“Class Confessions” Movement Growing

Cornell University students recently launched their own Class Confessions page.

Last year, I wrote a post about the “class confessions‘ movement on campuses across the country. The Facebook pages for anonymous confessions around socioeconomic class have since reached a new height of popularity. Since my post, at least eight new pages have been created at different schools.

This, of course, is not coincidental. It’s a result of a growing network of first-generation and/or low-income groups that increasingly share ideas about the work they are doing. In February 2015, the Ivy League and other elite schools gathered for a first-generation conference at Brown University. I was on a panel discussion with three other students to discuss our work on our campuses. Class Confessions came up in the conversations. I described how UChicago had been inspired by Stanford’s project to start the UChicago Class Confessions Facebook page in early 2013. Shortly after, we saw Northwestern start their Tumblr and Claremont Colleges start a Facebook page.

What was once a smaller movement that seemed to have spread based on a smaller network of students on social media has become even more powerful because of a gathering of students on a national scale. This forum allowed the class confessions idea to take off. I remember the Columbia University students being very interested in learning about how we had launched ours at UChicago. Shortly after the conference, Columbia launched theirs. Several others have followed suit. Here’s a list of all the class confessions pages I’ve found. Let’s keep having these important conversations.

Princeton Hidden Minority Council Photo Campaign Part 2

The Princeton University Hidden Minority Council launched their second round of their photo campaign. Their campaign is meant to spearhead discussion about low-income and first-generation college students.

Princeton Hidden Minority Council’s Campaign

The Princeton Hidden Minority Council (a group meant to bridge gap between different low-income and first-gen groups at Princeton) recently launched their “thoughts campaign” to spread awareness about this particular population of students. The result is an incredible collection of photos expressing the experiences of 12 different students. Take a look!

What does good support for first-gen students look like?

I recently read the article “First-Generation College-Goers: Unprepared and Behind” in the Atlantic.

A few lines about Yale stood out to me. The author quoted Christian Vazquez, a first-gen Yale graduate. He says, ‘There’s a lot of support at Yale, to an extent, after a while, there’s too much support,’ he said, half-jokingly about the myriad resources available at the school.’”

We learn a bit more about Yale’s support systems, “Students are placed in small cohorts with counselors (trained seniors on campus); they have access to cultural and ethnic affinity groups, tutoring centers and also have a summer orientation specifically for first-generation students (the latter being one of the most common programs for students).”

Claremont Colleges Confessions

The Claremont Colleges is a consortium of colleges in California.

As I mentioned a few months ago, some schools recently launched “class confessions” projects aimed at raising awareness about socioeconomic class. I recently read a few confessions on the Claremont Colleges confessions page and wanted to share a few of them because they resonated with me in a lot of ways.

Confession #114: I have spent 1.5 years at Trinity and I feel like all I have done is disappoint people. For those students (especially Questbridge Finalists) who are obsessed with only getting into a top college, I was once like you. I neglected my social development to ensure that I could achieve the grades and test scores to get into a good college with a top financial aid/scholarship package) – so that my parents’ hard work (often for very little) throughout the years could have meant something and I would make sure that my parents wouldn’t have spend more hours working minimum wage to provide me with an education. Read more.

First-Generation Conferences 2015

Poster for first-generation conference at Brown University.

There are a few conferences to keep an eye out for in the next year.

Ivy League first-generation conference: 1vyG is an organization at Brown University that is hosting a first-generation student conference primarily for students in the Ivy League from February 27-March 1. Eric Waldo, Executive Director of the First Lady’s Reach Higher Initiative will be one of the speakers during the conference. For more information, check out their website at 1vyg.org.

Class Action first-generation summit: Class Action is an organization that aims to bridge the class divide and one of their focuses is on the first-generation identity. Their one-day summit on March 7 is at Wellesley College and will feature presenters from across the country. The summit is open to all and is still accepting proposals. For more information, go to classism.org.

I will be attending both conferences and will provide updates on both.

First-Generation Students and Social Class Links

November 7, 2014: Interview with ‘Poor Teeth’ Writer Sarah Smarsh on Class and Journalism

Really great interview with Sarah Smarsh, in which she offers insight into the way media frames poor people.

November 20, 2014: First generation summit helps students claim their stories

The University of Florida recently held a first generation summit aimed at helping students learn how to claim and tell their stories. There are so many particularities about the college experience and learning how to share that with others in an honest way is an important undertaking.

10 things to consider about first-generation students

First-generation UChicago at November 18 event with Kevin Jennings.

A few weeks ago Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Harvard First Generation Alumni group and mentoring program, came to the University of Chicago to give a talk about first-gen students at selective colleges. Based on the talk, I made this list of the top 10 things people should consider about first-gen students, particularly at more selective colleges.

First-Generation Students and Social Class Links

Make Admissions at Elite Colleges ‘Access Aware’

The president of Grinnell College argues that need-blind admissions do not necessarily lead to a socioeconomically diverse student body. Elite college admissions are largely shaped to reward students that already have the most advantages, which disadvantages low-income students without access to certain resources. Considering need during admissions might actually allow admissions officers to better evaluate students based on the resources allotted to them and not based on the resources they just didn’t have available to them.

Do not neglect the ladder of opportunity at minority-serving colleges

A few faculty and staff of the City College of New York stress the importance of investing in minority-serving colleges. Access initiatives lately have largely emphasized the need to send more low-income students to elite colleges. Elite colleges are idealized as the solutions for students. However, this fails to address the larger problem of lack of investment in many other institutions that already serve a large percentage of minority students. Why not focus on the potential instead of opting for the simplistic solution of funneling low-income students into a set number of elite schools?

Handling down our crowns

Yesenia Arroyo, a student at Princeton, offers a critique of the notion that students shouldn’t pursue a high-paying job after graduation because it hurts the middle class. As a low-income first-generation student, Arroyo says that her education is largely motivated by the possibility of helping her family reach financial stability. While personal fulfillment is often emphasized in educational pursuit, Arroyo says that some students don’t have the luxury of making their education about only themselves.

Wash U Voices on Socioeconomic Diversity

I mentioned in a recent post that Washington University students launched a poster campaign in support of low-income students. Here are some of the most compelling images.