3 Must-See TED Talks to Understand First Gen Student Success
Understanding the first generation experience takes a special approach because it exists in so many unique forms. There is no “boxed” approach, and there shouldn’t be.
The more understanding extended toward each individual, the stronger the student success effort. Hear three distinct, compelling, and inspiring stories about supporting the success of first generation students:
Alma College faculty member Todd Hibbs offers an empowering definition of first gen students that transcend their family background. He analyzes intergenerational expectations faced by first generation students through striking personal accounts.
Key quotes:
“We spend more time defining and arguing about them, then we do helping them. This is very unfortunate.”
“What does it do to us, as a society, if we continue to not graduate them?”
“The cures to our diseases, the technological advances that we need, the arts and literature that raises our spirits…That’s all walking around our campuses right now. Please help me make sure they don’t walk away.”
Keith Mayes, professor of African American & African Studies, makes a compelling case for Black identity in the classroom, drawing the connection between representation and retention. He recounts his personal journey graduating from a Bronx high school with a D-average to earning a PhD from Princeton, evoking the Black stories that fueled him.
Key quotes:
“Nobody had bothered to connect the larger Black world that I had come from to the possibilities of learning.”
“Currently our classrooms are not build to bring in the Black experience. Not at the level of the curriculum, not at the level of the pedagogical practice, and not at the level of administrative will.”
“What we would not find is the creative use of the Black experience that not only teaches, but is transforming the lives of young Black people.”
Three aspiring counselors reveal findings of a study on female first generation students that had been specified as leaders on their respective campuses. They discover friction between the student’s true ambitions and outside expectations, specifically around motherhood, domesticity, and conservatism. Outlining ways that female first generation students are in particular asked to compromise, they unearth resulting identity conflicts between what they are told to be versus their truly endless potential.
Key quotes:
“Every single one of our participants reporting hearing messages, that started deeply in childhood and continued on to today, from significant people in their lives…that as a woman, this act of balancing was really hard.”
“The theme of balancing and of compromise, a lot of times at the expense of things you really wanted to do, really came through.”
“These are students that had been recommended to us as leaders on campus. Often times, they didn’t see themselves as leaders at all. These are women who had stepped into these roles…Something was falling through the cracks or needed to happen, and they just stepped in. They weren’t lobbying or campaigning, but they were filling the role that was so desperately needed. They were having trouble reconciling themselves as leaders.”
“What we find is that this processing, parsing your voice out from the hundreds of other incoming messages telling you what to do and who to be, becomes a lifelong and ongoing process.”
Upswing is dedicated to supporting first generation and non-traditional students. How can you support diverse students? We’ll walk you through the process step-by-step when you contact us.
