Some thoughts on my first
generation experience.
I entered college in 1956, the
first from both sides of the family to go to college. There was no concept “First Generation.” I imagine that many of my cohorts were also
first generation, but it was not an experience that I recall discussing. Looking back from the perspective of being
engaged in student affairs work for nearly fifty years, several thought come to
mind. One, the experience of “not being
in the know” was true for me as it is still true for students of today. I recall reading information from the college
as my parents were driving me to campus.
I looked over to my Dad who was driving and said: “It says here that the average course work
per semester is about 15 hours – that is a very long day to be sitting in
school!” My dad replied: “You have put
up hay that many hours in a day – can’t see where sitting in a classroom would
be any harder.” I replied: “Guess you
are right” – and continued the trip thinking I would be in class for 15 hours a
day. Today I would call the experience an
“ecological transition” without the necessary information to reduce the stress
of “not knowing.”
My second thought is that the
“First Generation” experience is not a single ecological transition. I was the first to be a second year student,
first to be a third year student, the first to graduate, the first to go to
graduate school, etc. In each of this
transitions, you enter with a bit more “not knowing” than counterparts who come
from a sending environment where most of these transitions have been
experienced.
My last
thought is that I believe from my experience (not from my research) that the
“First Generation” experience is also connected to the experience known as the
“imposter phenomena” (Chance, 1985). The
imposter phenomena - folks who have
attained achievements, but not for sure they are deserving and perhaps
even see themselves as frauds. Being “not in the know” at every step may
cause one to doubt previous learning. To
end on a positive note, I think that being in the “not in the know” group as a
first generation traveler – helps to dampen the “I know it all” that is so
prevalent in academia.
Jim Banning,
Professor, Colorado State
University
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