How First-generation College Students Can Thrive

It is natural to start attending a university, especially if you have grown up in a family that has a background in pursuing higher education; however, there are some instances in which students are the first in their family to take this step. The purpose of this article is to show how first-generation college students can thrive.

We will begin by discussing my mother. Her parents died by the time she turned two; subsequently, she was raised by her aunt and uncle. She grew up poor but she did not let that stop her from achieving greatness.

No way! She went to college for about a year, studying to become a teacher. She dropped out after giving birth to my big brother. Four years later, she helped bring me into existence.

When I was seven, she took a job as the administrator of a nearby senior citizens' center. About ten years later, she moved up to a case manager position within the agency. Soon after that, she went to a local community college and took a lot of business courses for about two years in order to advance in her career. She now oversees about a third of the agency's senior citizens' centers.

We will conclude by talking about my dad. Like my mom, he grew up poor. He was raised by his mom and his stepfather. His stepfather only had a blue-collar background, with a heavy emphasis on construction work. His mom, a school dropout, did various menial jobs and she had yet to take night school classes before training to become a nurse.

Once when he was a little boy, my dad came home from school crying due to having a report card with all cee's. My grandma decided to take him to a library so that he would read a variety of good books and enhance his learning as well as his grades. It worked, as he dramatically improved his grades.

Being determined to go to college and make a good life for himself, he went to the library regularly and studied hard. In order to earn and save money for college, he worked as a paperboy, delivering newspapers while riding his bicycle. He combined his earnings with a scholarship to attend Ohio State University.

He earned a Bachelor's degree in journalism and eventually took a job with McDonnell Douglas, working in the writing department. Once when the company had a malfunction with the computer system, he helped fix the problem. Seeing that he had a programming aptitude, the firm paid for him to go back to school to get training to become a computer programmer. After he finished the process, he advanced to the computer programming department.

You have learned how first-generation college students can thrive.