For many students, college marks a new stage in one’s life — a metamorphosis where one grows beyond the confines of childhood and into adulthood. Many students enter unsure of where it will take them, especially for those who are the first in their families to attend college.

According to the First-Generation Task Force program on campus, more than 6,000 of Rowan’s 17,000 undergraduate students identify as first-generation students, which means their parents did not attend or complete an undergraduate program. For that quarter of students, they blaze a trail towards higher education, taking a step into something unfamiliar for both themselves and their families. These students pride themselves on that fact in order to drive themselves further to chase their dreams.

Nov. 3 through Nov. 7 marks the First-Generation Week at Rowan University, celebrating these students for their achievements in being the first of their family to attend college.

“For me, being a first-generation college student is something that I am immensely proud of,” said Suri Zheng, a freshman nursing major. “I have had my fair share of successes and fair share of difficulties as a first-gen, since it’s been very overwhelming navigating everything almost entirely on my own.” 

First-generation students feel both pride in themselves and pride from their family for taking this step forward. Though they feel immense pressure from them, family is a constant reminder to these students to continue pursuing their higher education. 

“Being a first-gen student has a lot of stressors,” said Andrea Loayza Nunez, a freshman electrical and computer engineering major. “I’m constantly doubting myself on whether I’m doing the right thing, as all I’m trying to do is make my family proud.”

“It’s so weird to think that I’m essentially paving a path for my siblings by simply furthering my education,” said Zheng. 

“I feel a lot of pressure, but I tend to put pressure on myself because I know how hard my parents work and I want to make all their sacrifices mean something,” said Abigail Strickland, a freshman nursing major. 

However, to chase these dreams, these students feel overwhelmed academically, but use all of Rowan’s resources given to them in order to maximize their success in college.

“The workload is a lot, but if I stay on top of it, it’s manageable to a point,” said Strickland. “Of course, there’s some times where I’m overwhelmed, but my support system at home helps me a lot.”

Even with intense and rigorous coursework, these students have adjusted the ways they work in order to match college requirements. In a new environment, they have found new methods to prosper academically beyond their high school habits.

“I have adopted a weekly routine that works for me. When in high school, I would just do work whenever I could, but now I kind of have a blocked off time to do stuff that I need to do, and I try to follow that as best as possible,” said Strickland. 

Though they don’t have immediate family who share their same experiences in college, these students seek community with each other for guidance, for support, and to make the adjustment to college life easier.

“I’ve just been making sure to balance my school life with my social life as much as possible,” said Zheng. “As for resources, a lot of my peers have been great help for me. I have a handful of upperclassmen friends who are more than happy to help me answer questions, and I’m very grateful for that.”

While college has significantly less structure than high school, and while these students took the first step in their family to receive a higher education, these students have strived to make the most of their college experience in spite of that. To be the first means to mark the path forward for those to come, which these students are doing for their families, loved ones, and especially for themselves. With First-Generation Week approaching, the Rowan community has found it important to recognize and highlight these students’ stories.

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