The Undergraduate Academic Success Center (UASC) hosted the Inaugural First Generation Luncheon on Nov. 16 in UTCC. This event created a sense of community and support for the first generation college students at APU.
The luncheon was hosted with the purpose of uniting students, faculty and staff who were or currently are the first in their family to go to college. The goal was to strengthen the support for those who share this same experience and to celebrate each other’s success and accomplishments.
Rosa Garcia, a senior psychology major, shared her motivation for attending the event.
“Being a first generation student myself, I just wanted to get in touch with different students who are also first generation,” Garcia said. “It is my last semester, so I really wanted to get to know what this program is about. It is unfortunate that this is my last time, but it is amazing. I appreciate the fact that the school is taking opportunity to do events like this for first generation students and recognizing that we are among this population.”
Garcia acknowledged the benefits and support that the program provides for all of the first generation students. She encouraged them to utilize those resources to support their APU education.
“Just the opportunity that the program overall has and see that you are not the only one here, because sometimes it is easy to feel that you are the only one here who has a specific type of story, but it is really nice to see that you are not alone. There are some students who shared your stories,” Garcia said.
Cassandra Gonzalez, the APU first generation coordinator, explained the purposes and goals of the luncheon.
“I think it was really just to be able to give visibility to our first generation students. A lot of students may not know that there are other first generation students on campus, or some faculty and staff are also first generation,” Gonzalez said. “So it was really created to bring everybody together, just so they can start seeing the familiar faces and who is also first generation or first generation allied.”
Gonzalez said that this is a new initiative on campus. The event introduced the program as a whole to the APU community.
Gonzalez said she hopes for APU students to take advantage of all of the available support at APU, in order to help them fully succeed in their APU education academically and emotionally.
“The story behind this event is that it is okay to show that you are first generation. A lot of students and a lot of staff and faculty have the imposter syndrome, where you do not feel like you are adequate and good enough to be on a college campus,” Gonzalez said. “We really wanted to showcase the amazing things that our students, faculty and staff bring, and really bring the feeling that it is okay to be a first generation student. We all struggle and we are going to be there for each other—the community sense of our first generation students.”
Kristina Alvarado, the Director for Student Success Initiatives, also acknowledged her goals for the luncheon. Alvarado explained that the stories were shared through filling out a piece of paper and hanging those stories up on the wall in order to celebrate the achievements or experience of the first generation students.
Alvarado said she hopes these students will be able to keep thriving and succeeding through cultivating strong community, connection and support with each other.
“I hope APU students would take away that it is always best to do things within a community, Alvarado said. “God created plans to be done with others, and many times it feels like you want to do things on your own, but with families and a community with support and friends that you build, those supports will get you very far in life. Just know that there is a family and a community of support here.”
The next First Generation Luncheon will potentially be hosted again in both the fall and spring semesters next school year.