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wednesday ◀
4.21.99 ◀
eight.a ◀
daily kansan
For many first-generation students, a college education comes without a support system
story by irina rodriguez • photo illustration by augustus anthony piazza
Some first-generation college students must turn to University of Kansas services to answer questions about such things as financial aid and career counseling.
Vickie Olson
Vickie Olson's parents weren't happy when she wanted to go to college. They couldn't help her choose the right university, or the right major, and they couldn't pay for school. They believed she would be better off getting married and having kids.
She listened to their advice, married and had kids. But she never stopped dreaming about college.
"My relatives don't understand the amount of time and effort I put in school and get offended if I don't visit them often enough."
Lawrence senior
Today, she is a senior in sociology and women's studies at the University of Kansas. She is one of many so-called "first-generation" students, whose parents don't have college degrees.
First-generation students don't have academic guidance, are often scared and insecure, and many times they don't have the support of their parents.
For Sandrea Anders, Overland Park senior, there was the additional challenge of inadequate academic preparation from her high school. She wasn't instructed on how to study efficiently and wasn't acquainted with good resources.
"When I came to KU, I didn't know anything about a computer," she said. "Besides, being an African-American coming to a predominantly white campus, I had a feeling that I was not supposed to be here, and it was not for me."
"They always had doubts that Lati-nos were serious about anything and looked at me with distrust when I was saying that I had all the information from KU<sub>i</sub>, and I was going to apply for scholarships," she said.
This feeling was familiar to Aurora Marin, Leoti junior. When college counselors came to her high school, they advised her to go to community college, implying that a four-year college, such as the University of Kansas was not even an option, she said.
Marin was the only student from her graduating class to come to the University, and she earned a scholarship. She founded the first Latina sorority on campus, Sigma Lambda Gamma and recently was accepted in the Western Washington University Marine Biology Program, a prestigious semester-long, all-expenses-paid program.
Whether a student has parents holding doctorates or a grade school education, the emotional support of the family can make a difference.
Marin's parents worked hard to provide the opportunity for their eight children to go to college. All but one of the children, who is in the Navy
SEALS program, are going to college, or have already graduated.
"My parents know how hard it is to study," Marin said. "And they try to support us in every way. They gave us everything so that we could go to college and have a better life."
Olson said her parents were not able to support her. She has to be careful about the words she uses while talking to them, because they can't understand some of them, and she doesn't want to sound arrogant.
"My relatives don't understand the amount of time and effort I put in school and get offended if I don't visit them often enough," Olson said.
Olson wants to go to graduate school to continue her research on left-handedness and eventually earn her Ph.D. She said she owed a big part of that decision to the Ronald McNair Baccalaureate Achievement Program that has encouraged her to continue her academic life.
their one. Olson's challenges are particularly daunting, because she has three children of her own, and she is older than most undergraduate students. She views it as an advantage.
The program has helped universities identify students who have the potential for success in graduate study but who need support and preparation academically, financially and socially during their undergraduate years in order to be competitive for admission to graduate programs. About two-thirds of its participants are first-generation students, according to the program's newsletter.
The McNair Scholars Program was designed to prepare first-generation, low-income college students, or those from ethnic groups traditionally under-represented in graduate education, to pursue graduate studies.
Aron Carlson, Lenexa junior, who has been in the McNair Program for two years, said that before joining the program, he didn't think he could go to graduate school.
"It boosted my confidence and made me feel that I was in the right place," he said.
Marin, who was accepted to the program this fall, said the program helped her keep organized and motivated.
"A lot of people don't take undergraduate degrees seriously. But it's the basis for everything." she said.
Ianya Kooi, project coordinator of the McNair Program, said that out of all the services provided by the program, just supporting the students during their hard times and understanding them was the most important.
Kooi said she wasn't expected or encouraged to go to college,but she always knew she wanted a different path from the rest of her family.
Despite the challenges, Kooi was the first person in her family to attend college and the only one among her many cousins, aunts and uncles to have earned a master's degree.
Karen Ohnesorge, Student Support Services coordinator, said that first-generation students were less likely to complete their B.A. degrees because their families could not help them with financial aid or answer questions about the college experience.
SSS provides students personal academic counseling, as well as pre-major and financial-aid advising and free tutoring across the curriculum during four years of college. If the students are thinking about going to graduate school, they are referred to the McNair program, Ohnesorge said.
McNair program, "McNair has a wonderful record of placement of students into the graduate schools of their choice," Ohnesorge said. "They provide an important networking, otherwise not available to students, and opportunities of getting mentors and writing academic research."
about the college support Student Support Services and the McNair Program are sister programs united under the umbrella name TRIO with the program Upward Bound.
Upward Bound is a TRIO program for high school students, which prepares them for college and includes academic enrichment sessions, tutoring, campus visits and various educational field trips.
Megan Palmer, associate director of Upward Bound, considers the summer component the highlight of the program. It teaches students academic and social skills and introduces them to college life.
The main purpose of the program is to overcome parents' resistance and to give students the motivation to go on. The placement rate for graduating seniors of the program is 85-90 percent, Palmer said.
"It gives them confidence and convinces them that they have the right to be here," she said.
Some students are led up through the academic ladder by several programs, starting in the Educational Talent Search and finishing in McNair. Some have family networking in one or several programs. Olson's two children, Shawn, 18, and Michelle, 16, participated in Upward Bound this summer while she was doing her research in McNair.
"They grew up during this time, matured both academically and in the way they associated with people, and they became more responsible," Olson says.
Anders, a former Upward Bound student, still keeps her connection with the program, dropping by when she has time. She said she already was thinking about going to college while in high school, but Upward Bound's summer program gave her the necessary push toward college.
"I'm happy that I'm breaking the cycle for my family, my younger brother and sister," she said. "And Upward Bound definitely opened to me the door to education."
Support services for first-generation college students
Supportive Educational Services
* Services 250 students each
school year
964 2971
McNair Scholars Program
*Has serviced between 20-25 students each school year since 1992*
864. 9627
Upward Bound
* Services 66 high school students each school year
864.3413
Jason Benavides/KANSAN