For my research project, I wanted to focus on the first generation college students experience going into their first year of college. As a first generation student myself, I thought it would be interesting to look at the various experiences other students had and see if they had any ideas on what could make it better or what is already working. I did this by attending SOMOS meetings because my literature seemed to suggest that most first generation students are minorities student, and because I am also Latina, I just felt more comfortable surveying this particular group.
One of the meetings I went to had the greatest affect on me. It was shortly after the white supremacy posters around the Regis campus had been posted all over. There was a lot of tension in this group meeting. They wanted to focus on prejudice, racism, DACA, and mental health. Most of the students expressed fear during these meeting because they did not know how to deal with something like this. Some of the students had never experienced this sort of open hatred, and asked for advice. One of the girls mentioned in particular that as her status as a DACA student, she felt especially terrified and didn’t feel like she could turn to anyone.
When I spoke to some of them about how their first generation experience impacted this, they said it was something they thought about a lot. One of the guys said that mental health was a big thing for him, because it wasn’t something discussed in his family and he didn’t know where to get help for that.
Overall, it was an interesting experience, and I hope to bring together some ideas of what can be done to make first generation students feel more welcome.
Veronica Ortiz
The Regis Ethnographer 