The First-generation College Experience

Book excerpt: The First Generation Experienceis the only college success book written specificallyto serve first generation students. It is forstudents who need a little extra attention and support to have a firm footing in the academic world. It is about helping those students who have felt disenfranchised, disengaged, and disappointed by the educational system to empower themselves with the knowledge and the skills necessary to imagine and realize and new future. It is also a book about change, specifically transformation. The word itself has multiple meanings in different academic disciplines, but the idea of transformation most closely applies to the intentional process by which we help students change as individuals, as scholars, and as citizens of their communities. "