First-Generation Voices of Success

Show Notes

First-generation students bring determination, resilience, and ambition to higher education. Yet many also face challenges that institutions may not fully understand, including navigating unfamiliar systems, finding a sense of belonging, and learning how to advocate for themselves.

In this episode, Julio Abreu, author of the new book First-Generation Voices of Success, discusses the experiences of first-generation students and what colleges and universities can do to better support them.

Through stories of perseverance, achievement, and personal growth, Julio shares lessons that can help enrollment, marketing, and student success professionals create more welcoming and supportive environments for the students they serve.

What You'll Learn

• Why personal stories can help institutions better understand the first-generation student experience
• Common challenges first-generation students face before and during college
• How belonging influences student confidence, engagement, and success
• Why self-advocacy is a critical skill for navigating higher education
• Ways colleges can encourage students to seek help and access support services
• Areas where institutions still have opportunities to improve support for first-generation students
• Key lessons from First-Generation Voices of Success for enrollment, marketing, and student success leaders
• What higher education professionals need to better understand first-generation students today

Transcript

Cathy Donovan [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the Innovating Enrollment Success podcast, where we explore how colleges and universities are connecting with prospective students and how students are finding their way to their right fit. 

For many first-generation students, the path to higher education comes with excitement, ambition, uncertainty, and immense resilience. An estimated one-third of today's college students identify as first generation, and behind every enrollment statistic is a personal story. 

Stories of navigating unfamiliar systems, overcoming adversity, finding confidence, and building a future that may look very different from previous generations of their family Today's conversation is inspired by the new book, First-Generation Voices of Success, which shares the stories of seven first-generation college students and how they overcame adversity on the road to academic achievement and personal fulfillment. 

As author Julio Abreu, our guest today, writes in the book, "Their stories are proof that success is not defined by where you start, but by how fiercely you believe in where you are going."

 I'm Cathy Donovan, agency marketing director at Paschal. We help institutions connect insight, creativity, and strategy to drive enrollment. I'm excited to welcome Julio Abreu back to the podcast. 

Julio is a first-generation college graduate, president and publisher of A+ Media, and author of First Generation Voices of Success. Through A+ Media, he produces educational media and Spanish language communication services for colleges and publishers focused on expanding access and opportunity. 

He's also spent more than 20 years involved with College Bound Opportunities, a nonprofit helping talented low-income students get into and graduate from college. In addition, Julio is entering his third term on the board of trustees at Rider University. Welcome, Julio.

Julio Abreu:

Thank you, Cathy. Thank you very much. 

Cathy Donovan:

Well, let's get started. So let's just start at the beginning here. What inspired you to write First Generation Voices of Success and focus on real student stories? It started when I started to look at the data about first-generation students and how there's a disconnect. As you noted earlier, roughly one-third of college enrollment is now represented by first-geners and that number is even higher from some sources if you include community college students. It can go, hover as high as 50%. Meanwhile, while the national average for college graduation after six years hovers around 60%, and that's been consistent for a number of years, unfortunately for first-geners, it's less than half that. It's about 24%. 

So first-generation students are clearly falling through the cracks Meanwhile, as you noted, I've worked with first-geners from several years, and I've had an up-close look at what they struggle with and the determination that they have, in most cases, to be able to get through college, do well, and graduate. I felt that given my educational publishing background, it would be helpful to develop a book telling the story of successful first-geners and what they've gone through, so that would serve as a motivational tool for students who are first-geners about to begin college. 

At the same time, the seven individuals that I interviewed can be role models for these young people who are just getting a sense of who they are and where they want to go. 

Cathy Donovan:

Great. And I know, for myself, just talking to my daughters after reading the book, that I think it's just helpful advice on how to be an effective college student, too. All of those challenges that come along the way that maybe even if your parents have gone to college before, maybe you need some guidance.

Julio Abreu:

That's very true.

Cathy Donovan: 

Like the self-advocating piece ... there are universal themes within the book that apply to all students. 

Julio Abreu:

I should also mention that after each student profile, there are reflection themes, and each theme is based on one of the most common issues that first-geners face. 

One example would be time management. Almost every student I interviewed admitted that their first year was harder than it needed to be because they hadn't fine-tuned the time management skills that were needed to keep up with a less structured system of college versus high school.

So one tip that I probably should have used in my college years was the Pomodoro method that you may know where instead of studying straight for three or four hours, that you study an hour at a time, take a break, go back. That enhances the retention of the content you're working on. 

Cathy Donovan:

Exactly. I think the stories themselves are inspiring of students facing all kinds of challenges within their families, and then I like the tips, just very pragmatic tips of ways to navigate. I think it's helpful for first-gen students, and I think it's helpful for all college students for sure. But when it comes to first-generation students, what are those biggest challenges that maybe institutions, even though they're aware of the numbers, maybe they're not aware of the specific challenges? 

Julio Abreu:

Yeah. There are two that I find loom large. One is called the imposter syndrome, and that's where a student feels that admissions made a mistake. That they got accepted, but they probably really don't belong there. And I can give you an example of one of the most successful first-geners in the business world. 

I just recently finished a book about Lloyd Blankfein, who was the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. He came from a very modest first-gen family in Brooklyn. He did very well academically, got into Harvard, and he tells in his book, and he uses the term imposter syndrome because he didn't feel like he fit in at Harvard with all these other well-to-do students who came from a long history of college graduates. And even after he started rising through the ranks at Goldman Sachs, once again, he brought up the feeling like he was an imposter. That all these other colleagues were very successful, came from well-to-do families, and that was not his story. So it's not just the first-geners in college, but people from all over the U.S. 

The second major challenge has to do with feeling that you're not understanding the hidden curriculum. And what does that mean? It’s when there are these unwritten rules about campus life about college bureaucracy that you've just never been aware of. The way one of my student services consultants puts it, it's like you're playing in a game where you don't know all the rules, so you don't know how to win. Right. And that tends to come up a lot with these students. So what are those secrets? 

Students may not know the importance of office hours. The power of student study groups. They don't have, nor do their family members have, the financial literacy that's needed to get through college financial aid minutia. So all those different things can make you feel like you just don't know what's up. 

Cathy Donovan: 

Very true, and I think, what resonated for me in a lot of the stories is the importance of family. You know, if you're a first-generation college student, that means that this whole world is new and that it's a positive thing for families. But it also might feel like... I think there was one- Tia Dita, her father said it felt like we were getting divorced. 

We have friends that are first-generation and I said, "Oh, you should read this book because the dad was like, "Now, do we have to move?" It feels like such loss because their child's leaving the house and they don't understand their future in the way that they want them to do well in college. But I think the separation of that child in that household and the role that they play it might be different. 

For Tiadita, I remember her father being really connected to her and, the work ethic was really strong in the family, and she ultimately was very successful. But I think the family pull… I know my husband's a first-generation college student, and I think he was advised a couple of times to leave Rutgers and to work in construction because his dad saw more of an immediate economic return than the long-term investment of college.

So I think it's hard for institutions at large to understand the family dynamics that might be at play for some students. 

Julio Abreu:

Yeah. And that is something that I saw over and over again working with first-geners in the nonprofit that you mentioned earlier. In particular in Latino families, letting go of a daughter to go off to college, there's a concern of safety, security, and it's tough for commuters because they need to come home, and the family feels like they should be more involved even though their focus should be primarily on their studies. There are family pressures to work, to help out with siblings. Right, that is a common challenge, especially for Latinx students. 

Cathy Donovan:

It also makes their journeys just that more powerful to know that when they do succeed, they've done so much for their families and their communities along the way. So I think those spotlights should be shown as well as all the power that's in students that are taking on so much in their lives. 

Julio Abreu:
 
Yeah, and it's a great point because it's something colleges can point out to parents when they have their parent orientation meetings, and that is to show parents the benefit of postponing gratification, meaning work and bringing money home, by postponing it to complete that degree, and then being able to give back in even a bigger way. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
Exactly. I think the concern isn't wrong, it's just concern of how are we going to make this work month to month, and because it's such a big change. And I think the more isolated you might feel, maybe you're embarrassed to raise that that's an issue or you don't have the support. But I know even though my daughters, we both went to college, I think my husband still brings all that experience. He still thinks that he failed because it took him longer to get through a big institution. I said, especially to go through it when his parents didn't go to orientation or they just didn't understand and he didn't have the kind of support that his friends did. That didn't mean his parents didn't love him and want him to succeed. 

Julio Abreu:

 Of course ... it was a complete disconnect. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
And one of the themes that resonated really strongly for me was about self-advocacy and how that's such a critical skill for student success and professional success. If you want to talk a little bit about why that is so important, especially for first-gen students. 

Julio Abreu: 
 
It looms large in a student's ability to get ahead, to succeed. Using the profile of one of the students whose story I told, Logan Powell from Idaho. This is a young man from a rural part of Idaho, grew up with cystic fibrosis, had unfortunately abusive parents, but it wasn't until he moved in with his very supportive grandpa that he started to really blossom. And he used the word self-advocacy because once he was doing well academically in high school, he brought that to college, and with that, he talked about how he wasn't going to sit back and wait for people to help him, that he was going to use his, quote, "superpower of self-advocacy" to go after what he needed, what he wanted, so he could achieve his goals. 

And that's what it's about. And that's hard for many first-geners to do. They lack the confidence to reach out for the kind of help they need. Whereas Logan and those who learn it, they realize the importance of asking for help, the sooner the better. And you turn it around, it becomes a question of realizing that asking for help is a strength. And I'll give you a story from my own background here. 

My wife had a great career teaching Spanish at the high school level. And at the end of class, often she would offer extra help to the students if they weren't clear on certain aspects of the lesson. And consistently, it was the A+ students who went to her for work not the ones who needed it. The A+ students realized, "This is how I'm going to do my very best." 

And then from the world of business, there's the former CEO of Nike, John Donahoe, who has given a number of speeches to business leaders about what makes you really successful. And he was emphatic in his speeches saying that you have to accept that asking for help is a strength rather than a weakness, and that the sharpest people accomplish everything they want because they seek out help from different sources. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
Right. I do think it, more so than ever with maybe social media and the pressures on kids today, that this idea of not knowing something or being vulnerable, feeling stupid when you don't understand something, that could make you kind of sink deeper and deeper into struggle, and how important it is to say, "It matters that I understand this, and I don't understand this," or, "I need extra help." 

So I think self-advocacy really is important in building those connections with your faculty, but it's also important in, I think, in finding belonging because it's similar to just recognizing that my story matters and I want to hear the stories of others, too. So I think if you would talk a little bit, too, about belonging throughout these stories.  I think there's a connection between opening yourself up to needing support or sharing your story that I think is really important for success.

Julio Abreu:
 
I've found that there are three pillars for student retention and success. One of them is belonging, the other two are financial management of your college cost and then academics. If any one of those three are out of sync, you're much more vulnerable to dropping out. 

And belonging is one where the student, like the imposter syndrome, feels like, "I don't belong here. I don't fit in. Maybe I'm not smart enough." There could be cultural reasons why they feel that. Teodita that you talked about earlier, she felt very out of place after being in urban New York City, the parents moving to southwestern Pennsylvania to a very quiet community where she was just one of a handful of Latino students at the high school.  And more dramatically, she felt very out of place when she started at St. John's University because of the social class difference. She was in a dorm suite with four other female students, and they all came from affluent families, which she couldn't relate to beccause they could spend whatever they wanted to on anything. But also, those females put more importance on partying than they did on their studies. 

Cathy Donovan: 

Yep. 

Julio Abreu:
 
For Tiadita, this first gen-er, she told me, "I don't get it. Here, these people have paid a bunch of money to get into college, their parents are paying for it, and they're wasting their time." She felt very out of place, and fortunately she got over it as she got more involved in her coursework and moved on to another type of a housing situation. 

I can tell you from my own experience, I was a commuter at first at Rider, and after one semester I was doing very well academically, but I was coming home right after classes, going to work, and unfortunately I had a dysfunctional family situation with a dad who was an alcoholic. So all of that made it really hard to feel good about college. I took off the semester, second one. Worked in Old San Juan, stayed with my grandparents, but I decided I'd better come back after realizing that selling shoes was not going to be a great career for me. 

What happened that summer is, and this is an important point as far as what colleges can do, I began to have professors who inspired me at Rider. They cared a lot about what I was doing and motivated me to want to learn more. I became like the Gary Paulsen quote where he says, "Read like a wolf eats." And, and that was very much the mode I switched to. I couldn't get enough. But I thank those professors and student services people who said, "You are worthy and we're going to get you through this." 

Cathy Donovan:
 
That's amazing. I think that people are so critical in making such an impact on a student feeling seen and heard and inspired to make the most of their education. And I think there's a lot that colleges can do better to make students feel comfortable asking for help and accessing support, and sometimes it's just acknowledging that positive behavior they do see or being curious in how they're doing, and that's obviously very difficult to do in a large school. But I do think institutions can do better. I was curious, what you think institutions can do.

Julio Abreu:

I feel strongly about what you just said, and for those first-geners that first year is the toughest, I believe. And the colleges, and there are plenty of colleges who get it, and have excellent programs. I'll give you a few examples. Penn State has a program where first-year freshmen put together into cohorts of six or seven students. So they start the year, these first-geners, in a group, so they immediately have something they belong to versus just trying to figure it out on their own when they're reluctant to be real social. 

My own alma mater, Rider, has a first-year program called the Student Navigation Office. And in keeping what you said, the advisors, faculty, they all are more closely monitoring how those students, how they're doing during that first year.  And by having regular contact, they're able to make sure they're not just meeting those students when they have crisis. So there is quite a bit that the colleges can do and that they need to do based on what we know about retention. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
And I think it's just as important to keep the families kind of updated and inspired by what their student is doing on campus where possible. I know just telling the good stories that are happening. It is a difficult first year, I'm sure. I think there's a lot of room for focusing on the good and telling the positive things that are happening for students, and not just, like, honor roll or the high performing. 

Julio Abreu:
 
Right. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
But sometimes it's normalizing that that first year is difficult, and to focus on why it's worth it, and to encourage the families to stay open and supportive. You know, not to sugarcoat anything, for sure. I went to college in a time where you call once a week or something from a payphone. It's just important for parents to be in the loop. I know they're 18 most of the time when they're just starting. The schools can talk directly to the student. For parents that may not know what to expect in terms of cost, lhow you communicate to those parents is really important. 

Julio Abreu:
 
Yeah, and there's a role either formally or informally for mentors, and as you read in the book, some of the students had formal mentors that in addition to the student services support they got, there was another individual in their life that felt that they were worthy and whose trust they built. 

And I think that's central to everyone working with these young people, is to develop a real trust with those students so they open up to you at different times rather than be fearful of telling you what they're struggling with. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
I think that's really important, is that genuine trust and creating that culture on campus where it's supportive, that they want you to succeed rather than, teaching by shaming or some of the old kind of school styles of humiliating people for what they don't know instead of being curious of how you're learning and what's possible.

Julio Abreu:
 
I get really inspired when I hear about institutions or students that have those kinds of experiences where they're supported in their own learning journey rather than being measured that there's one way to do it. The enlightened educators see a student not through the deficiency view of things, but rather someone that you can help build a very, um, strong personal growth mode. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
Absolutely. And I think it makes such a difference in such a digital world, that the more human connection that your students feel with the student services staff or their fellow students and faculty, and that's kind of encouraged throughout your institution, I think it makes a such a difference for first-gen students. So what do you hope that readers take away from this book, Julio?

Julio Abreu:
 
I hope that the student reader sees different ways that they too can overcome whatever challenges they've faced growing up with family, with academics, that they're inspired by the story of these other students who have been there, who have hit bottom and been able to dust themselves off and come out strong. 

And then there is the college personnel that can take advantage of this book in a variety of ways. Perhaps it can be part of their first-year college experience courses, student success sessions, Trio programs can benefit from that. 
 
 And the book can serve as a professional development resource to elevate the understanding, especially of new staff, of how first-geners tick and what they can do, that they might not have thought of, what they can do to help them continue to do well academically. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
And I think it's a low commitment for a read. It's very digestible, and you could definitely dedicate a solid afternoon and come away feeling that you have a better sense of students coming from different backgrounds and how they found a right course forward and some helpful hints for conversation. I think it's an excellent tool for anyone who's working in higher education to feel a little bit more prepared to maybe see and identify ways to connect with people who are coming, and that they represent the first time in their family. If there is one thing, though, for enrollment marketers, educators, and student success leaders to better understand first-gen students, is there one thing that you could share with us, Julio?

Julio Abreu:
 
I think what we talked about earlier, I think given the data on first-geners and the 24% that graduate that has to improve, more attention needs to be paid to that first year, which is the heart of retention. And at a time when there is this enrollment cliff and concern that everyone has, and one of the few bright spots happens to be the enrollment of first-generation students, it's incumbent upon everyone on, on campus to realize the power of retaining those students, and not just helping them persist, but also in an altruistic way, to help them excel. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
100%. That it's not just they're getting by, but you're helping them get ready for the real world of work, or for grad school, or what other path they want to take after college. And I think for all these students, you know, who are graduating high school now and excited for the fall, I think they want to be active contributors to the communities that they're joining. It really makes sense for that institution to make these students feel welcome and help shape that culture and that brand of that institution moving forward for the better. Those are really powerful stories to tell. 

Julio Abreu:
 
And there's a really great ROI that's part of supporting these students. Just about every single student I interviewed has decided to go into a profession where they can give back. They're the healthcare people, the teachers, the lawyers. In almost all cases, they want to help the next generation avoid some of the tough times. As powerful a message as one can send to college administrators, faculty, that they're sowing the seeds for many good things to come. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It's a lot of fun talking with you. 

Julio Abreu:
 
Thank you, Cathy. 

Cathy Donovan:
 
Today's conversation is a reminder that first-generation student success is not only the responsibility of students and families navigating college themselves. Everyone working in higher education has the opportunity to offer support through awareness, encouragement, and intentional action. 

If you'd like to learn more about First-Generation Voices of Success, see our show notes for where you could get your copy. And if you'd like to talk about how Paskill helps institutions connect enrollment strategy with student storytelling, we'd love to continue this conversation. Thank you so much, Julio. 

Julio Abreu:

 Thank you, Cathy.