A growing number of colleges and universities are accelerating efforts to identify, recruit, retain, graduate and track the professional success of students who are the first in their families to attend college. The Institute for Higher Education Policy noted research that shows that greater involvement from the faculty and continuous one-on-one faculty mentoring relationships with first-generation students are critical to their college success.
While no one tracks nationally how many first-generation students enter college each year, there’s evidence their ranks are surging, said University of Pennsylvania higher education professor Marybeth Gasman, who heads the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Penn.
