Tristen Cortez EDINBURG – UTRGV celebrated National First-Generation Day in Edinburg last Wednesday, bringing together students and faculty who had their own experiences to share.
The event held by the Office of Student Success annually highlights students who are the first to have the opportunity to attend higher education institutions.
A line of first-gen students circled around the student union for free shirts, food, and photo ops posing with swag from the event.
Kamara Jackson, director of the Career Center, and Rebecca Gadson, dean of students, helped facilitate the event and said that it is their goal to uphold the student body at UTRGV and support future generations to have a fair opportunity at higher ed.
“We intentionally plan these key experiences to best position our students, first-generation or not,” Gadson said. “We know that we’re paving the way for other future students and our own children.”
Jackson added that as a former first-gen student herself, she could relate to the first-gen students in attendance at the event and believed that it is important to stand with them.
“Hopefully the concept of higher education will become so normalized that first-gen populations will become smaller, at least, that’s a good problem to have,” Jackson said.
For information on upcoming events hosted by the Office of Student Success, email StudentSuccess@UTRGV.edu
