in college,
[00:08:11.760]they need to be telling you what's happening. And that communication is really, really important.
[00:08:16.580]The last thing I'll say about that real quickly is in high school, there's a lot of competition
[00:08:21.920]around academics. Students have to be on all the time. If a student needs extra help in math,
[00:08:28.460]they're probably not going to advertise they'd get a tutor. The reality is in college, they have
[00:08:32.680]to be open to good stuff. They have to drop whatever ego they have and ask for help. And
[00:08:37.260]part of that, and we can sort of normalize that by getting used to having these conversations
[00:08:42.180]with the students prior to them starting in fall. Hey, make a list of the resources you want to check out when you start
[00:08:51.180]Did you hear Rob from the CAST office talk about his resource? I think you should check them out and make a study plan with him or somebody in the
[00:08:57.060]office. And normalizing those conversations early and frequently is really going to help your
[00:09:01.720]student out. There are some other really fantastic resources on campus as well, too. There's an
[00:09:06.520]organization called First Gen Nebraska that puts on a lot of different events for students. As the
[00:09:13.360]PowerPoint here says, nearly a quarter of UNL students, faculty, and staff are first gen,
[00:09:18.100]which is incredible. So this organization has that little logo.
[00:09:20.960]You see this is first gen, and we put on events throughout the school year for students. It's a
[00:09:25.000]really fantastic way for your student to get involved and to meet other first gen students
[00:09:29.040]and faculty and staff. And we do this, and many staff and faculty, myself included, will wear
[00:09:35.380]first gen shirts or pins to show students they're not alone. And I think being seen is a really,
[00:09:39.760]really important part of that. And these events are always free, and there's always a ton
[00:09:43.880]of free swag that students get. There's also a first gen RSO. So RSO is Recognized Student
[00:09:50.500]Organization, and it basically is a club. That's what we call our clubs here. The first gen RSO
[00:09:55.520]does so many free activities and free meals and free snacks. Your students get lots of free food
[00:10:01.040]here. Last year, they went to a basketball game together. They've done a lot of cool sporting
[00:10:05.840]events. They go bowling. They do crafts and stuff like that. And it's a really fantastic way for
[00:10:11.200]your student to make friends outside of their dorm. And we really, really want to push that.
[00:10:14.980]If your student is local, and they're friends with people from high school, still in college, that's great!
[00:10:20.200]But one of the experiences of college that we really want to impress on students is to make
[00:10:20.480]friends outside of their circles. It's really, really helpful. Going to a club,
[00:10:25.520]like our first gen RSO is a great way to meet other people that have this in common.
[00:10:31.740]They're all first gen,
[00:10:35.920]but they get to meet people from every single different major on campus. And it's a really
[00:10:39.640]fantastic experience. And your student can sign up the first moment they step foot on campus and
[00:10:44.320]immediately start engaging with all the really fun activities they do. So the last thing I'm
[00:10:49.740]going to bring up is the First Husker Program. Which is
[00:10:50.460]program that we run out of the CAST office. We have a larger program called the CAST Power
[00:11:00.620]Program. And within that, we have something called the First Husker Program. This is designed
[00:11:06.720]for first-gen students. And what it is, if your student signs up for this, is they get priority
[00:11:11.620]move-in on Sunday, August 17th, if they're living on campus. We have what we call a four-day
[00:11:17.800]foundational program from August 17th to the 20th.
[00:11:20.440]and this is like a little summer camp. And what this is, is we put students in cohorts of about
[00:11:25.820]20 groups or 20 students. There's two student peer mentors that lead each group. And then one
[00:11:30.880]of us from the CAST office that also helps lead that group. Throughout those four days,
[00:11:34.760]they get to play games. They get to meet faculty and staff, learn about resources. We give them
[00:11:41.060]time to run errands, like if they need to do an Ncard or go to the bookstore, if they want to
[00:11:45.160]see what downtown Lincoln looks like. By the time every other student comes to campus,
[00:11:50.420]later that week, your student will know where everything is. They will know where their classes
[00:11:54.800]are. They'll have everything mapped out. It's also a really fantastic way for your student to
[00:11:59.940]get to know people, again, outside of their living experience, outside of their major,
[00:12:03.700]outside of their existing friend group. It's a really fantastic thing. Once that four-day ends
[00:12:09.980]and the semester begins, that same group of students that your student is with is part of a 12-week
[00:12:14.620]fall seminar class that we teach, that same group of students, and it really feels like a homeroom style
[00:12:20.400]class. It's really fantastic. All of this is completely free. It's a really, really wonderful
[00:12:26.400]experience that I cannot stress enough. We do only have 200 spots available, and registration
[00:12:32.420]is open now, so if you follow this QR code or go to our website, success.unl.edu,
[00:12:38.680]you will find information about how to sign up for that. If your student is interested
[00:12:42.760]and can make the 17th to the 20th deadline, I encourage you to sign up ASAP to hold your spot.
[00:12:50.380]We have found every single year that I've done this that a lot of students sign up for this.
[00:12:55.300]They get to campus. They roll their eyes. Why am I here? Why am I doing this? And by the end of
[00:12:58.860]that four-day experience, they are so bought in. They have made friends. They've gotten to know
[00:13:03.560]our office. They understand where resources are. And it's a really great way to make sure that
[00:13:07.220]your student is starting school and knows everything available to them. Now, obviously,
[00:13:13.500]this is a recorded Zoom, so I can't take questions. But if you have any questions, please reach out to
[00:13:20.360]me or anybody at my office, the CAST office. Again, our website, success.unl.edu. If you have
[00:13:28.380]any questions about the First Husker program or any of the services we offer, or just questions
[00:13:33.940]in general about your students' experience coming here in the fall, I am more than happy to help
[00:13:40.160]answer those questions. Thank you so much for listening.

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

First-Generation Student Support NSE Presentation

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments