FirstGenFM
For educators looking to connect, learn, and share knowledge about serving first-generation college and college-bound students.
FirstGenFM
Empowering First-Gen Students: Building Sustainable Support Programs at the University of Missouri with Selena Meints
Discover the journey of Selena Meints, the First Generation Initiatives Coordinator at the University of Missouri, as she shares her story from being a first-generation college student to leading a first-gen initiative on campus. Selena shares her journey navigating the college experience without a traditional support system, which ignited her passion for supporting other first-gen students. She details her transition from working in disability services to creating a first-gen program from scratch at Mizzou, emphasizing the vital roles of data collection, listening tours, and securing campus-wide support.
In this episode, we explore the complexities of building and maintaining first-gen programs at a large university. Selena provides insights into collaborating with various campus units during welcome week and the strategies she’s implementing to boost first-gen student participation in high-impact practices: from applying for grants to integrating into committees, her efforts focus on bridging gaps and enhancing the sense of belonging for first-gen students at Mizzou. Learn about the significant challenges and the unique characteristics of these students, and how understanding campus culture plays a crucial role in addressing their needs.
Finally, we delve into the transitions first-gen students face as they move from college to professional life. Selena discusses the importance of lifelong support, including logistical challenges like healthcare and retirement planning. Initiatives like the Tri-Alpha Honor Society are highlighted as ways to celebrate and support first-gen achievements, fostering an inclusive environment that involves families, allies, and alumni. With plans for future growth and community engagement, Selena's vision aims at improving graduation rates and building a robust support network for first-gen students, faculty, and staff alike. Tune in to gain valuable insights and inspiration from Selena’s ambitious plans and dedication to creating a thriving first-gen community.
Selena's Bio and contact
selenameints@missouri.edu
www.linkedin.com/in/selena-meints
https://firstgeneration.missouri.edu/
First-Generation Initiatives Coordinator
University of Missouri-Columbia
Selena Meints currently serves as the newly founded First-Generation Initiatives Coordinator at University of Missouri-Columbia. The Office of First-Generation Initiatives supports, celebrates, and advocates for first-generation students and connects them to resources at Mizzou, with special emphasis in High-Impact Practices. The office mission helps to promote academic excellence and sense of belonging of First-Generation students from enrollment to graduation.
Meints also resides on several committees/appointments at the university: Chair of the First-Generation Student Success Standing Advisory Board, a Title IX and Equity Resolution hearing panelist, the Undergraduate Research Pathways Working Group and on the SAC Education Award Review Committee.
In her previous role as The Director of Student Accessibility Resources (OSAR) at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri she was responsible for the implementation of student accommodations to create equitable access for all Undergraduate and Graduate students. Meints served as Chair of the Employee Enrichment Committee, Co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and
member of the CARE committee. Meints joined William Woods University a
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You can find me at https://www.firstgenfm.com/ and on LinkedIn. My email is jen@firstgenfm.com.
Welcome and welcome back to the First Gen FM podcast, where we high school and college educators strengthen, celebrate and support first-generation college and college-bound students. I'm Jennifer Schoen, your host. Please call me Jen. I'd love it if you could leave a review and a rating for this podcast to help other educators find us. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Now let's dive into this week's episode.
Speaker 1:In this episode, I'm talking to Selena Mainz, the First Generation Initiatives Coordinator at the University of Missouri, where one in four students are first generation. We'll talk about building a program from scratch, with data collection and a listening tour, and then how she built support across the campus. Thanks for joining us today. So let's jump in with Selena Mainz, who's here with me today, and we're going to talk about how to start a first-gen program at a land-grant institution, specifically at the University of Missouri, and how Selena did it. So, selena, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about this, but I always like to start with you. Know what was your journey? What's the spark that got you into higher ed, into working with first-gen students?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I have to mention, of course, that I'm a first generation student myself. I identified in my undergraduate career as a first gen, a non-traditional student. I got married young so we lived as a commuter about 45 minutes away, went to a community college at first and transferred to University of Illinois Springfield, then transferred to University of Illinois Springfield, the smaller of the UI system, and took night classes. So all of those identities I was right there with the students experiencing things and being first gen has been a big part of all of those identities. It comes back to right. My parents didn't attend college and I moved out very young, got married, and so my parents didn't attend college and I moved out very young, got married, and so we were trying to navigate it, working full time and going to college. So I did not have a traditional undergraduate experience. So it all stems back from that.
Speaker 2:I really wanted I learned what is a higher education administrator in high school because I always was the kid who played with my dolls and was a teacher. So I always thought, oh, you have to be a teacher, right to work in higher ed, in education. I didn't really know, like, what higher ed meant in the administrative and staff side of things. Until really about my junior year of high school. I think I was talking with a counselor and like she's like you, can, you don't have to be a faculty, right, you don't have to be a faculty, right, you don't have to be a teacher? And so that's kind of what sprung it and I was like, oh, I'm gonna work in higher ed.
Speaker 2:I got obsessed with college. I was like learning, I'm very self-taught and like love research. So I was, uh, I was kind of a nerd about Ivy League statistics acceptance rates, okay. So like I can quote this is from 10 years ago by like six percent, right with harvard at the time, 10 years ago, their acceptance rate. So I became obsessed with just looking at schools, specifically the east coast I'm from iowa, okay I wanted to go anywhere out of iowa.
Speaker 2:So, being first gen, you know like I couldn't Pell eligible. But come from a low income background, I'm like, how do I get out of here with no parental financial support? They were emotionally supportive and I always knew I was going to college. Right, I was that straight, a very involved student, president of every club in high school, and I was like, well, of course I'm going to college, but where? Club in high school. And I was like, well, of course I'm going to college, but where?
Speaker 2:And um just wanted to get anywhere out of Iowa and ended up going to a large university very far away and it was not meant for me, so moved back home and went to community college. But that is what sparked it. Uh, I knew I was going to work in higher education. I was disappointed that there's not an undergrad degree specifically for higher education administration. You have to wait to get your master's in that. So I did end up getting't seen by faculty and staff in my undergrad experience and I wasn't mentored. I didn't even have an academic advisor at one point. Wow, really, just had to figure out myself. But I also did have.
Speaker 2:I was that stereotypical first gen student who had a lot of pride and I was like, well, I'm going to, like, this is going to be my career. So I know all about college already, so I'm just going to figure it out myself. And I really want to shake my former self, because I should have utilized the resources more right. I was briefly part of TRIO at a community college and so, like I, I knew a little bit about the term first gen, but that wasn't a word that was used 10 years ago when I was in college. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's relatively new, you know, thanks to the Center for First-Gen Student Success which is now First-Gen Forward.
Speaker 2:They kind of coined the term right, it's existed for decades, but in 2018 when they began, so I didn't know what. I was right. That identity wasn't used in my college experience and so I worked in higher education right out of my bachelor's. I thankfully got a great career working in disability services. So that's my background. Okay, access accommodations, testing accommodations, those sort of things. So I've worked in that background for about three to five years and took this position last summer of 2023. And University of Missouri is we're located kind of in between Kansas City and St Louis. We're right smack that, like literally the most Midwest you can be in the country. So, um, mizzou is the land-grant state flagship of the uh, of the state of missouri so we're very big.
Speaker 2:We have about 30 000 students. Okay, um, that's just undergraduate, like pre-professional graduate students. I mainly work undergraduate students, but I saw this position again. It was working as the director of disability services at a small private university here in Missouri and then took this position and really just told my story during the interview process and they really liked that.
Speaker 2:You know I can relate to the students and and tell them a little bit about how I identify as a transfer of how eligible Hispanic woman in-gen non-traditional took online right All the things, yeah, yeah, and so I can relate to that specific population. So Mizzou didn't have a first-gen office, so I am the founder of this office.
Speaker 2:Wow so they had nothing. So we do have great programs for first-gen students. I do want to make note of that. Since we are so large, a lot of the schools within the university, so there's like School of Health and Science, for example, arts and Science. There's all kinds of different schools. So School of Business, for example, has a Heartland Scholars Program and that is a small cohort of about 10 students each year, so only 40 students total.
Speaker 2:freshmen through seniors of rural business students who are first gen oh wow and that program is run by a separate faculty member and it is amazing, but it's only within school of business. Yeah, so mizu was like how do we? We have all of these great small pockets of programs? There's quite a few others, I can list as well, but we didn't have something targeting, all like the big umbrella.
Speaker 1:So something more centralized for all students.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of all undergraduate students, and we have about 5,000 first-gen undergraduate students Nice, so that's a big portion and there was no umbrella covering that. I do want to make note of TRIO SSS program. We have the largest TRIO program in the country who serves?
Speaker 2:670 students. I'm very proud of our TRIO program and they were rebuilding last year on the same time as I started. They had a new director and all new staff, and so we really have come together because we serve similar populations. Right, we can invite a certain number of first-gen students, students registered with the disability office and low income, but that is only serving right, a small percentage compared to the 5,000. 5,000, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I work in tandem with TRIO. We are in the same building, the Student Success Center, with a lot of other great um offices. There's CASE, which is for diversity scholars, and the Transfer Center, the Discover Center all of these great offices who do serve similar students. But again, there was no one who was corralling and leading this initiative, so I got hired in May of 2023. I had to launch the office just by myself, as a one-person department. I am still a one-person department with one work-study student, and I just utilized the partnerships that I've met throughout the year and a half that I've been there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, in addition to the TRIO program, who have been some of the champions in creating this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I created a 17-person board. It's a standing advisory board comprised of all kinds of folks across campus, since we're so large with different colleges and units within the university. We have the Transfer Center represented on our board, mcnair Scholars, which is also another TRIO program, who helps students get into graduate school, specifically focused on like undergrad research, and then the Office for Financial Success. That has been one of our amazing I call them first-gen champions. Alex Embry is the assistant director over there and we are one of the only universities in the country who has a specific, dedicated, separate office than financial aid. So financial aid is different. We do have a representative on my board of financial aid, but Office for financial success is a separate office that assists students in budgeting.
Speaker 1:They do their taxes for free, like a little bit more literacy financial literacy, yes, financial literacy presentations, consulting with students on one-on-one appointments and things like that.
Speaker 2:we also have champions from the library ellis library, main library on campus. They hired a student success librarian and so she's been great to have on my board and really thinking kind of outside the box of what can we do with both of our positions and focusing on student success efforts. So those are some of the folks along the trio who are on the board, but I have representations from advisors, hr, all kinds of different departments that you may not think of when you think of first gen. I love the library, yeah, but we try to have a unique representation from most of the major departments and schools on campus.
Speaker 1:Now, do you connect at all with admissions to kind of find out, like as they're, like, even during orientation, who the first gen students are, so you can start your context right away? How do you, how do you get in touch with them and what? What do you do to bring them in and help students understand that there is this there is this place just for them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've worked with admissions. One of the main things is that is the only way that we collect the data on who is first is through the admissions application. So working on that definition, compiling that data in our data system, has been super helpful.
Speaker 1:That's how we track it in all of our back end systems.
Speaker 2:I also have done recruitment events with admissions and enrollment management. So I've traveled to Dallas, chicago, st Louis, meeting with incoming prospective students who have admitted to Mizzou and just I'm hoping that my presence there every year shows oh hey, there's an office for me, right, my identity is celebrated and a lot of the incoming students may not again have heard of what is the term first gen. Right, a lot of what the work we do is just debunking the definition and kind of dispelling some of the myths behind what it means to be first gen, and a lot of high school students they may have heard of it but it depends on the school district they came from right. So if you didn't have, in my example I went to a big, large urban high school and we had one guidance counselor and like 600 students and unfortunately it's just. If you don't have that mentor support and you didn't have a parent or guardian attend a four-year university, who do you reach out to to even understand the terms?
Speaker 2:And you know, I always tell the incoming students you did the hardest part, you got in right. Applying to college for me specifically it was one of the hardest challenges and then figuring out your FAFSA on top of that and how are we going to pay? Right, you can't be there in 10 with good grades if you can't afford it, right? So I think it does start in K through 12 of teaching and um Really having professional development for the counselors. So that is one of our goals is to work with the guidance counselors who the schools we recruit from and really letting them know again what is first gen, going down to the basics, what is the definition?
Speaker 2:How can they explain it to their students right when they're applying to MISU, and then they know that our office is here for them once they get here?
Speaker 1:for them once they get here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's one of the beauties of working at a state school too I worked at the University of Washington for about 10 years and knowing that, like your state, is something that the institution is focused on, and so you can do outreach to the schools in the state and the guidance counselors in the state and really connect with them to say this is what we're doing, this is what we offer, and the idea that if you send your students to us, it's not just like, hey, welcome, good luck to you, bye, you have a person who is designated to guide you when you run up against any barriers.
Speaker 1:I laughingly, sometimes call it the I don't know office. I tell my students that because if you're walking around campus and you're like, oh, I reallyly sometimes call it the I don't know office, um, I tell my students that cause like, if you, if you're walking around campus and you're like, oh, I really wish I could do this, but I don't know, you should be like, oh, I don't know. Like, I'm going to go see, like Jed, I'm going to go see, like the opportunity scholars office and figure that out. And I think when counselors know, or community-based organizations know that they're sending their student to a place that has that kind of support. I think they feel good about sending those students to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've done presentations for AVID groups.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2:There's coming to chat with us. Yeah, I've trained the admission recruiters, so the ones going out in the field and again going down to the basics, what is first gen, so they can understand and tell them about our office. I've met with prospective students I am tabling every day in June and July every year at our orientation so all the incoming freshmen and transfer students, so they see our office quite a bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so have you cloned yourself in order to get to all these places all the time, or do you just work 24 hours and then collapse like at the end of the month?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is something that I'm thinking about going into year two. You know we're in week five right now this semester and I have tabled again at Summer Welcome. We have a welcome week, which is like a whole week of activities before class even starts where all students, not just freshmen, can go to um. I held events during that for the incoming freshmen tabled at involvement week things. So there's there's always something right in the semester and, like I definitely ran into that during welcome week, there was three things I was supposed to be at at once.
Speaker 2:And my one student worker was busy with students rushing for sororities. So, yeah, it was definitely a challenge. I ran across the campus with my big wagon with all of my stuff to the table and just, unfortunately I may not be able to be at every single thing, but I have. I have been at 99% of the table.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's awesome, but I, I, yeah, I think finding that balance is going to be the trickiest thing. Um, but I think you're you're. Instead of a headshot, you should send me the picture of you running across campus with the red wagon. That should be like your symbol. So what were some of the challenges that you faced in setting all this up, cause I'm, I'm you? So what were some of the challenges that you faced in setting all this up Because I'm you know, even though people were like, yes, we need this, there's always some challenges. Yeah, what did you face? What did you face and how did you overcome them, or are you still overcoming?
Speaker 2:Still overcoming. So many people welcome you with open arms and were really supportive of the initiative. There was a working group of folks so about 15 folks on campus, again representing different units, who shared this initiative and were working on goals, and one of their goals was to hire my position right. So I met with those folks first who are on the board on that working group and kind of did a listening to her. My supervisor gave me a laundry list of all the directors and deans and everyone I should chat with in different departments. And again, our campus is very large. I walked across campus, not with my wagon at that point, but we didn't have any materials at that point. I did eventually create an office flyer a couple of months later, but just myself walking to other people's offices because I wanted to see their space and learn campus. I'm not a Mizzou alum, right.
Speaker 2:I come from the University of Illinois and so I had to learn campus the physical spaces, because something I pride myself in. One of the first things I wanted to do was, if I don't know campus, how can I show students where the counseling center is, for example? I can walk them over there because I know campus it's a very walkable campus. How can I show students where the counseling center is, for example? I can walk them over there because I know campus it's a very walkable campus. But I try to make sure I know what every building is. So just learning campus, meeting folks you know some have been there 20 years, others were new, like me and just introducing myself, really trying to understand the culture and what we do celebrate and what the wins have been and some of the challenges, because I can't claim to come in and be the expert. I've done a lot of research on first gen, like the scholarly research, but what is it at Mizzou that first gen students struggle with? So I started with listening to her and then looking at our data. So the Nessie data of 2022 was the most current data when I started. We are about to.
Speaker 2:I just joined the Nessie committee for this coming year, which is exciting and that showed a lot of interesting facts about our first-gen students. Right, because we can characteristically say and look at the nationwide data, that you know a first-gen student stereotypically is a hispanic, african-american woman over the age of 25 with children. For example, at mizzou that's actually quite the opposite. We have about 60 percent um 18 year old women, white women as well. So that's something to note, right, that we don't fit that characteristic. And so, keeping that in mind, when we looked at the Nessie data, we saw that the African-American male first-gen students actually have the lowest sense of belonging among any other identifier on campus. So I kept that in the back of my mind and then I also saw in the Nessie data that first-gen students have the lowest participation rate in high-impact practices. So when we say we shorten that, we call it HIPS, and I know we're using jargon here and a lot of first-gen students don't know what jargon is and some of my colleagues don't even know what HIPS are.
Speaker 2:Right, and they work in higher education, but those are things like study abroad, undergrad research, internships and service learning, right, and a few other classroom things like capstones and things like that, yeah, and so that was something that was like that is alarming, but it makes sense, right, because of the affordability or the access piece, something that I never, ever considered studying abroad in my undergraduate experience um, never been out of the country, right. And so when you're a first-gen student or a low-income student, you're like that you don't even look at that office, right, you walk right by it and you're like that's not even an option for me that right.
Speaker 1:That's not for me not for me.
Speaker 2:So that was one of my first missions. How can we get first gen students participate in things like study abroad, undergrad research, things like that? So I joined an undergrad research working group. Our task is to get first gen students to apply for the National Science Foundation grant, which is really prestigious National Science Foundation grant which is really prestigious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've been on that committee since I've started. We met yesterday, like we're meet biweekly, and just a great group of people who are all trying to accomplish the same goal. But a big thing that I would like to know is the study abroad aspect.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we created a study abroad program. We went to Costa Rica. We had 15 out of the 24 students who went were first gen, which was the highest number of first gen students in one program. So this was kind of our pilot year, right, like, since I had just started I was like I'm just setting off a few months later to Costa Rica with these students. But it was amazing being there in the ocean with them and they were telling me like if I didn't know about your office, never saw your emails, because we did a lot of promotion and marketing for it and just trying to change the narrative of like this isn't for you, right? That's what they usually think.
Speaker 2:And just in that one program, like, I've already seen a difference in first-gen students reaching out, discussing study, the study abroad. They think it's an option for them now and they've seen some of the other students who went you know, hearing their friends' experiences. So I'm excited to see what we do next. We are planning something for spring of 2026. Very, very excited. We're going to go visit that country this January to kind of scope it out. But I'm already telling students like we're going to have a first gen only trip, so this will just be first gen students. We're calling it first to fly and there's hefty scholarships.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's fantastic and this is like an alternative spring break then, so students don't have to commit to being away for a semester.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a short-term faculty-led trip that they get class credit for.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's fantastic, very exciting. Okay, I'm not going to ask you to share the sneak preview of where you're going, so you know, just in case your students are listening. They'll be like I knew first. That sounds amazing and I do think that all of those experiential learning pieces are really important to first-gen students because it gives them a professional network and it does take them out of their comfort zone yet again in some ways. Right, I mean, coming to college might be out of their comfort zone, but then study abroad or an internship, you know, going into that professional setting is just going to give them just such a rich college experience. So, yeah, I think that's so key and it's amazing all the things that you're getting started and I love how you are thinking of it as and you can tell me if this is how you are thinking of it but what I'm taking away is you're a hub, but you spoke out to a lot of different departments and people who then interact and share their expertise with the students that you're serving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't claim to be the expert right, the goal and vision of our office, since I am a one-person department. I meet with students one-on-one. They can make an appointment with me. I've set office hours, but really it just I want to get them to the right expert right. Because we're so big, we have which is amazing, we have those resources, we have the experts to go talk about their finances with. So I do meet with students and chat with them about their personal struggles.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the conversations are around you know, what's next after their bachelor's degree?
Speaker 2:Are they going to go to grad school? Worries about entering adult life? Right. Then we have to figure out again first-gen doesn't leave you, right, that identity. Then you're entering the workforce and then you're considered a first-gen professional. Yeah, it's a hard thing to navigate after college and the logistics like your health care, your 401k yeah, yeah, that is a lot of what we mean about. And then just first gen. First gen scholarships that I've met with several students. Uh, just, you know they're worried about the payment plan was due last week and so, you know, the first one of the semester and just trying to help students, keep them here, right, like, if, again, you can afford it, how can we assist them any further than that?
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, I love that and I said this on a previous podcast. But my belief is always that if we admit them to the university, then we need to do everything we can to keep them and help them graduate. You know, as long as they're willing to meet us halfway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that is how we crafted our office mission. We kind of our slogan is celebrates for an honor, which sounds like your intro of the podcast, which is amazing. I thought it was funny. We're all again. We're all here across the country. That is our main mission, right, we serve similar students in similar demographics at each different types of institutions, but I think we all have the same core mission. Yes, so yeah, I looked at what other universities are doing, what are some of the successes, and really took it from there and we've crafted. Within my board, my advisory board, and I have a couple other subcommittees as well I've crafted the office mission to really create a creative, celebratory community on campus of not just grad students but their parents, families, right, alumni, faculty and staff, because we can't just think about students. We got to think about everyone else who identifies as first gen and the people that are connected to them. First gen allies is what we would call them, right? Yeah, so our vision has really crafted recently.
Speaker 2:Again, we're going into year two and I'm like let's narrow down. What can we say in the next five years? Where are we headed? Right, this office, and there's a lot of goals and missions along with it, but it goes back to retention and graduation rate. So part of how my position was funded through the Higher Learning Commission HLC that was one of the core missions was focusing on first generation efforts and getting graduation retention rates up, and so our vision is to. We currently at 2019 was the latest data set from the four-year graduation rate, which is about 45.8. We're going to try to get it up to 48. So 2.2% difference Doesn't sound like much by 2027, next four years, but I think all the initiatives that I'm discussing here really goes back into that core mission and vision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I like how you're thinking of it as a whole ecosystem of you know, not only undergraduates, but also including, you know, faculty and staff and allies and everyone, because we know that if you support first gen students, you're really supporting and building support for all the students. And then you know, as you see, your graduation rates rise. And was that your graduation rate just for first gen or for overall?
Speaker 2:That's just first gen. Yeah it's lower than the non-first gen peers. The non-first gen peer is 62%.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. So I imagine the goal would be at least to get to that point and then to overtake that. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Long-term thinking.
Speaker 1:Right, I love it. I love it. So what? What, besides the the spring study abroad that obviously people are now talking about, what are some other things that you found that resonate with students that you've done recently?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're really excited about Tri-Alpha. We recently created a chapter at our university, trialpha. We recently created a chapter at our university and TriAlpha is a nationwide honor society for first-gen students, but not just students alumni, honoree students who are affiliated with your university, and also faculty and staff who are first-gen. They didn't have to attend Mizzou, but just any first-gen faculty and staff member if they identify as such. But just any first gen faculty and staff member if they identify as such can be inducted. So we're rolling it out this fall.
Speaker 2:We just sent the emails to students a couple of weeks ago. We already have close to it's close to 100 who have applied and joined, which is really, really exciting. We have about 30 faculty and staff who are going to be inducted and the deadline is still not for another month. So I am hoping those numbers will rise. But I was, so I was like really, really excited. I was kind of nerding out when I saw the first person apply for triumph club, because we didn't know what to expect. Right, this is a new initiative and, um, I think just having an honor says that it showcases to the upperclassmen with a 3.2 gpa that we're here to support and honor them in any way we can and this is just one new way to have a yearly induction ceremony on National First Gen Day. We're going to have it on November 8th.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you if you were going to yeah, yeah, yeah, of course that Friday.
Speaker 2:So we're going to have cake and punch and live for their families to celebrate with them. But again, just another way that we can show support for those students.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that that celebratory piece is so important.
Speaker 2:We always go back to the celebratory and our messaging when we were, because a lot of building a new office is the marketing and promotion around it. Right, because since you're new, no one really knows what you're doing. And since it's a brand new office, is the marketing and promotion around it right, because since you're new, no one really knows what you're doing and since it's a brand new office, you have to also create the office mission. Right, all of that, but also the, the slogans right, and the marketing that we use. So we have proud to be first gen. Buttons that everyone wears across campus. Um, I hand out all of the stuff when I'm tabling. All the time. We have the little stress balls and parents love stress balls and stickers that have our logo as well, and then the office flyers, and so again, t-shirts and mugs and all the things.
Speaker 2:But I think having that celebratory message in our messaging, in our marketing and promotion, I think creates, because sometimes when you hear first gen, there's that stigma or the deficit viewpoint, and so I really tried it that again it comes back down to how can we create a culture at our university where we're celebrating, uplifting first gen students and not looking at them in a deficit manner because they do have struggles compared to their non-first-gen peers. And I do a lot of professional development training for faculty and staff and advisors who work with these students, because it's good to know the data and the facts around the students nationwide and then what it looks like at our university. But then when we're actually speaking with students, we want to make sure that we understand some of the deficits or the struggles they face and the challenges they face, but how can we then help them through that in a more positive manner?
Speaker 1:right, right, right, yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. And because the deficit model has been around for so long, there is some struggle to get rid of that and replace it with a more positive point of view when talking to these students. But it sounds like you're doing tremendously well and students are finding you and talking with you and taking advantage of all the things you have to offer. What's next Like? What are your blue sky ideas? And then, what are your like? We're definitely going to do this, no matter what.
Speaker 2:So we were excited to get into the First Scholars Network that is, through First Gen Forward, formerly known as Center for First Gen Student Success, that third party nonprofit who helps. They created National First Gen Celebration Day and then we turned it into a week and now the whole month of November is like my Super Bowl, like we host so many events throughout November celebrating students. But I always like to know you know we're not just celebrating you one day, one day or one month. We host monthly social events through our student org. That was new. It got created last year, became an official student org and I advise that. So we have a whole new exec board. It was founded by this great senior who graduated this past May, already has a job in California, very proud of him, and we have a new president and a whole new exec board who really wants to create something special with us and have a kind of safe space for first-gen students to come together and build community. Community because the research shows right if they get involved, not just in the things I mentioned before but with each other and make connections with students and with other faculty and staff. We know the research shows if they interact or have a mentor with faculty that that graduation rate skyrockets there. So really building that community and having just fun social events. We've done game night, movie night, paint and sip. We did a vision board craft night the other day Super fun, but just fun, silly ways to get together and meet each other and I'm like, if you meet one, I love when I see a student like meet a friend, like exchanging Snapchats with each other. It's just really fun to watch. So I'm right there with the students.
Speaker 2:I work a lot of nights and weekends trying to just plan fun events for them. And we have the whole committee for national first gen celebration week. I have close to 15 to 20 departments representing. So we that's fabulous events. We held 22 events last year, um, and so very excited to see what this year will bring and um, just got the t-shirts ordered for that. We're gonna have tie-dye very fun things coming up. But where we're really working on aside from students and getting them involved, I had to take a step back and think right, we're always focused on students and how can we better them? What about the first-gen faculty and staff as well, and alumni, right, those components like I mentioned before, and so we had a windfall of faculty and staff reaching out to me recently because we put a call to action in the Provost newsletter asking for first-gen faculty and staff who identify as such and would like to be listed in our directory on our website. So we have close to 90 faculty on there so far about 50 staff. It's going to keep growing.
Speaker 2:Got emails already today about it and just really trying to gather a list of who is first gen right, because again, the research shows, if a student sees, sees, they're you know oh, that chemistry professor I have a class on tuesday he's first gen. Now they're more likely to go speak with them and we know that that interaction can create a really sense of belonging, yeah, yeah and that's a big portion of our office mission is that's belonging.
Speaker 2:That works specifically. So really just gathering faculty and staff. What can we do with this new initiative? I created a tab on our website trying to gather interest of. Should we create like a monthly coffee chat? Maybe we have a book club and discuss scholarly research on first-gen topics? Um read one book a semester but really just gather us together as a community and lean on each other who share that identity as first-gen professionals because, like I mentioned before, that identity never really leaves you and in academia, in higher education, sometimes there's that stigma around labeling yourself as first-gen faculty or staff member. But I think just being transparent about it and showing our students that we also have similar stories to them and how we created pathways, I think it's really inspiring for students to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, agree 100%. I think the more people who are willing to share that they have a similar background, the more our students sort of see it and believe it that they can do some of the things that they've been hoping to do when they're in college. Yeah, yeah, love it. All right. So you've created this program. It's still new, you know, you're still working on things. So what would you say to someone who, right now, you out there listening and you're like, oh, I want to start a program like this. I have some funding, or I don't have some funding, but I want to start it, selena, what would you suggest that they ask gather?
Speaker 2:do you have to build a rapport with the other staff and faculty on campus who support that vision and mission If you're trying to create and build a first-gen office from the ground up and I know a lot of universities are doing that currently I went to professional NASPA conferences right when I first started really self-taught and looked at all the research on first-generation specific topics and I think some of the challenges have been funding right. If you're not grant funded, such as Treehouse SS or having donors, I think you have to start small and realize who your supporters are, because it really comes down to like I can't do the work myself as a one person department but I never work alone, right?
Speaker 2:So you're always collaborating with other partnerships, so finding those folks in your corner who support it. If you're, if this is a brand new initiative, I would form a committee and look at the definition that you have at the university. What is the definition of first-gen? Right? Because that is. I do a whole PD training, two hours discussing this to faculty and staff, and there's people on my board who didn't realize the convoluted messaging behind the definition. Right, there's one legal definition we take from the TRIO legislation, but it gets pretty complicated because every university, community, college has different definitions and there's a lot of articles written about this.
Speaker 2:But how do we create one solid definition? So if there's not already one solid definition, then where are you asking it? Right? So, thankfully, we already had it on our admissions application and some folks can take that data from the FAFSA as well, but not every student fills out FAFSA. So, double checking your data and assessment and starting from there, of who is first gen, what is the percentage? How do we gather communication to these students, right? So I gathered the report they get about weekly emails from me on a newsletter about specific first gen topics. So I sent one out the other day about a scholarship opportunity for first gen students and an event that we did on Wednesday and so really specific messaging. And then I found the incoming prospective students who indicated they were first in on the admissions application and I just sent them a postcard saying we celebrate you and telling them about our office and a link to the website so they know even before they've stepped on campus.
Speaker 2:Love that they have a resource for them. So I think starting with the definition in the incoming students will kind of help build the programs for current students as well yeah, I love that we celebrate you and then sharing what, what the office does, that's, that's just.
Speaker 1:If I saw that, I'd just smile because I'd be like, wow, like, yeah, like somebody's celebrating me, love the next school.
Speaker 2:I want to add the stickers and buttons in that postage to their home. I think yes.
Speaker 1:Nice and I didn't ask you this, but are you under student life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're actually housed under undergraduate studies. Ok, so we're located in the Student Success Center, which has again a lot of the other resource offices serving students with the objective of success.
Speaker 1:Nice, that's fantastic. Is there anything else you you want folks to know, like how to contact you, or or if they have an idea, or they want to pick your brain because they're about to do what you have done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I met with other folks just a few in the UM system, university of Missouri system. We have a few schools trying to create something similar, similar programs, and so definitely open to Zoom chats or phone calls or emails. It's selenamindsetmissouriedu. Everything is also on our website, so firstgenerationatmissourieu Very proud of that website. We're slowly, slowly building it. Tons of great info on there. I always refer students, parents, faculty staff.
Speaker 1:We have a tab for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yes, Definitely the place to go.
Speaker 1:It is a great and inclusive website of all those groups, so I really liked checking that out. So I'll put the email address your email address and the website in the show notes so if anybody's listening in the car, you don't have to pull over right now, Write it down or memorize it. Later on you can check the show notes and get that information. So thank you, Selena, so much for coming on and talking about this great program that you're developing. Hopefully we can revisit in a couple of years and then you can say, like I have a staff of this many people and we're doing all these things, and you can maintain your sanity and not just burst into flames from trying to be three places at once with your wagon.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for being here with me today and if you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at Jen, that's J-E-N. At firstgenfmcom and at my website is firstgenfmcom. I look forward to talking with you again next week and, as always, I love to hear a rating and review and helps other people find the podcast. Thanks so much for today and we'll talk to you next week.