Essay On First Generation College Students

Transitioning from high school and college is a difficult task, especially for first generation Latina/o students who come from a disadvantage socio-economic background and are less prepared in terms of knowing what to expect unlike their peers. Aside from coming from families who have no way of helping guide them through this new transition in life, they also experience various emotions that they are unable of expressing which may become a distraction towards their academic and social life in college. This sub-population lack qualities that make them more vulnerable to dropping out, however, there are studies that demonstrate other wise through their various findings and observations about First Generation students and their transition to a college environment. There are various theories that aim in explaining why first generation college students are pushed into dropping out and leaving their education behind them. However, a collaboration of sociologists explain in their article, “Unseen Disadvantage: How American Universities’ focus on Independence Undermines the Academic Performance of First-Generation Students,” that college institutions demand students to be “independent". Meaning students must have a clear idea how the institution works, they have a paved pathway to their goals, and . However, if a students fails of being independent then they are labeled as “interdependent”; students who suffer and fail in adjusting to the …show more content…
Aisha Birani and Wolfgang Lehmann’s article, Ethnicity as a Social Capital: An examination of First Generation, Ethnic-Minority students at a Canadian University, studies how social capital that is against the norm triumphs in helping FGC minority students in their college careers. This study particular is based on Pierre Bourdieu and his concept of habitus (Biriani and Lehmann, pg.