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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of first-generation college graduates in the USA, as they transitioned from higher education into employment in the private sector. First-generation college graduates are from families in which neither parent had a bachelor’s degree.

This paper used phenomenology to gain an understanding of the transition experiences of first-generation college graduates employed within the corporate sector.

First-generation status influences the experiences of students beyond college and limits their awareness of and access to graduate employment. Lack of college education in the family affects the graduates’ career decision-making, familiarity with corporate culture and expectations, preparedness for the corporate sector and restricted access to people with the ability to ease their entry into the sector. These translate into transition outcomes such as starting at entry-level positions not requiring a college degree, delayed access to graduate-level positions, having to engage intentionally in additional efforts to reach graduate-level positions and potential to be discriminated against during the recruitment process, albeit unintentionally.

Is first-generation status yet another structural contextual factor that influences career decision self-efficacy? Is the influence of FG status common across sectors? Longitudinal studies need to be conducted across sectors, regions and countries.

There is a need to sensitize faculty and career service staff to career-related challenges of first-generation students and for programs and policies that increase awareness of these students regarding professional environments and expectations. There are social justice implications for recruitment strategies and overcoming discrimination.

This paper explored first-generation college graduates’ experiences, an issue hitherto not explored in depth.

Given that a relatively large percentage of college students entering historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are first-generation students and considering the low completion rate among this group in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discipline, the purpose of this preliminary meta-synthesis study is intended to facilitate a greater understanding of the academic and social adjustment among college students, particularly first-generation college students enrolled in STEM disciplines at HBCUs. Therefore, this meta-synthesis will shed light and offer important recommendations for university administrators and faculty members in supporting the academic and social adjustment of these students in STEM fields at HBCUs.

This review of literature was conducted using a meta-synthesis approach (also referred to as integrative review). A meta-synthesis is based on a process by which findings across multiple studies are organized and presented (Turner, Gonzalez and Wood, 2008; Wood, 2010). This approach is used to provide insight to academicians and practitioners alike on the status of research on a given phenomenon (Bland, Meurer and Maldonado, 1995; Patterson, Thorne, Canam and Jillings, 2001; Wood, 2010). We engaged in a cyclical process of collecting, annotating, and synthesizing research over a 45-year time-frame (1970 to 2015). This produced over 50 cited resources with more than 100 scholars including peer-reviewed articles, reports, books, book chapters, and conference papers.

Factors present in the literature that affected students enrolled in a STEM program at a HBCU are grouped into three contexts: (a) first-generation academic and social characteristics, (b) first-generation college dropout and transition, and (c) first-generation STEM retention. Tables 2 to 4 provide these contexts by author and year of publication. Within these general groupings, four interrelated themes emerged from the literature: (a) prior academic performance and STEM discipline, (b) college adjustment and STEM discipline, (c) social integration and STEM discipline, and (d) academic integration and STEM discipline.

This information may help professors and university professionals in the STEM fields to be more aware of the challenges faced by incoming college students. More empirical work is needed in this area in a way that is useful for understanding and enhancing professors’ and university professionals’ knowledge. To this end, research that carefully describes what HBCU professors and university professionals know or their ideas about teaching college students, especially first-generation students enrolled in the STEM discipline, is needed.

First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.

This chapter explores the concept of identity-conscious advising and coaching to support the development of First-Generation Black Male College Students during their undergraduate experience. Advising and coaching represent foundational practices colleges and universities use to support student success. Much like other aspects of education, institutions implement advising and coaching practices without consideration for how the identity of the student or the professional delivering the service influences student outcomes. First-Generation Black Male College Students' interactions within the college context are often framed by their visible, racial, and gender identities as opposed to their first-generation experience. First-Generation Black Male College Students experience microaggressions, discrimination, deficit perspectives, or negative stereotypes. By exploring an identity-conscious approach to relevant advising theories and coaching approaches, the chapter highlights the importance of building trusting, affirming relationships that lean into the lived experiences of First-Generation Black Male College Students without subjecting them to false, harmful stereotypes. This approach requires self-awareness on the part of educators and an understanding of the racialized dynamics that are inherent in the experience. Without addressing anti-Blackness, the impact of advising and coaching on First-Generation Black Male College Students is likely to have diminished or limited effects for this vital student population.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of first generation peer mentoring experiences on retention, grade point average and students’ perception of their academic and leadership development.

This study utilized a mixed methods approach. Focus groups and interviews were utilized to determine the reported leadership experiences of the mentors. Descriptive statistics were used to compare grade point averages and retention rates.

The study found peer mentors in residential life perceived an increase in leadership skills; including role modeling, time management, personal confidence, and problem solving. The peers were challenged in their roles, and perceived these challenges to help them to grow as leaders. When compared to their peers, the peer mentors experienced increased retention and similar grade point averages. The results indicated that peer mentoring experiences can be beneficial for the mentors who are first generation college students, even experiences that are particularly challenging.

The biggest limitation to this study is the fact that this was a small sample, without a control group. A further limitation is that it was difficult to get students to participate in the study. Future research might examine peer mentoring experiences of first generation students on larger campuses or on multiple campuses to allow for a control group of first generation peers without a peer mentoring experience.

The results indicated that peer mentoring experiences can be beneficial for the mentors who are first generation college students, even experiences that are particularly challenging.

Due to the potential for their success, these types of experiences should be expanded for first generation students, a group that is at a higher risk for drop out. Special attention should be paid to ongoing training in peer mentoring experiences, given the level of commitment by the mentors.

While other studies have examined the impact of peer mentoring on those that have been mentored, and a few have examined the impact of the experience on the mentors themselves this study extends the research by looking at first generation college students. This is valuable because first generation students continue to lag in their success in college and practical research on what can improve the student experience for this group is necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between supportive campus measures and student learning outcomes for first-generation students and non-first generation students to determine if variances are present. A lack of social capital of first generation when compare to non-first-generation students is theorized to be a contributing factor driving differences between the two groups.

Research survey design using penalized regression methods to quantify differences between groups. The analysis used 10 years of student engagement data.

Final analysis showed that first-generation student outcomes had little to no significant connection with the administrative focused aspects of the campus environment as compared to non-first-generation that represented highly significant relationships. This results supports the theory that first-generation students may simply be unaware of how to leverage these resources do to social capital disadvantages.

The result suggests that universities should reconsider first-generation programs to ensure that they have the capability to address first-generation students’ lack of social capital. The primary method by which social capital is generated is through networking or peer groups expansion. Consequently, first-generation students might benefit greatly from student mentors that are not first-generation students to help aid in the transition to college as compared to participating in programs that group and isolate first-generation students together.

Very few studies have attempted to use social capital as a theoretical framework to explain differences in how first-generation and non-first-generation student learning outcomes relate to campus engagement variables. Moreover, no studies have used both penalized regression and bootstrap validation in addressing this issue, making the study original in design and analysis.

Studies examining immigrant generational status and violence have supported differences in the prevalence of violence between these groups. The purpose of this paper is to measure relevant risk factors for violence to focus on whether negative perceptions may contribute to understanding the between-generations differences in violence. Based on the literature, it is theorised that pro-violence attitudes would be related to and be higher in second-generation immigrants than first-generation immigrants, and that negative perceptions would mediate the relationship between pro-violence attitudes and violence.

Data to answer the study’s key questions were taken from the 2010-2011 UK citizenship survey, where only the main sample was analysed.

The findings reveal that first-generation immigrants have a higher prevalence of pro-violence attitudes than the native population.

This suggests that there is an intergenerational transmission in violent attitudes, and this is a risk factor for actual violence in second-generation immigrants.

Indian higher education system is supposed to be the source of equal opportunities to all students irrespective of their life circumstances. Does it succeed in realizing this ideal? In fact, the system of higher education inadvertently plays a critical role in constructing and recreating the inequalities between groups. The prime victims of inequality are first-generation students, whose disadvantages are unseen, their voices ignored. In India, first-generation students are typically confronted with the dynamics of caste-based inequality in addition to their deficiency in cultural and social capital. In this context, the purpose of this study was to examine the difference between who goes and who stops for higher education across generational status. Field survey data of 930 senior secondary students was employed as the basis for analysis. Findings of this study highlight that the gap between realization and planning is more in first-generation students as compared to their counterparts. Results of logistic regression indicate location, category, family income, academic achievement, stream of education, and social and cultural capital are pertinent factors that influence educational attainment of first-generation students.

We examine the cumulative effects of mothers’ and grandparents’ institutionalized cultural capital (educational credentials) on parenting approaches and children’s educational outcomes to determine if degree attainment in one generation equalizes educational advantages for children. Using data on kindergarteners, first-graders, and their mothers from the 1998 to 1999 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we find minor differences in parenting approaches: When grandparents and mothers all have college degrees (Continuing-Generation), children are involved in more activities and have more books at home; however, school involvement is similar whether mothers have more education than their parents (First-Generation) or are Continuing-Generation. There are no differences between children of First- or Continuing-Generation mothers in how they are rated for effort by teachers. Differences in first-grade math achievement scores between children of First- and Continuing-Generation mothers disappear once controlling for parenting approaches. However, significant differences remain between the groups in how teachers rate the children’s language and literacy skills, even after controlling for parenting approaches. These findings imply that attaining a college degree may not benefit the children of First-Generation mothers to the same extent that it does the children of Continuing-Generation mothers for some academic outcomes. Moreover, children whose mothers and grandparents have only high school diplomas are at a disadvantage compared to children of First-Generation mothers for first grade math achievement and language and literacy ratings, as well as for growth in these outcomes between kindergarten and first grade.

This article deals with the impact of ethnic origin on individual employability, focussing on the first stage of the hiring process. Deeply, the authors’ goal is to fathom whether there is a preference for native job candidates over immigrants, decomposing the discrimination against minority groups into its statistical and taste-based components by means of a new approach.

The authors built up a data set by means of an ad hoc field experiment, conducted by sending equivalent fictitious CVs in response to 1000 real online job openings in Italy. The authors developed the discrimination decomposition index using first- and second-generation immigrants.

The authors’ main result is that both first- and second-generation immigrants are discriminated compared to Italians. In between the two categories, second-generation candidates are discriminated especially if their ethnicities are morphologically different from those of natives (i.e. Chinese and Moroccans). This last finding is a clear symptom of discrimination connected to taste-based reasons. On the other hand, first-generation immigrants of all nationalities but Germans are preferred for hard-work jobs.

The authors develop the discrimination decomposition index to measure the proportion of the two kinds of discrimination (statistical and taste-based) over the total one and apply a probit model to test the statistical significance of the difference in treatment between the three groups of natives, first-generation and second-generation immigrants.