Guides: First Year Experience (FYE) and Orientations: First Generation (campus partner)

Welcome to the First Generation library guide page!

This page on the First Year Experience Guide references First Year, First Gen and College Success resources. UNT Emerald Eagle Scholars is also part of the First Generation Success Center's programs.

What is the First-Generation Success Center?

The First-Generation Success Center is a resource center developed to better support first-generation students as they navigate college life. First-Generation students make up almost 40% of the student population. The center works to collaborate with campus partners to design workshops and presentations addressing topics such as campus resources, financial aid, financial literacy, college terminology, career preparation, and academic coaching. The First Generation Success Center is housed in the Center for Belonging and Engagement under the Division of Student Affairs.

Who is a first-generation college student?

The University of North Texas defines a first-generation* student as a student (undergraduate/graduate) whose parent/s or guardian/s did not complete a four-year college degree (bachelor’s degree) from an institution of higher education (college or university) in the United States. If a student has only one primary parent or guardian, the education of the non-primary parent does not need to be considered.

First Generation Success Center [website]

Emerald Eagle Scholars Study Night at Willis Library (Fall 2025)

Three sessions. Shareable link on the library calendar. For EESP scholars cohorts.

EESP Study Night 1 - Part of series. #1 of 3
Tuesday, September 16th, from 4:30-6:30pm
Location: 250H Willis Library 2nd floor
EESP Study Night 2 - Part of series #2 of 3
October 6th from 4:30-6:30pm
Location: 250H Willis Library 2nd floor
EESP Study Night 3 - Part of series #3 of 3
Wednesday, November 12th, from 4:30-6:30pm
Location: 250H Willis Library 2nd floor
For Emerald Eagle Scholars Program (EESP) students only. Must have ID card for card swipe.
Work on your projects or assignments, or take a break with games/coloring with your peers and mentors. Librarian present to help.

EESP Pins Program

Pin Programs

What are Pin Programs? Pin Programs are exclusive opportunities for Emerald Eagle Scholars to gain unique experiences, develop skill sets in a variety of areas, and build their resumes! After successful completion of the Pin Program, students will earn an achievement pin to proudly display on their Emerald Eagle Scholars graduation stole!
Learn more at EESP Current Scholars website.

Fall 2024 Librarian activities:

Invited guest presentation on leadership on October 22, 2024 with Lilly Ramin.

Subject term examples to browse the UNT Libraries' collection:

In the Subject Field of library catalog advanced search enter:

First-generation college students
First-generation college students > Services for > United States

E-Books Online

Academic Library Services for First-Generation Students
Sandria Rodriguez
E-Book
1st ed.
Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, 2001

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How do children from under educated and impoverished backgrounds get to college? What are the influences that lead them to overcome their socioeconomic disadvantages and sometimes the disapproval of families and friends to succeed in college? These are the basic questions Sandria Rodriguez posed to seventeen first-generation college graduates, and their compelling life stories make important contributions to what little is known about this phenomenon. The daughter of parents who didn't finish elementary school, Rodriguez uses many examples from her own life in the course of examining the participants' experiences before, during, and after college that directed them toward social or educational activism. Together, the seventeen represent a wide range of diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, geographical area of childhood, and profession. Twelve of the seventeen hold advanced degrees, all are working professionals, and all come from families who were poor. Jerry, the son of German immigrants, owns an engineering company in Chicago; Chang, a native of China, is the first from his village to go to college; Grant, a sharecropper's son, is a lawyer with a nationally prominent law firm in Washington, D.C., and patron of fine arts; Arlene, a Mohawk Indian, is a storyteller and social activist; Alex, from Spanish Harlem, is an elementary school principal. The book is divided into four parts. In the first two chapters, we meet the participants. In the three chapters that follow, Rodriguez examines how the participants as children perceived themselves within their families, schools, and communities. Chapters four and five focus on the campus life and the participants' activist experiences. Finally, chapter six offers recommendations for mentoring disadvantaged children, so that they can successfully "switch the track" and aim for something better. Giants Among Us is an essential resource for college administrators, faculty, counselors, and student support-services staff--as well as K-12 educators--concerned with preparing, retaining and mentoring first-generation students.
College aspirations and access in working-class rural communities: the mixed signals, challenges, and new language first-generation students encounter
Sonja Ardoin
E-Book
Lanham : Lexington Books, [2018]

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College Aspirations and Access in Working Class Rural Communities: The Mixed Signals, Challenges, and New Language First-Generation Students Encounter explores how a working class, rural environment influences rural students’ opportunities to pursue higher education and engage in the college choice process. Based on a case study with accounts from rural high school students and counselors, this book examines how these communities perceive higher education and what challenges arise for both rural students and counselors. The book addresses how college knowledge and university jargon illustrate the gap between rural cultural capital and higher education cultural capital. Insights about approaches to reduce barriers created by college knowledge and university jargon are shared and strategies for offering rural students pathways to learn academic language and navigate higher education are presented for both secondary and higher education institutions.
COLLEGE BELONGING: how first-year and first -generation students navigate campus life
E-Book
[S.l.] : RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021

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College Belonging reveals how colleges' and universities' efforts to foster a sense of belonging in their students are misguided. Colleges bombard new students with the message to "get out there!" and "find your place" by joining student organizations, sports teams, clubs and the like. Nunn shows that this reflects a flawed understanding of what belonging is and how it works. Drawing on the sociological theories of Emile Durkheim, College Belonging shows that belonging is something that members of a community offer to each other. It is something that must be given, like a gift. Individuals cannot simply walk up to a group or community and demand belonging. That's not how it works. The group must extend a sense of belonging to each and every member. It happens by making a person feel welcome, to feel that their presence matters to the group, that they would be missed if they were gone. This critical insight helps us understand why colleges' push for students simply to "get out there!" does not always work.
First-generation college students: understanding and improving the experience from recruitment to commencement
Authors: Lee Ward, Michael J. Siegel, Zebulun Davenport
Resource Type: E-Book
Publication: San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2012
Related Series: Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series

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FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS "...a concise, manageable, lucid summary of the best scholarship, practices, and future-oriented thinking about how to effectively recruit, educate, develop, retain, and ultimately graduate first-generation students." --from the foreword by JOHN N. GARDNER First-generation students are frequently marginalized on their campuses, treated with benign disregard, and placed at a competitive disadvantage because of their invisibility. While they include 51% of all undergraduates, or approximately 9.3 million students, they are less likely than their peers to earn degrees. Among students enrolled in two-year institutions, they are significantly less likely to persist into a second year. First-Generation College Students offers academic leaders and student affairs professionals a guide for understanding the special challenges and common barriers these students face and provides the necessary strategies for helping them transition through and graduate from their chosen institutions. Based in solid research, the authors describe best practices and include suggestions and techniques that can help leaders design and implement effective curricula, out-of-class learning experiences, and student support services, as well as develop strategic plans that address issues sure to arise in the future. The authors offer an analysis of first-generation student expectations for college life and academics and examine the powerful role cultural capital plays in shaping their experiences and socialization. Providing a template for other campuses, the book highlights programmatic initiatives at colleges around the county that effectively serve first-generation students and create a powerful learning environment for their success. First-Generation College Students provides a much-needed portrait of the cognitive, developmental, and social factors that affect the college-going experiences and retention rates of this growing population of college students.
Improving college access and completion for low-income and first-generation students ...
E-Book
Washington : U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2016

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Improving college access and completion for low-income and first-generation students: hearing before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, Committee on Education and the Workforce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, first session, hearing held in Washington, DC, April 30, 2015
The journey before us: first-generation pathways from middle school to college
Laura Nichols
E-Book
New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2020]
Critical issues in American education

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More students are enrolling in college than ever before in U.S. history. Yet, many never graduate. In The Journey Before Us, Laura Nichols examines why this is by sharing the experiences of aspiring first-generation college students as they move from middle-school to young adulthood. By following the educational trajectories and transitions of Latinx, mainly second-generation immigrant students and analyzing national data, Nichols explores the different paths that students take and the factors that make a difference. The interconnected role of schools, neighborhoods, policy, employment, advocates, identity, social class, and family reveal what must change to address the "college completion crisis." Appropriate for anyone wanting to understand their own educational journey as well as students, teachers, counselors, school administrators, scholars, and policymakers, The Journey Before Us outlines what is needed so that education can once again be a means of social mobility for those who would be the first in their families to graduate from college.
Keeping college within reach: sharing best practices for serving low-income and first generation students
E-Book
Washington : U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2015
Next generation: a college completion tool kit for first-generation and nontraditional students ...
White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans
E-Book
Washington, D.C. : White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, U.S. Department of Education, 2016
Supporting today's students in the library: strategies for retaining and graduating international, transfer, first-generation, and re-entry students
editors, Ngoc-Yen Tran and Silke Higgins
E-Book
Chicago, Illinoios : Association of College and Research Libraries, [2020]

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In the last decade, the United States has seen a marked increase in nontraditional students, a diverse population of adult students who attend college while working, supporting families, or negotiating any number of circumstances that might delay the completion of their higher education goals. Studies have consistently shown that nontraditional students are more likely than traditional students to not complete their degree work or take longer to graduate for a variety of reasons, including outside responsibilities, difficulties adjusting to academic and campus environments, and new or different learning methodologies. As a result of the rise in nontraditional students and university-wide efforts to increase student retention and graduation rates, academic libraries are shifting and expanding their capabilities in order to better provide resources, services, and spaces to meet users' unique needs.Supporting Today's Students in the Library collects current strategies from all types of academic libraries for retaining and graduating nontraditional students, with many of them based on learning theories and teaching methodologies. The book explores methods for overcoming language barriers, discusses best practices, and presents case studies that support the changing student population. Additionally, Supporting Today's Students in the Library provides a variety of ideas for new services, spaces, and outreach opportunities that support nontraditional students on campus and beyond.With targeted ideas and strategies for increasing agency and engagement, as well as addressing the diverse needs and challenges of nontraditional student populations, Supporting Today's Students in the Library: Strategies for Retaining and Graduating International, Transfer, First-Generation, and Re-Entry Students demonstrates how academic libraries are successfully serving these students.
Technology and engagement: making technology work for first-generation college students
Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon, Ana M. Martinez-Aleman, Mandy Savitz-Romer
E-Book
New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2018]

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Winner of the 2018 Association for the Study of Higher Education Outstanding Book Award Technology and Engagement is based on a four-year study of how first generation college students use social media, aimed at improving their transition to and engagement with their university. Through web technology, including social media sites, students were better able to maintain close ties with family and friends from home, as well as engage more with social and academic programs at their university. This 'ecology of transition' was important in keeping the students focused on why they were in college, and helped them become more integrated into the university setting. By showing the gains in campus capital these first-generation college students obtained through social media, the authors offer concrete suggestions for how other universities and college-retention programs can utilize the findings to increase their own retention of first-generation college students.
Navigating college with the 7 habits: A digital book to help you succeed in school and in life.
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6724871

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Covey, S. (2019). Navigating college with the 7 habits: A digital book to help you succeed in school and in life.

Intro; Navigating College With the 7 Habits; Copyright; Table of Contents; Welcome to the 7 Habits!; Foundations; Habit 1; Be Proactive; Habit 2; Begin with the End in Mind; Habit 3; Put First Things First; Habit 4; Think Win-Win; Habit 5; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; Habit 6; Synergize; Habit 7; Sharpen the Saw; Mastering the 7 Habits;
Academic library services for first-generation students (2020)
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6775786

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Arch, Xan, and Isaac Gilman. 2020. Academic library services for first-generation students.

"Presenting strategies for improving academic library services for first-generation students, this timely book focuses on programs and services that will increase student academic engagement and success"-- [Provided by publisher]
Table of Contents:

First-generation students in context
First-generation students in the academic library
Exploring perceptions of first-generation students' college and library experience
Library space
Library instruction
Outreach and partnerships.

Print Books

33 simple strategies for faculty: a week-by-week resource for teaching first-year and first-generation students
Lisa M. Nunn
Book (Print/Paper)
New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2019]

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"33 Simple Strategies is designed to offer university faculty simple and straightforward ways they can interact with students both during class time and during office hours that will help mediate some of first-year students' most stressful challenges. The suggested strategies require just 5-15 minutes a week. Every suggestion is rooted in first-year students' own voices, gathered during research at one four-year private and one four-year public institution. The strategies pay particular attention to the additional needs and challenges that low-income, ethno-racial minority, and first-generation college students face in the transition to university academics and college life more generally. Including strategies like: introduce yourself as a person to your students rather than list your professional qualifications; have students fill out a time log over the course of a week so that you can talk about time management; help students find study partners among their classmates. All the suggestions came directly from students themselves in one-on-one interviews, where the students described their experiences with professors in and out of the classroom, and articulated things that professors do that they found helpful to their learning, their confidence, and their success, and vice versa as well. For any professor just starting out, or for someone who wants to incorporate techniques to reach first year or first generation students, these short, simple suggestions will prove easy to implement, and will increase student success in any class"-- [Provided by publisher]
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6098968
First-generation college student experiences of intersecting marginalities
Willis 3rd Floor
edited by Teresa Heinz Housel
Book (Print/Paper)
New York, NY : Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., [2019]

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"First-generation college students, intersections of marginality, identity, narrative, ethnic and racial minority college students, mental health and college students, LGBTQ first-generation college students, transgender students, imposter syndrome, divorce, tokenization, institutional support for first-generation college students" -- [Provided by publisher]
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6149331
First-generation college students: understanding and improving the experience from recruitment to commencement
Book is located on Willis 3rd Floor
Lee Ward, Michael J. Siegel, Zebulun Davenport; foreword by John N. Gardner
Book (Print/Paper)
1st ed.
San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, [2012]©2012

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"As more and more of the college-going population is made up of those who are the first in their families to attend college, institutions need to find ways to help these students succeed if they expect to maintain enrollments. This groundbreaking resource explores the challenges and barriers to first-generation students and offers a wealth of helpful recommendations for helping these students succeed in their academic careers. This book helps leaders in academic and student affairs to understand these special challenges and how best to meet them"-- [Provided by publisher]
First generation entry into higher education: an international study
Liz Thomas and Jocey Quinn
Book (Print/Paper)
Maidenhead, England ; New York : Open University Press [in association with] Society for Research into Higher Education, 2007
Willis 3rd Floor
First in the family: your high school years, advice about college from first-generation students
by Kathleen Cushman
Book (Print/Paper)
Providence, RI : Next Generation Press, [2005]
©2005

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A companion to First in the Family: Your High School Years, this next-step guidebook straight from their peers tells first-generation college students how to stay in college and graduate.
Giants among us: first-generation college graduates who lead activist lives
Sandria Rodriguez
Book (Print/Paper)
1st ed.
Nashville [Tenn.] : Vanderbilt University Press, 2001

more... less...

How do children from under educated and impoverished backgrounds get to college? What are the influences that lead them to overcome their socioeconomic disadvantages and sometimes the disapproval of families and friends to succeed in college? These are the basic questions Sandria Rodriguez posed to seventeen first-generation college graduates, and their compelling life stories make important contributions to what little is known about this phenomenon. The daughter of parents who didn't finish elementary school, Rodriguez uses many examples from her own life in the course of examining the participants' experiences before, during, and after college that directed them toward social or educational activism. Together, the seventeen represent a wide range of diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, geographical area of childhood, and profession. Twelve of the seventeen hold advanced degrees, all are working professionals, and all come from families who were poor. Jerry, the son of German immigrants, owns an engineering company in Chicago; Chang, a native of China, is the first from his village to go to college; Grant, a sharecropper's son, is a lawyer with a nationally prominent law firm in Washington, D.C., and patron of fine arts; Arlene, a Mohawk Indian, is a storyteller and social activist; Alex, from Spanish Harlem, is an elementary school principal. The book is divided into four parts. In the first two chapters, we meet the participants. In the three chapters that follow, Rodriguez examines how the participants as children perceived themselves within their families, schools, and communities. Chapters four and five focus on the campus life and the participants' activist experiences. Finally, chapter six offers recommendations for mentoring disadvantaged children, so that they can successfully "switch the track" and aim for something better. Giants Among Us is an essential resource for college administrators, faculty, counselors, and student support-services staff--as well as K-12 educators--concerned with preparing, retaining and mentoring first-generation students.
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b2352596
On the borders of the academy: challenges and strategies for first-generation graduate students and faculty
edited by Alecea Ritter Standlee
Book (Print/Paper)
New York : Graduate School Press of Syracuse University, [2018]

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One of the most significant achievements in U.S. higher education during the latter half of the 20th century was the increasing access enjoyed by historically marginalized populations, including women, people of color, and the poor and working class. With this achievement has come a growing population of first-generation graduate students and faculty members, who struggle at times to navigate unfamiliar territory. Today, these individuals and institutions are faced with profound challenges in adapting to shifts within a social environment increasingly hostile to education. The growing diversity in higher education has left it open to attacks by those who wish to maintain systems of privilege and inequality. This book offers insight on the challenges of first-generation academics, as well as practical tools for navigating the halls of the academy for individuals and institutional allies alike.--COVER.
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6367544
Teaching first-year college students
Bette LaSere Erickson, Calvin B. Peters, Diane Weltner Strommer
Book (Print/Paper)
Rev. and expanded ed.San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, [2006]
©2006
Willis 3rd Floor

Videos and Films

How Faculty Mentors Can Help First-Generation Students Succeed
[produced by NewsHour Productions]
Streaming Video
Arlington, VA : NewsHour Productions, 2018

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A new initiative by the University of California system uses first-generation faculty to guide first-generation students, with the goal of decreasing dropout rates. As part of our series Rethinking College, Hari Sreenivasan visits UCLA to see how the program is working.
First in the Family: Help your college student succeed and prosper the first year and every year (Streaming Film)
https://discover.library.unt.edu/catalog/b6183127

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This DVD is a great resource to show your school's parents, whether you are a high school or college. It details how to help your college student succeed and prosper. This DVD equips parents of first-generation college students with information and tools to prepare and support their college student.

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First Year Experience (FYE) and Orientations