Closing one chapter, and stepping into the next.
Zipporah Osei
A journalist and first-generation college student originally from Yonkers, N.Y., Zipporah is in her last year at Northeastern University. She has reported for The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chalkbeat.
Posted inFirst Gen
The quiet cost of being a first-gen college graduate
“Being the first and only college graduate in my family, I am expected to shoulder the bulk of whatever expenses land on our door.”
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Why class matters in first-gen spaces
‘First-generation’ includes such a wide variety of identities that designing services to support all students with this label often ends up underrepresenting low-income students, one student writes.
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How to survive your family: A first-gen guide
Communicate your feelings. Keep them informed. Be empathetic.
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This first-gen story from the class of 2022 starts with a promise
Jessika Supreme promised herself that she would be everything that her mother could not accomplish. She’s now a recent graduate of Roxbury Community College.
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Let’s get first-gen students into STEM fields — and keep them there
How do we not only invite these students in to unfamiliar spaces but teach them how to thrive?
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How apathy can be a systemic barrier for first-generation students
When Josh Farris hit barriers to studying abroad, he didn’t get the help he needed from an adviser. It made him feel poor and unloved.
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For first-gen teachers, the path of higher-ed leads back into the classroom
“I do think being first-gen and being a native Spanish speaker has helped me build relationships with my students,” on teacher says. “They have to be able to trust you, they have to be able to feel safe in your classroom, and then we can start talking about academics.”
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I’ve been living in a student loan-free fantasy world, but all good things end.
First-generation college students are more likely to take out undergraduate student loans than other students, and when they do, they tend to be for more money. I’m in a very similar boat, so you can imagine why I took advantage of the freeze.
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The onscreen representation ‘In the Heights’ actually got right
For all its faults in tackling colorism and Afro-Latinx representation in film, there was one minority experience it handled well: the story of first-generation college students.