Burlington, VT: On Friday, November 8, Vermont’s Upward Bound students celebrated the National First-Generation College Celebration Day at the University of Vermont. More than 100 students and staff attended the day-long event, recognizing the students planning to attend college who will be the first members of their families to earn a college degree. Institutions and education agencies across the state participate in First-Generation College Celebration Day to highlight the achievements of students, educators, and alumni who are the first members of their families to pursue college degrees and to encourage this critical and resilient population to continue thriving.
The University of Vermont offers this outstanding event to First Gen students as part of their continued commitment to serving Vermont students. It is also part of their ongoing efforts to support first in family and modest income students in their journey to pursue postsecondary education. UVM welcomes students onto the University campus in an effort to help students envision themselves as college bound students. This event accomplished this goal by incorporating a panel of First Generation Students in an in-depth presentation about the college and student life. The Upward Bound students who presented were: Zofia Kosakowski (Lyndon UB), Marshal Moffatt (Johnson UB), Caitlin Hayes (Castleton UB), and Moses Doe (UVM UB). The panel was led by the University of Vermont’s Scholars Program Director, working with both Upward Bound and FirstGen@UVM programs.
This year’s participants were welcomed to campus by UVM’s Director of Admissions Moses Murphy and keynote speaker Lindsay Carpenter, who is Lyndon Institute’s Upward Bound Director and former Lyndon State College Upward Bound student who ultimately graduated from UVM. The students also had a tour of campus, enjoyed an Upward Bound alumni student panel, and had an admissions and financial aid overview.
November 8 was selected as the date for the annual National First-Generation College Celebration to honor the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The Higher Education Act (“HEA”) emerged from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Much like other hallmark legislation of that era, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, HEA was intended to help level a playing field that for too long had been weighed against Americans from minority and low-income backgrounds. In addition to creating federal grants and loan programs to help students finance their educations, the legislation made key investments in institutions of higher education. Additionally, HEA ushered in programs – particularly the Federal TRIO programs – necessary for postsecondary access, retention, and completion for low-income, potential first-generation college graduates.
Today, one-half of currently enrolled undergraduate students identify as first-generation. Despite first-generation students’ numerous strengths, only 27% complete a bachelor’s degree in four years—a proportion significantly lower than that of their continuing-generation peers. Institutions must build more inclusive institutional structures to close this gap and improve outcomes for this deeply intersectional population.
The TRIO Programs (initially just three programs) are funded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. These Programs (Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, Veterans’ Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers, and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program) help students to overcome economic, social, academic, and cultural barriers to higher education. TRIO students are first-generation college-bound and from low- to moderate-income families and/or are students with disabilities.
The state currently has 13 different Educational Opportunity Programs. Collectively, these federally funded TRIO programs serve over 7,000 Vermonters and bring more than $10 million annually to the state. These include: 4 Student Support Service programs that serve more than 900 college students; five Upward Bound programs serving 360 high school students statewide; a statewide Talent Search program, assisting almost 1,000 middle and high school students; the Vermont GEAR UP program, working with more than 2,800 low-income middle and high school students across the state; the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC), advising more than 1,500 adults statewide annually; and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program, helping undergraduate students pursue graduate education.