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Going off to college is always an adventure, but when you’re the first in your family to do so, it also presents a world of challenges. Everything is new and unfamiliar and there’s no built-in, been-there-done-that support system to guide you along the way. Making it through requires courage and resilience, but when first-generation students do finally start to feel at home in the world of higher ed, some of them never want to leave.

Just ask Bill Falls, psychology professor and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) at �պ����� (�պ�����) The youngest of four, he didn’t start thinking about college until his uncle told him he thought he was college material. Falls took that to heart and began to prepare to do something no one else in his family had ever done: go to university.

As any other first-generation student can attest, it wasn’t easy. “I had no one to help me choose where to apply, no support for the application process, and no one to guide me in my selection of a major,” Falls says. He initially decided to study law, but the combo of an excellent intro to psych class and an inspiring neuroscience faculty member turned him in a different direction.   

Being first-gen has strongly impacted the way Falls teaches and connects with students, as he has come to believe that “everyone is capable of success, no matter what their background.” The best advice he has for first-gen students on a similar journey?  “Ask questions! Ask for help!” Falls says. “You can do this, and you are not alone in this journey.”

He’s not alone in the College of Arts and Sciences, either. Allow us to introduce you to nine other CAS faculty members who became pioneers within their families by being the first to go to college.

Eric Thrailkill, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences

Professor Eric Thrailkill’s desire to be the first in his family to attend college stemmed from a yearning to know more. “I wanted to keep learning, develop my interests, and experience new things,” he says. But heading into the unknown definitely had its challenges, as he had no idea what was required to do well at the college level or the best way to get the most out of the many opportunities available to him. But his family encouraged him, and he did his best to make connections among the faculty and staff. “I knew it was something special that my siblings and parents didn't do, so I showed up, I sought out what was interesting to me, and I followed where that took me,” he says.

He also got help from a long list of professors who taught with passion and challenged him in the very best ways. “I try to do my best impression of that,” Thrailkill says. “I am fortunate to have the opportunity to teach courses on topics that are mysterious and exciting to me, and I do my best to pass along that excitement and wonder.”

Thrailkill also encourages his students to engage both in and out of class and during office hours, to set goals, and to open themselves to possibilities they may not have previously considered. “Be part of the �պ����� community and get involved early on,” he says. “Feel comfortable making changes and exploring.  And when you find what you like, engage with intensity.”

Jonathan 'Doc' Bradley, Lecturer of Political Science

For Jonathan 'Doc' Bradley, the path to college had some unexpected bends. At first, he went simply because he wasn’t sure what else to do when he graduated from high school. “But I was always afraid of looking like I didn't know something. I didn't like to ask for help,” Bradley says. He left school and went into the Army, where he learned to speak up and soon realized that what he really wanted was to go back to school and try again. “On my second go-around, I always asked for help and explanations of what was going on and what the rules were,” he says. He quickly fell in love with learning and realized he wanted to be a professor.

His identity as first-gen is ever present in the classroom. “I always call out to the first-gens in my classes and let them know they can come to me,” Bradley says. “I tell all my students that being a first-gen is harder because there is no family memory of how hard college can be.” He sometimes recounts how his own family often thought he was being lazy while he was working toward his Ph.D. because he spent so much time reading and staring at the computer.

Bradley has plenty of excellent advice for his first-gen students, too. “I tell them, be courageous. Be brave enough to ask for help. The entire university is set up to help students succeed, but a lot of that help has to be asked for,” he says. “Don't be like me and let pride and fear get in your way. And the great thing about courage is that fake courage is just as good as real courage if it gets you moving forward.”

Laura May-Collado, Assistant Professor of Biology 

Growing up in rural Costa Rica, Professor Laura May-Collado was fascinated by the natural world but had no idea a person could actually make a career studying nature. Then, when she was 13, her family moved to the capital, San José. Everything changed when she became friends with a student whose father taught at the University of Costa Rica. “She became my mentor and helped me to apply to college,” May-Collado says. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for her.”

Attending university presented a whole host of challenges. Not only was it expensive for her lower middle-class family, but May-Collado faced the lack of guidance and information that so many first-gen students face. “Not even knowing what questions I should ask to do well in college and be successful made it very difficult to feel that I belonged there,” she says. But she set her mind firmly on doing well in her classes while building relationships with her professors and other students, and those focuses carried her through.

“I understand the hardships of being a first-generation student,” May-Collado says, and her advice to them is based on her own experiences. “Find friends and professors who can serve as mentors, to whom you feel comfortable asking questions about how to study, how to find opportunities to broaden your experiences and knowledge, and what to do when you graduate,” she advises. “Most importantly, remember you are not alone, and that you belong. There are many of us here who, while having different experiences, share the same feelings. Find us and talk to us.”

Teresa Mares, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Professor Teresa Mares was one of those kids who can’t wait for break to be over so they can get back to class. “I have always loved school,” she says. “Then I fell in love with anthropology as a high school student and knew I wanted to continue learning about it.” But deciding early on that she wanted to go to college didn’t make it any easier.  “It was hard to navigate scholarship applications, decide on a major and classes, and learn how to negotiate higher education in general,” she says. “Fortunately, I found amazing mentors along the way.” 

It's no surprise, then, that Mares is committed to helping her own students. She focuses on treating each student as an individual with unique lived experiences that affect their lives both in and out of the classroom. “I do my best to share resources and forms of support with my students and to help demystify higher education when I can,” she says.

Her number one piece of advice? “Find your mentors! These might be professors, older students, graduate students, or other people who have attended college,” Mares says. “Support networks are key—and don’t be afraid of office hours.”

Glenn Levine-West, Lecturer of German

By the time he reached high school, Professor Glenn Levine-West knew that he wanted to go to college. “I was an avid reader of literature but also loved to make art, and I was very active in the theatre,” he says. He knew he wanted to study theatre, studio art, or English, but he had never been a strong student. That meant that not only did he face the challenge of having no college-going role models in his family, but also that his university choices were limited. “Fortunately, I picked an excellent university, the University of New Mexico, for my undergraduate study, and it provided me with exactly the sorts of intellectual challenges I needed at that age,” he says. 

Thanks to his experiences as a first-gen student, Levine-West understands and appreciates his students’ diverse learning styles. “I always aim to design lessons that are accessible to a range of learner types,” he says. “As an advisor, one of my red-thread messages has long been, ‘don’t sweat it —it's just one assignment/test/course,’ whenever I have students who are worried about their performance in a class.”

Levine-West also understands the value of exploration. While he began college as an English major, he switched to political science his sophomore year, then added a German studies double-major after taking a few German courses. He ended up studying abroad in Germany and went on to get both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in German studies. “So, my best piece of advice is to be sure to explore things you didn't know about before, remain curious, and be open to directions you had not planned on.”

Jeanne Shea, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Health and Society Program

A life-long love of learning and writing left Professor Jeanne Shea no doubt about her post-high school plans: She was headed to college. After majoring in Asian studies for undergrad, she turned her focus to anthropology and went on to earn both an M.A. and a Ph.D. That’s pretty difficult in and of itself, but as a first-gen student, Shea encountered additional challenges. “My family did not have any money to put toward college, so I needed to apply for a lot of scholarships,” she says. In addition, she had to learn how to navigate the unfamiliar world of higher education with no guidance from her family.  

All of this has led to Shea’s dedication to teaching with a social justice lens, avoiding assumptions about her students and structuring lectures and assignments so they are accessible to everyone in the class. “I advocate for compassion for others' knowledge and experiences and for recognition of the role that inequality plays in the world,” she says. 

Her advice to first-gen students is to resist the strong social pressure in college to prioritize fun over schoolwork. She notes that, unlike most first-gen students, some of the college students who neglect their classes can afford to do so because they have family money and networks to fall back on. “You'll most likely need to work harder and pay more attention to your coursework than they do because of your different background and social position,” she says. “But try not to get caught up in comparisons. You began from a different starting line and are on a different path.”

Sue Fenstermacher, Senior Lecturer in Psychological Science

While a young Sue Fenstermacher saw college as a chance to experience the world and meet people beyond her small, working-class hometown, she faced challenges from the very beginning. “Neither my parents nor my older brothers had ever gone through the college application process, so I had no idea what I was doing in terms of evaluating my options, applying for financial aid, and preparing for on-campus living,” she says. She got through with the help of her high school guidance counselor but still had little idea what to expect. “I was initially so overwhelmed by all the new experiences competing for my attention that I struggled to balance studying with other activities,” she says. She wasn’t sure how to make the most of the different forms of academic support and was too embarrassed at first to ask about them. In class, she kept to the back, too intimidated to ask questions of her professors.  

“I’d never heard the term “first generation student” as an undergraduate—I didn’t even realize that was a thing,” Fenstermacher says. “I definitely remember feeling self-conscious around classmates who seemed so much more confident and well-prepared, and I was reluctant to admit that I lacked the same preparation.” She stuck with it, though, and slowly began to feel more comfortable and confident as she navigated her new environment.  

But she has never forgotten what it was like to struggle, and those memories have led her to be a more patient, empathetic teacher. “I make an effort to give students the benefit of the doubt, to be encouraging and kind, and to be generous with my time, because I understand that not everyone is coming from the same starting place,” Fenstermacher says. She encourages her students to look for the many opportunities available that can deepen and expand their education and help them become more involved with the campus community. “There are so many resources available to you as an undergraduate student and so many opportunities to gain more hands-on academic experience,” she says.  

Travis Todd, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences

For much of his high school career, Professor Travis Todd had no plans to go to college. He didn’t have a reason to go and didn’t know anyone else who had. But his psychology teacher saw something in him. “She suggested college might be a good idea for me, so I decided to do it,” Todd says.

It wasn’t easy at first. “The main challenge was that I really had no idea what to expect when I walked through the doors,” he says. He immersed himself in his new surroundings, began to adapt, and approached the experience with an open mind. “I sampled a lot of different subject areas in my first year to try and figure out what I was really interested in,” he says.

Now, as a professor, Todd is keenly aware of how daunting it can be for the first-generation students who come through his classroom doors. “I try to be aware that everyone's path is different,” he says. “I try to get to know students in an effort to understand what they might find challenging about college and where they might also be excelling.”

Deborah Blom, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Professor Deborah Blom was a curious child, so it was a natural decision to go to college so she could continue learning about everything she found fascinating in the world. But she was unsure about how things like admissions and financial aid worked, and worried she wouldn’t be taken seriously because she didn’t talk and write like students from more highly educated families. “At first, I didn’t even consider that I could have a long-term plan where I could pursue a dream instead  just taking advantage of whatever opportunities came my way,” she says.

Blom has had many students come through her classes that remind her of herself—students who, like her, aren’t aware of what she refers to as the ‘hidden curriculum.’ “I do my best not to assume that college students have knowledge beyond that which is explicitly taught in classes, and to remind myself that we never truly know the reasons behind a student’s actions,” she says. “I try to be as explicit as I can about expectations in my syllabus and assignments.” She’s also a big fan of ‘transparent assignment design’ in which everything a student needs to know about an assignment, from a detailed assignment description to all available support related to the coursework, is communicated to them.  

Blom’s best piece of advice to first-gen students is to look for a support system among faculty and friends—and don’t be afraid to be honest with them. “Sometimes you have to take a risk and let people know you are struggling so you can get the help you need,” she says. “Don’t let your reality be created by the few people who have treated you without understanding or compassion. Instead, always remind yourself of all the people in your life who know, like, and respect you. Then, once you feel that you are in a position of strength, pass your knowledge on so that those who come behind you can benefit.”

Are you a first-generation student at �պ�����? Be sure to check out all the helpful resources found within the Center for Academic Success’s First Gen@�պ����� program.