Nina Lam Professor Rebecca Agosta English 1102 3 April 2014 English 1102 As I was walking around campus

for the first time at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I was wondering how many people were like me, people who are the first to step down the college pathway, and the first to explore what it is like to receive an opportunity to become someone better. As I looked around, I could not tell who the first generation college students were and who were not. A few days later, I met a few people;, they all seemed to be similar but they also seemed to be a little different., I could not tell. That was uUntil, I started talking to Yasemine, a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I thought her parents went to college and she was a continuous college student, but she told me otherwise. She is also a first generation college student, the first to explore the untouched pathway of her family. I was shocked but at the same time, she had changed my opinion and was a breakthrough to my stereotypical opinion. Not all white people are continuous college students. Another person who proved my opinion to be wrong was Lauren, Yasemines suitemate. I thought she was a first generation student because she is also Asian and her father was from a different country, but she told me that her parents did go to college. Her father went to college in Hong Kong and her mother went to college in America. After knowing all this information about two different people, I asked myself what is a first generation college student?
Comment [R5]: Good, and what were your current assumptions about who first gen students were? Comment [R3]: What about her shocked you? Did she seem very sure of herself as a college student? What made you think that she was a continuous college student? Comment [R4]: Ah, because she was white? I still think a note earlier will help. Comment [R2]: Great intro- sight alone does not let us know who identify as or are identified by others as first gen. Comment [R1]: Create a unique/interesting title for your essay.

First generation college student has a very broad definition. According to Research in Higher Education written by Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas, Zaneeta E. Daver, Kristen E. Vogt, and Jeannie Brown Leonard, first generation student can mean a breaking of family tradition, which in this case would be discovering a new path to college since their parents had never attended college. This definition is broader compared to other people that I have interviewed. For example, I had interviewed Yasemine Akduman and I asked her what is first generation college student to you. She answered, If both your parents havent earned a degree of any sort [then you are a first generation college student], and if their parents received a degree in another country then they are still continuous college student.. In her words, we can see that some definitions for firstgeneration college students is a lot more detailed and has more restriction than others. In the following, we will be exploring the different aspects of being a first-generation college students to help define what is first-generation college students. We will be exploring the advantages, the challenges, the goals, and the lifestyles of first-generation college students. Method: In order to gather the information that is needed to define first-generation college students, a few methods were put into place. The first and most common method is to collect some facts that have been proven by scholars and have been published. Some information has been collected through James P. Gees Identity As an Analytic Lens for Research, Research in Higher Education by Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas, Zaneeta E. Daver, Kristen E. Vogt, and Jeannie Brown Leonard, Unseen Disadvantage How American Universities by Nicole M. Stephens, and The Journal of Higher Education by Ernest T. Pascarella, Christopher T. Pierson, Gregory C. Wolniak, and Patrick T. Terenzini.
Comment [R9]: Good- can you make a more explicit connection here to how these things shape the identity of a first gen student? Comment [R7]: Definitely. It has more possibilities that more strict definitions, like students whose parents went to community or technical college or students whose parents did apprenticeships but not 4 year university. Comment [R8]: How she defined a first Comment [R6]: You can put et al. after this to show that there are multiple writers. You also dont need to include the title of the article unless you dont have an authors name.

In Gees article, an overview of what an identity is, such as how an identity i s identified through nature, institution, discourse, and affinity. Identity through nature is the identity that is given to you at birth, such as your race. Identity through institution is the identity that is given to you through the institution, such as a professors institutional identity was given to them by the university they work for. Identity through discourse is the identity that is given to you by your friends or peers, such as a person being a clown within their friends group. Lastly, identity through affinity is composed of sets of distinctive experiences (Gee 105), such as being able to go to college. In Research in Higher Education, they attempted to define first generation college students by giving a broad term. They had also identified a few differences between firstgeneration college students and continuous college students, such as total family income and race/ethnicity, with first-generation college students more likely to have a lower family income and to be from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds (Inkelas, Daver, Vogt, and Leonard 405). In Unseen Disadvantage: How American Universities Focus On Independence Undermines The Academic Performance of First-Generation College Students, they also described the differences between first-generation college students and continuous college students. They explain much more in depth about the different lifestyles and the different values that first-generation college students and continuous college students may have. For example, These working-class realities often promote socialization practices that encourage children to recognize their place in the Hierarchy, to follow the rules and social norms and to be responsive to others needs (Stephens, Models of Self: Cultural Norms at Both the Individual and the Institutional Level).
Comment [R10]: Are you going to talk about how this relates to your research here or elsewhere?

In The Journal of Higher Education, Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini, described their research method on first-generation college students. Their research was based on three different categories. The first category was based on demographic characteristics, secondary school preparation, the college choice process, and the college expectations (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini 249-250). The second category is the transition from high school to college, including the social and academic transitions (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini 250). The last category would be the early career labor market outcomes (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini 250). The result of the research is that students having parents with a high level of post-secondary education attended institutions with a significantly higher average level of entering student academic selectivity (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini 264). The second type of research method that was used to collect information was through interviews. The interview was conducted on both male and female and of different race. The reason for the diverse in gender and race is to eliminate any possibilities of stereotypes. The interview was generally conducted on three people: Yasemine Akduman, Joshua Parks, and Joneka Percentie. The people that were chosen to be interviewed were chosen by asking two simple questions: the first one is whether or not they are a first-generation college students and what first-generation college students means to them. Yasemine provided detailed information such as her feelings towards being a first-generation college students, her lifestyle, and her view of first-generation college students. The other two people also provided information about being first-generation college students, their lifestyles, and their views but differences occurred throughout the three interviewees.
Comment [R11]: You can do first last name plus et al. (Pascarella et al. 249-250). Comment [R12]: Only need to do it the first time and then just page numbers, especially since you stayed on the same source for this whole paragraph

Results: Advantages versus Challenges Being a first-generation college student definitely came with some challenges but there were also advantages. According to Yasemine, some advantages were create your own identity, dont live up to those pressures as much, strong work ethic, able to rise above your current social class, develop own morals, able to make our own decisions, more independent, more determination to succeed and rise above the lack of education, and setting higher goals. Many of the interviewees have stated that they did not have to live under the standards that were already set by their parents and it was exciting to be able to explore a new pathway and break their family traditions. Yasemine even said, As a first-generation college student, I get to create my own identity whereas if I were a continuous college student, I would feel the need to follow in my familys footsteps, which might set a limit on how well I could do further on in life. Joneka also expressed a similar feeling: first-generation college students have more motivation to finish. Continuous college students would take for granted to go to college because to their family it is no big deal. Knowing this information, it is clear that identity plays a significant part as an advantage. Challenges definitely play an important role in being a first-generation college student. Joshua had stated that some challenges were Not having anyone to ask for help, you can ask counselors but not having family members to ask is what makes it hard . We all know that family support is important but first-generation college students have no choice but to face this new pathway independently. Yasemine had also stated some challenges, Some challenges were not necessarily having an academic support system, knowing how to apply to college and the
Comment [R13]: Period inside quote

scholarships, stress because I know I have to make the Akduman name look good, and knowing what to do, such as how to pay for things and how to get help.
Comment [R14]: More of your commentary and response. Do you take their answers at face value? Do you challenge or accept them? Are there things that they are not considering? Great start.