The Center for First Generation Student Success, an initiative of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and the Suder Foundation, is launching a major study of first-generation students in community colleges.
The center’s director, Sarah Whitley, described the study’s goals during a session Saturday at the the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) annual convention.
The project is an outgrowth of a similar study the center recently published on first-generation students in four-year colleges. That initiative resulted in robust scholarly and media databases on efforts to help first-generation students succeed in college, Whitley said.
Best practices
The new study will examine how two-year institutions are serving first-generation students; what challenges they encounter; and how first-generation students perceive their institutional experience. It will be carried out in partnership with AACC and Achieving the Dream.