Stories to inspire first-time college students

By Megan Farrell
The Collegian

When ChrisTina Leimer began her career at Fresno State in the Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning Department a year and a half ago, she did not know anyone she was working with.

As she started to introduce herself to her new co-workers she found she had one very important thing in common with quite a few people: she is a first generation college graduate.

While looking through her research, Leimer also found there was a large proportion of first generation students attending Fresno State. In fact, half of the entering students for that year’s class were the first generation.

First generation could mean that a student’s parents never went to college, or that a student’s parents never finished college.

Leimer and the faculty started talking and realized that more students and faculty had this in common than anyone had previously known. “You can’t see first generation status like you can see race or gender,” Leimer said.

The “First Generation Stories Project,” was born.

The project’s creators hope to collect and compile the experiences of Fresno State faculty to influence students and encourage them to continue in their education.

“It is important for students to have role models,” Shirley Armbruster of University Communications said.

All faculty and staff are invited to submit their stories to the project.

The stories will be used to encourage students in the Mentoring Institute, the Student Success Services CSU Program and in the outreach programs to high school and junior high students.

Fresno State President Dr. John Welty put out a message via e-mail in January to all faculty and staff encouraging the contribution of stories to this project.

“I am a first-generation college student and intend to submit my story for this project,” Welty said in his message. “I invite you to join me.”

Armbruster and Leimer said that it is important to have a sense of community.

Leimer and Armbruster are thoughtful of the current situations of students and how hard college is. They want students to have encouragement, role models and to have a positive feeling about attending college.

Welty and his four vice presidents will all have stories submitted for this project. There is no exact plan for the outcome of the production. There are hopes for a Web site where faculty can submit their stories. Leimer and Armbruster said there have been discussions about a possible video of first generation college students sharing their stories.

There is no exact time scale, Armbruster said, as to when there will be a finished product. However, she said that the committee is hoping to have the final product ready for the fall semester.

The product will be used for students attending Fresno State in the fall as well as high school students who will be looking into colleges for the first time.

The committee members have asked that all stories be submitted by March 29, 2007. Early submissions are always welcome, Leimer and Armbruster said. Stories should be no more than 1,200 words. The story is suggested to be reader friendly and aimed at high school and college students.

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