First-generation gear was on full display on Nov. 8. // Photo Courtesy of Ashley Blum
There are several identity-based groups at Hofstra University that share characteristics such as gender, race, sexuality and religion. While these attributes are showcased within the vast student body population on campus, first-generation students are a lesser-known community.
For an entire week starting on Monday, Nov. 4, the Office of First-Generation Support and Engagement hosted First-Gen Students Week. This was a time which promoted a community of students whose parents or caregivers had never graduated from a four-year institution in the U.S.
During this week, Hofstra offered many activities for the community of students to engage in. Russ Smith, the director of the Office of First-Generation Support and Engagement, made sure to offer a wide variety of events for students to participate in.
“There is the big anchor celebration event, which is November 8th. That’s the big atrium takeover day when we have all kinds of goodies and giveaways and things, and we obviously give away our free t-shirts in the [Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center] atrium,” Smith said. “I try to set that up with a mix of student organization tables, for free, for first students to figure out how to get involved on campus.”
Some first-generation students shared the kinds of impacts it has to be so visible for a full week here at Hofstra.
“To me, it means just knowing that there is a community on campus that is going through similar experiences of the unknowns of college … of just having to navigate everything,” said Alex Hoy, a junior audio radio production major. “Like how to apply for financial aid, how to make sure that you’re registered for classes, all the things that you didn’t really have to do in high school that now really just flipped on its side and really changed throughout college.”
Ashley Blum, a junior health science major, shared her own story with learning she was considered a first-generation student.
“The first year I was at Hofstra, I actually didn’t know that I was a first-gen student just because of the definition. I wasn’t super educated on it. But once I was educated on it, I was opened up to this community,” she said. “[The celebration] was a really fun week. It was my first time really being a part of this event that Hofstra does … It’s been really cool to see all the programming that they have.”
Smith says that, while the week celebrating first-generation students is important, the same thought is put into activities that he plans for first-generation students throughout the year.
“There are some that are more about community building, like the first-gen family dinner. There are academic skill-building programs, like the motivation management workshop this year with the Center for Academic Excellence,” he said. “Then we have, like, personal, growth type programs where we do, like, fight financial literacy, the credit cards and credit scores, understand your credit program … Every week, we try to have a mix of those things, and I think we accomplished that pretty well.”
All of this programming seeks to accomplish one goal, according to Smith.
“The significance is that we’re creating a sense of community around being a first-gen student, or a first-gen community member because we also include faculty and staff in that,” Smith said.
Blum shared that this goal of generating a community is a really important thing for her, but also for Hofstra as a whole.
“I think that it’s so important to have people who are like you on campus. And I think for most of us, that means a variety of things,” she said. “To be able to have a group of people where, if you go to one of the first-gen dinners, they talk about things that have happened to them as first-gen students. And you’re like, wow. That happened to me too. I can really relate to that. And I think that it’s really, really special to have that community.”
