Being the First: Navigating the College Process as a First Generation Scholar

Hi everyone welcome. We are going to give it a couple minutes while folks enter into the room before we begin.

Alright, we will welcome everyone to being the first navigating the college process is a first generation scholar web and R. My name is Asia gonzalas only associate director for missions for the bursty, an inclusion. I'm relatively new to Mac. I started back in September of last year. Hard to believe it's almost been a year, but I've been working in college admissions for about 7 years now. I use she her pronouns and for me the reason why I do the work that I do is to help students just like you.

So our first John navigating this process because I was also a first round scholar. It's really thinking about what tools and resources would have benefited me and how can it be that tool and resource for students moving forward so little bit about me and I'm going to turn over Cedric to introduce himself.

Yes, thank you can you can you hear me? OK, wonderful. I just had to be sure my microphone was working good evening to you all and I'm glad to be here with you this evening. My name is Cedric McClure and I am the assistant Dean in the Department of multicultural life.

I use a gender pronouns. He, him, his and kind of on the opposite end of Asia. I've been at McAllister since the fall of 1999. I'll let you do the math.

And has been certainly a exhilarating experience for me to be in the student life and academic affairs like Asia, I was a first generation college student. I started off of college. I was woefully unaware of the lot of formal processes, but Luckily I had a basketball coach that helped me through the process.

And I'll just say in closing with my brief introduction as to why I entered college because I thought that's what you needed to do.

To make money that was not untrue, but I graduated college trying to discover what I wanted to do in life other than make money. And so that's why I'm committed to being part of this process to help students discover their purpose in life beyond making money.

Thanks Cedric.

Before before we begin, I want to have a housekeeping items things for you to know before we move forward. In total are presentation will be about 25 to 30 minutes or so. We definitely want to leave some time at the end for questions and open it up for Q&A at any point that you have questions, feel free to just enter those into the chat on your screen. They may not immediately appear to you, and that's OK. Will actually still be able to see them on our side once we were able to get to your question with that's during the presentation this afternoon. Following will be able to go ahead and click those over so you can see them. We also have our two diversity and Inclusion Fellows.

To share work in admissions and Department of multicultural on line with us today. So they may also be answering questions in the chat while we're going with this presentation. So if that will go ahead and begin.

So this webinar is really geared towards covering both the process of entering college as a first generation scholar as well as the process of how do you navigate the college experience once you're here. So we're going to talk a little bit about the valuable what liberal arts education, both the philosophical and the monetary value.

Absolutely.

But how do you turn bridges barriers in a bird is in the admissions process. How you define success for yourself and all the ways that that means. What is familial support? Look like professional or any parents will maybe on line, joining us today and then? How do you honor your journey? So those are kind of going to be our talking points which we can try and answer more in the chat later.

Suggest to get us started. What is a philosophical versus cash value? All of Arts degree. Before I dive into this question, I think it's really important to kind of address too often myths or misnomers about what a liberal arts education is. Typically speaking, liberal Arts and Sciences colleges don't send her solely on the arts and humanities thing that we hear a lot about and so that often gets equated with what value your degree has after you graduate, right? If you're only studying the arts.

Open communities, there's value in all of those subjects. There's beauty in all those subjects, but really, a liberal arts education is really meant to focus you an academic disciplines over career based matrix. And that's kind of the difference between US and a research or larger University institution.

There's also kind of myth that we don't prepare you for professional programs. That also is not true fun. Fact about McAllister is that a lot of our students actually go on to Graduate School and do things like become a lawyer, become doctors, go into work as professional engineers, etc. So we can certainly help you with those professional tracks. The idea is that you're going to have an emphasis on your interdisciplinary learning, meaning that you're not just setting the depth of your own major or program, but really, you're also getting some breath of the other areas as well. This allows you to find common understanding how things interact with each other.

Right, so for example, why did not attend McAllister? I also until its institution my degree was in political, legal and economic analysis, which is in a full, but the idea was that I was looking at how not just the law works and interacts, but how is it affected by things like economic policy or social change? How do aspects of sociology and psychology also into work with things like the law? So there was really meant to be a bit more overarching, an overreaching as opposed to kind of just siloed in that one particular area.

But really, well liberal arts education does for our students as it prepares you for complexity, diversity and change. what I mean by that is that we are all you know, multifaceted individuals and the liberal arts. Education is really meant to honor that right. And so taking all the different interests that you have and allowing you to continue to explore them. In addition, liberal arts education often offered often offer opportunities. Clearly that's hard for me to say today.

You have an interact in very diverse environment, so being able to understand what does it work like to work across different. How do you work with people who maybe have different viewpoints or different backgrounds than yourselves? Right at McAllister specifically, about 41% of our incoming classes here identifies as black indigenous or people of color. So by pot we have about 17% of our sins on campus and vice verse 1015% of our students are coming from international Contacts. And so how do you work in that diversity in this difference is really little arts. Education is also going to help you serve.

And the last part about change, you know, there's a. There's a lot of interesting studies on there about what does it mean to be at a large college and graduate, and what types of careers that prepares you for. And they really. The idea is that we're trying to prepare you with tools and skills, but are considered transferable. So in the sense that he might be training for one Ave or another. But then you can really use that to also be a launching point for other career opportunities. There's a study out right now on baby boomers, so John X and it's been a long term study.

So on average people held 11.7 jobs between the ages of 18 and 48, and so for those folks you know 27% of them were more prone to hopping around. So having more than 15 jobs and for very few only 10%, they had zero to four. So the idea behind that liberal arts degree is that it's flexible and that change that can be expected. And to prepare you for careers that may not exist just yet. If you think about social media, for example, 10 years ago was not something that you went to school to study, but now it was a really big part of communication programs.

Right, and so being able to prepare you for those career opportunities that maybe just don't exist just yet.

Along with awards education, you're going to walk out with a very strong sense of social responsibility so you know people who have low barks degrees tend to be feel more likely to vote. They are more involved in community. They want to run for local office. They want to participate in local community initiatives. Things of that sort, and then, really, you know, the way to to view it is that your education is an investment, and I think as a first generation scholar for me, you know a lot of it came down to do I have the funds to go? Can I afford a tent?

I'm not certainly valid question, but it was also a piece of value. So how much am I willing to really spend on education that's going to serve mean for the purpose of life. So with that, I want to share just a quick kind of breakdown. If this is small for you, there are there's a little box in the top right corner, has four arrows, kind of pointing different directions. You can make it a full screen and you'll be able to see little bit larger, but this is demonstrates kind of the motor.

Uh, the more recent um differences in what earning potential is and looks like for individuals with a bachelors degree versus associates versus no higher educational degree, right? So you'll see here that on average, if I'm looking at a weekly salary salary for 2019 by quarter, someone with no college degree is about $749 to 874 dollars a week versus Bachelors Degree. The average is closer to 1200. Thirteen, $100.

Right, so the earning potential is definitely different just by having that degree behind your belt. And so thinking about this as you might be paying a little bit more up front for it now because it is a smaller school experience. But the investment that you have over the course of your life time in just your earning potential right can truly help make a difference as well. So this is some of the things that I wanted to talk about and cover their. But really let's get into the ignition stuff.

So what do we mean by when you turn bridges into barriers into bridges? Really is about overcoming some of the major mental hurdles in this process, right? I think a lot of folks think of us as gatekeepers, people who are here to kind of let you in and it's you know, it's a privilege kind of be there. And that's not really the case. A lot of us actually do our jobs as places of advocacy, right? So how do we uplift your voice in this process with overcoming some of these?

Barriers. It's about think about some of our policies and how we can build some bridges with those so things like becoming test, optional McAllister adjustment test, optional this year as a way to not only address some of the issues surrounding COVID-19 and access a test scores, but it's actually been a longstanding conversation we've been having around as higher educational access in general, right? And how does it disenfranchise folks from minority or underserved populations? Scholarships is another conversation that is constantly had at in the admissions office is how do we view?

Are scholarships? How do we award scholarships in our process and make those accessible for folks across the table?

One of the things I want to mention is that you know it's popping mystifying emissions passes a little bit, so oftentimes we think about admissions as the financial aid sticker, right? We're looking at a college we kind of write it off and say, Oh, that's $50,000. I don't have $2000. That's it. what I want you to walk away knowing they said it's not a one to one ratio. What are sticker price is? Is a comprehensive fee, but doesn't already factor in things like financial aid and scholarships, right? It's not what comes right out of your pocket, so there are a lot of tools out there on our websites.

On college access websites that help you have a better understanding of what the actual amount might be closer to for individual students based off of your particular financial aid and financial circumstances.

Another big part of the admissions process is the personal statement and one of the things that we typically tend to see, particularly first generation students, is that where you're told you have to have to have an impact and have a really, really big story to overcome something in the admissions process, right? To really stand out known as like the bleeding heart essay, and that's not necessarily true. You know, one of the things that we are looking for is that we're looking for you as an individual, and all things that you accomplish all the things that you've done where that's at home in your school, and your community at large.

I just try to figure out you know how. What does that look like for you in high school? How is that going to transcend into the college experience? What are you going to get out of our environment here and kind of creating this larger picture in holistic review. So those are just some of the things that we tend to see questions a lot about. Are the financial aid side and certainly the essay. And what should I be sharing versus not sharing? But like I said, it's really about using your voice. One of the things that I think typically happens is that we don't necessarily ask questions as first generation scholars, right? We think that asking.

This kind of taboo if you ask a question that means that you don't know or that you're weak, but that's not at all the case, and so you know certainly about asking yourself questions on in this process. I know that some of you joining us today are juniors, some of you are sophomores. We even have a couple first year high school freshman in the room. It's important to know that you need to start thinking about yourself and how do you center yourself. So ask yourself questions like what type of weather do you like? Is location important to you like big cities, suburbs, rural settings?

Are there programs of interest that that you that you are interested in exploring as a biology, chemistry, computer science, art, etc. These things don't have to be set in stone before you come to a college campus. You're going to have chances to explore those, but just some of those preliminary questions that you have. What types of organizations are you looking for? Are there cultural or identity based communities that you hope to exist on the college campus that will help you thrive? Are there specific experiences that you're looking at as well? Things like study away.

Internships, research, community involvement, etc. The big takeaway here is that if you're asking yourself this question, it's the same questions that you should be asking the institution right, so it's a demand that you're placing on yourself. It's a demand that you also need replacing on that institution that you're looking at, and it's also a great way to figure out of the 2100 colleges that are out there. What one might have a better sense of belonging for you?

Um and like I said, centering yourself in this process is going to be just as important for me. When I was going through the admissions process, I'm the oldest of five. My siblings are all sense gone to college, which is very proud of, and even my mom just returned this last semester to go and get her degree and so thinking about, how do you center yourself? You often think am I being selfish? I have to carry responsibility at home. Can I even go away, right? Go away to College in that sense, an really. There are larger effects.

Of these decisions that you're making now, they're going to have really lasting impacts on you on your family, in your community. So just know that it's not a selfish act to send to yourself in this process.

Alright thank you Asia. I could listen to you all afternoon. I was right.

At about that process and so forth, and so yeah, so Asia has covered this whole. If you got demystifying the process about getting into college, and of course once you get into college and that's when the real endeavour kicks in. And so, as I mentioned earlier, one reason I went to college is that I wanted to make some money. Or do you want the middle class if you will, and that's why would successful is defined for me and what I want to humbly submit.

To you all this afternoon is think about how you define success in what does that mean for you?

Obviously there could be about those who want to make money on life. This set success is also defined by the relationships that you have with other people around you in various communities and families and friends. Some of you may want to go onto to draft your dream legislation to make this or that happen in our community. Somebody may want to become a doctor, Lori, etc. Those popular things or something. You also may want to become a director of acute community based organization, so these are all.

Always in which you can define success for yourself is not always pre package for you. As you enter college as you go through college and for that matter as you graduate, one of the things I spent a lot of time doing any kind of implicit and explicit ways dealing with this whole idea of what the impostor phenomenon at McAllister we have. Some of the most bright and intelligent young people you will find across the nation. And for that matter from our global communities.

Many of you went through high school and did very well. You identify as being a student and when you get to McAllister you find yourself surrounded in schools like McAllister for that matter, College in general with other students who are also bright and intelligent and oftentimes students will look around this spite, being extremely talented and gifted in many ways will say Oh my goodness, everybody here is so bright and intelligent. Somehow Asia and the people and emissions office have made a mistake and admitted me.

And there's no way that I want to be known that that is the case, and so always tell our students I work closely with is that.

Now that you have been admitted into McAllister, you have passed the scrutiny of the admissions office.

The questions of your intelligence is off the table. To me. You're not here to prove that you are intelligent, but is to improve your intelligence. You bring a lot of things to McAllister and that's what you want. You have to walk around and always compare yourself to other people. You want to trust your instincts. You brought something to the 1600 block of Grand Avenue or wherever you decide to go, and those are the things we want you to focus on as you go through and you decide what Curricular Anh, Co curricular activities.

That you want to be involved with Asia is doing the technology someone answer to advance the slide. If you hang in there with me. So yeah and continue on talking about defining success for yourself. How does one organize themselves for success in college? Many of you may well know that most of the colours experience happens outside of the classroom. In fact, you only going to spend about 1415 hours in the class Monday through Friday.

And the rest of that experience is organizing yourself outside of the classroom. You have many decisions to make, in fact, relative to high school you may find initially that you're going to have time on your hands. You get to decide for the most part, when you will be taking classes and what clubs, organizations, maybe even have a work study position on campus or off campus. So you're going to have to decide how you use your time.

A good portion of that is going to be how are you going to complete your assignments? Your homework? Again, you only going to be in biology about 3 hours a week, but it's going to take you more than three hours to learn biology during the course of the week or doing this semester, and you want to organize your success yourself, not so much by o'clock, but by the task. How long will it take you to complete a task? And then you measure how long it will take you, and there is the parameters in which you can use in order for you to.

Learn what are you talking about, the natural Sciences, the humanities, social science or the like. And as you begin to take your classes and complete your general study requirements and you, then you move into your majors. You also want to tap into your particular gifts. I have often describe McAllister as a gift exchange. Many of you would bring many your gift, the campus and you going to exchange them. And so as you exchanging ideas about the ways in which you show up on campus and you.

Come to campus and you have a way of conceiving the world. How you order the Cosmos, how you season the Food and how do you deal with the dearly departed. And then you get into exchange with students both in and out of the classroom and you beginning to discover that the world is a much larger police. Then perhaps you thought it was even when you come with an advanced understanding of many communities across the country and across the world. What are your gifts? And that's what you want to focus on, because you'll see the other people have gifts.

And you may share some of them in common, but you definitely don't want to leave your gifts off the table. And again, the way which in which things identify as very accomplished students is important as individual. But also we have social mirrors, right? And people will also tell us who we are.

As I mentioned, I started off at college as a student athlete. My first two years, and then I decided to retire early and enthrall myself into the academic experience. So prior to that, you know you're so good at this athletics, or you're tall, or you whatever. And also people begin to externally help you understand who you are and you want to keep that in some kind of balance of how you understand yourself, and that's all about practicing a certain level of agency as well that whatever the circumstances you find yourself in.

You wanna be able to try to control your response to the environment. For those of you who are non Minnesotans, I'm told Haha that it gets cold in Minnesota and sometimes it doesn't get cold. They actually gets wicked and I always say that there should be nothing but a bunch of bright students walking around Minnesota because underwater time you won't be doing much else if you will. But anyway you get a chance to choose your response to the environment, right? And you want to be sure that you set your internal temperature at 72.

So we can be as warm as 90 degrees or as cold as Tim below, right? And you want to stay calm, cool and collected. In practice, a certain level of agency as you show up on campus, it's about networking as bright and gifted as you are. You can't do everything by yourself. My colleague and I whoever closely closely with we always tell the students develop a network that's going to participate in your success. However, however you define it and we want you to start off with five people who are the five people in your network.

Just gonna help you achieve what you want to achieve. They shouldn't be all students. They shouldn't be all faculty. They shouldn't be all staff. There should be a combination of things because indeed you are a complex human being. What a beating, heart and living affection and you have many interests and talents and it takes building a network in order to.

Achieve many those goals and objectives that you want to while you're on campus. Next slide, please.

And again, when you going through college, uh, you'll see that faculty are going to give you a lot of homework, and that homework and those assignments and those lab reports are going to test every fiber and your bone. They're going to give you some complex problems to deal with. They're going to give you some social phenomenon that you want you to think about, and you don't always want to go for the Doctor King. You say they have big solution and easy answers. We want you to think critically about the world.

In which you live in and by doing that you also want to have to learn how to take care of yourself. What is understanding your personal capacity in schools like Mac and others. Students are so talented and so bright and they like to get involved with a lot of things, a lot of things and sometimes you get involved with too many things and then oftentimes students will be a badge of honor that I've got 16 obligations and I got no sleep.

And almost passed out in the semester, but I did it and so you may not want to do that. You may want to say I'm going to pick two or three things that feeds me that nurtures me and I can give it to it. And then you understand natural capacity. And that's the way you're finding ways to balance yourself and Finding Your own balance on campus. You also want to utilize your resources on campus both in and out of the classroom, both formally and informally. And that could mean that you could be seeking advice from a faculty member that's not even teaching.

In the area which you taking classes, but you might have met them, You know at a program where you may have met them in the campus center and you have a chance to sit down and talk to them, it's amazing the number of interest that people have in this world and you can use them as resources to think through all other things that life is going to demand upon you put upon you in those four or so years while you at your undergraduate experiences that McAllister and other places. And Lastly reclaiming your time. Reclaim your time. Everybody is going to want some of your time.

I'm gonna want some your time he's gonna watch something here. Time we employ a lot of stuff.

Don't campus to do a lot of programming and facilitated dialogues and activities that we do on campus and so you're going to be so talented and we're going to tell you how great you are. And wow, it would be wonderful if you do XY and seen. But again, you need to be responsible and responsive to what you need and be sure you have time for yourself so that you live a well balanced experience while you're in your undergraduate experiences at McAllister or wherever you decide to go.

And finally, family support is so important. Families as your scholars are going to college.

Please understand that you become the fuel and their inspiration when things get rough. When it gets cold or they taking organic chemistry and they just can't quite figure it out. Often times they begin to recall why they showed up.

You know at McAllister and you become that inspiration. You become that fuel because in many ways they know you made sacrifices in order for them to be there. In fact, I was teasing some students last fall that many parents will often say that you know you can go to school in your home state and you want to go to men who met Minnesota. Where is that type of thing? So again, that you interested, that is, sometimes they will go across the land in order to continue their education.

You also want to understand something about the rhythm of the academic semester. In the beginning is like summer camp. I would do an orientation. People coming in their meaning each other for the first time, they're making new friends and everybody is happy. And then all of a sudden people get into a groove into a pattern stripe on the class they started doing the work study on campus. They can involve certain organizations and sometimes things will take them in different paths and so. Loneliness may begin to set in. They begin to miss the meals.

That they had within the family and all the things that they prove familiar with primed, prior to coming to McAllister and then write him on October, was going to be midterms and so oftentimes students will only have one grade. Two to judge. You know how they're doing in the class. And so those are some of the times we want to reach out to your scholar and say Well how you doing? How's college going? You know what's going in the dorms and just check in with him and understand those were those were the key points.

And then as you get into towards the mid and beyond the midpoint of the semester, a lot of tests and papers are due, so you might want to check in with them because they will be doing a lot of output during that time and just sending some reinforcing messages of encouragement to them and remind them that they left your home in your community to do great things. And so I know things will get tough, but certainly you can meet those challenges, I'll just. I'll just say quickly our former.

A VP for Student Affairs used to encourage parents to send their scholars a card and tell them how proud they are of them, and they're going on to to continue their education and then reach for the goals have become a better person and you so proud of them that I'm going to send you a. I'm going to in closing this card, a check for $100.

And then you don't include the check right? Especially if you have not heard from him. And then they will be calling you and say what's going on, because then the check will be missing. But anyway, finding ways to stay connected with him so you can continue to reinforce their existence if you will on campus and then learn with your scholar as they go through schools like mad. There will be learning that impressive vocabulary. They're going to learn some very unique concepts.

They're going to be learning more and more about a wide variety of things, and so you want to check in with him and asked him questions about what they're learning. Again, how it is applied to how they understand themselves and so forth. So you get an opportunity to learn with him as they go along, and a lot of times I'm using broad generalizations that families and parents of 1st generation college students. They often know what the legible or with a recognized professions are right so.

You wanna go on to become a lawyer or doctor or engineer. But what if you want to major in anthropology or art or something like that? And you may say well, what is what is that well?

That's also something that you can learn with him along the way and have conversations with your scholar over long periods of times during the break so you can fully appreciate this liberal arts education, which does not always train you for a profession, but set you up to become a lifelong learner as a way of life over a lifetime.

And finally, just keep living. Just keep living. Sometimes life is a gift and a lot of times with thing will be revealed to you and you don't have to know everything. Just let it unfold and unpacked. Later revealed itself to you and that's the mystery of life and certainly that is one of the mysteries of education.

And so at this point, I think we want to share a video with you is about honoring your journey and at the end of the day, at the end of the day.

Is about finding your why? Why do you exist on earth? What? How do you want to examine your life and what is a purpose?

Of your future, what is your purpose of you being a college student? What is the purpose of the society in the world in which we live in and so we want to show you a quick video that we thought that was a great way of illustrating it and it's by comedian by the name of Michael Junior. He does comedy and from time to time you'll stop is showing he will interact with the audience. And so with that will show you the video and so we can make the illustration as to the main purpose of education. We, I believe is that you discovering your Y in life.

Right?

All right, folks. Well, I hope you enjoyed that clip is something that you know really reminds me about grounding myself in the work that I do, and I think that the first generation scholar. That's what's going to get you to your end goals. Whatever your end goals might be, always reflect and think about the people around you. The reason for why you are doing what you are doing and the impact that you have is going to be greater, so.

I hope that you you you took something from that like I did so.

Alright, well this time let's open it up for questions. Uh, feel free to pop them down in the chat and we will start to answer those.

All right, our first question from Brianna, how do you find the balance between pursuing what you love and also feeling an obligation to provide for your family? It's a great question.

Do.

Who Brianna this is that's the $1,000,000 question? And uhm I think is one that I and others and students you know try to strike a balance. You know over their lifetime.

Sometime in many ways I don't think is a mutually exclusive thing. You know, if it is that you are, you are pursuing, you know, helping your family game or economic independence? Then you should do that and then you will find something in life that speaks to you that you can do.

That's going to help you strike a balance between all of that, and so if that means working in businesses that mean being an entrepreneur of some sorts, then you take your craft.

And then your vocation. And then you use it in such a way that it also fulfills those things that you want to be responsible around.

And Lastly, if you look around our world, you know we have a lot of big issues that we want to solve. We have ways in which we want to think about structural inequality in our world, and you can work to help reform many of our institutions. To do that, we have an energy challenge on our hands around climate change, and perhaps that's going to mean you engaging in a career round transforming and.

And finding new ways to burn clean energy. In our world, there are many community based organizations that need some re invigorating if you will and so you can find ways to not only make money but also that's going to speak to your calling and so I don't. I didn't mean to suggest at all that is a Doctor Conomy. It's just that when you go to as you go through college and you take classes and you have a conversation with your classmates and everybody in the campus community, you going to begin to bring those two goals together.

And as the two basic outcomes of higher education is that you learn a certain set of skills so that you can go to the economy extracts living for yourself and others, and then also how do you learn how to make a life for other others? And that's that Democratic process and you want to bring those two things together.

That's a phenomenal question.

All right, this one is from Riemann. I apologize in advance from seeing anyone's name incorrectly as I first generation scholar. How do I prove myself to my family and make them proud that they have given me this opportunity of setting abroad or attending college? If they have, they're having doubts about sending me of?-. How do I prove myself in college to change that perspective?

Yeah wow, this is some great questions. You know, How do I prove myself to my family?

I'm going to make an assumption that in many ways I think your family is already proud of you. They know you know, more or less what your capacity is to achieve those goals, and then you for you to go to college and to enjoy all those benefits of being undergraduate scholar. And that also means studying away. I think one of the ways in which you prove it if you want to prove in quotes, is that you continue to have conversations with him.

About the value of your liberal arts education. Now many ways we know that when you finish college, you're going to end up going into a career so you can make money for yourself. In fact, I always like to say that nobody wants to work. They have to write if they're going to exist. The other side of that an the complementary side of that is continuing to talk to your family.

About what you're learning about what it means to study away, why do we send students across?

To other countries to learn.

Because it's a comparative thing, right? We believe in education in many ways. So in what ways is education different and similar in other countries, right? One of the most unique things to me about higher education, and I borrowed this from Andrew Delbanco. He's a faculty member at Princeton and author of a book called college. What it is, what it was and what it should be, is that when you come to College in the United States, you don't have to know.

What you want to do on day one you gonna get for years to discover what that is and so you get a chance to take some classes an in the social Sciences and Humanities. Then you become enumerated literate and that type of thing. And then you begin to discover what is in you as you're taking those classes and then you in turn continue to relate to an communicate with your family because they're the ones who sent you 2 college.

And they are so proud of you. You're doing something you're engaging in intergenerational dream. You're doing something that perhaps they haven't had a chance yet to do.

Right and so, and proving that you're worthy of such an endeavor.

Is to continue being to be in communication with him and also share with him what you're learning right? And then you go back and you also bring those things that you're learning back to your family and back to your community. and I think that's the primary way in which you.

Prove that you're worthy of such.

You know, opportunity to go to college and then if you engage in a certain career and so forth and you have money that you can contribute, I'm sure they would take a little kick back if you will in that regard. So you can do it in many ways and you just want to be in constant communication with them, letting them know that what you were studying is going to be worthy to them into you, into the rest of the world.

Right?

I would also add to that I think you know part of the proving is is about living the experience to the fullest and really define through that with that with that means for you right. It's about thriving in the environment and by thriving I don't mean necessarily getting straight A's. I mean that's how you driving. That's how you define thriving but driving could be the community that you build. It's about the things that you're taking away the lessons that you are learning, the experiences that you were taking it with that study abroad and study way opportunities.

Turn chefs career prep, whatever that looks like. I think that when your family sees you thriving and the environment, it helps kind of put them at ease a little bit right? I know for me like a lot of May. Anxiety around college was actually it's like self serving and self stemming like it wasn't my family. I was putting on meet with me that was putting it on me.

Right?

Calling home, they would remind me that I was there with purpose and I was, you know there is an goals and it was. It was stepping stones. I had to do to reach those goals that I had in the long run. Those tools we're going to benefit my entire community so so really, it's about that that's rising piece as well.

Right?

Alright, great questions. Any any others out there still free to type them in the chat below?

I have a question for you, Cedric.

Yeah.

So first installers, uhm and kind of post graduate experience. What is that transition typically look like? What, what, how, how have you seen that transition? Gopher version scholars based on how they prepared themselves both pre college and during college for.

The post graduate life.

Yeah, so you know at McAllister we are blessed to have students who already have a predisposition to hard work.

Um to those who are pursued suing, you, know certain goals and aspirations. And so when they get to McAllister, they continue to refine and adjust in. Sometimes change those things.

I've seen students who are coming in and you know they pursued one dragon and change and started to do another or discover something along the way that, for example, that's going to put them on a path and I'm going to use a popular example to medical school. And many times they had a dream of that. And then they took biology and it took organic chemistry and so forth, and some of that begins to be a challenge. But then they began to stretch themselves and spend.

A lot of time in those classes and really begin to buckle down and enthrall themselves and surround themselves with those types of conversations both in and out of the classroom and preparation for medical school. Many of us have a notion about what it means to be a doctor or lawyer, but then sometimes you also want to do an internship or have a shadowing experience so you can see what that's like on a day-to-day level and to see exactly if you want to do that.

Um, and sometimes the barriers can be there. It is not uncommon for it cost $10,000 to apply to medical school.

And it's like what? Just to apply to medical school, absolutely. But there are ways to work through that, and based on your income level and the ways in which you can begin to connect with people to help you get the resources that you need in order for you to go on to medical school or for law school. For that matter, you have to take the M Cat and all those other tests that you have to take, and so again, building a network around you and so that you can be encouraged.

And that you can work very hard to prove to oneself that you're the reason why you want to go into his chosen field is something that's internal and not always external. You know is it is well known that being a doctor or professor or bank or whatever is kind of procedures in society. But even though it has a certain level of prestige, doesn't it mean that you're going to necessarily like it on a day-to-day level in so college will give you a chance to explore that conceptually.

The classroom and then practically, if you get a chance to do some research in laboratories over the summer or doing shadowing experience or whatever that you that you can do so, you can clarify what direction you want to go, and you can begin to figure out what sacrifices that you're going to make to put yourself in a position so that when you leave McAllister, you're pursuing a path that you want to be on. And Lastly, sometimes will have students will come through and they make it a degree in history or anthropology and sociology.

And then after five years after hour or two years after McAllister, they discovered that they want to become a teacher.

And so then you can research it yourself. Grab a set of credentials and then you can go into a classroom k12 and then begin to live out your dreams by inspiring and teaching. Those were coming behind you to pursue all their dreams and so forth. So again, you get a chance to come into college. Whether you have an half idea or no idea what you want to do, have some experience. Take some classes, connect with some folks, and then all of a sudden you begin to discover your path, and then you begin to see what it takes to get there.

And then once you once that's laid out for you, for the most part, then you begin to pursue it. A man pursued in such a way that you eventually began to enjoy it, and it becomes one of the same about who you are.

Rap.

Can you talk a little bit about the first generation to college network at McAllister and so some of those programmatic offerings that we have to help support and scholars?

Absolutely. So we have something at McAllister. We started a few years ago called the FGTC, which is the first innovation to college network.

And a lot of times. So when first Gen and 1st year students come to McAllister, they have a lot of options, right? If you come to Mac you will be offered 800 classes that you can take by the time you graduate. Now that might be a bit much 800 classes, right? So you may have an idea that about religious study. So wow, that means I'm going to go on to become a clergy member or no. How are you going to begin to explore what it means to be?

A religious studies major or a geography major or anthropology major. If you haven't had a chance to talk with somebody from that Department.

How do you know in particular what what path that you may want to take or you want to explore? And So what we end up doing is arranging for faculty and staff to have conversations with students to help them clarify and get some of those questions answered along the way, you know you want to do research, but what in what area? I have this urge that I want to give back to community I'm committed to social justice. I'm committed to fairness and so then how are you going to find the right discipline?

If you will write to to engage in so that you can live out their passion.

We bought people from the Metropolitan Council on campus and had a workshop and they talked about how you can achieve social justice through urban planning and a lot of our students say, wow, I hadn't even thought about that right? You don't always know what the particular career paths that are out there, and So what we do is that we have workshops that happens on Wednesdays so that students can begin to unpack that a little bit, and then they also come together and to explore their identity as first generation college students, right?

Oftentimes again, you'll come to campus is where most students were not first Gen, and so you will begin to.

To explore the unique ways in which you are situated in that in the current situation, and we want you to focus on your assets an.

Sometimes, of course, students talk about the things that they don't have. The other people have and said, OK, that's fine, but what is it that you do have? And so I think a lot of times the benefit of a first year student. That what happens in some of these conversations in that first generation. The college network.

Is that the goal is to go to college and you get a chance to paint your own picture about what you want to do. Sometimes those who are who are from multi educated families. They will send him to college and say OK I want you to become this or that and nothing else will do. And so a lot of times students feel that pressure to do that. But as a first year college student sometimes you have a blank canvas canvas and then you can paint the picture that you wanted to paint.

And of course you be picking up components of that picture along the way, and that's, I think in many ways isn't as an asset in all of that. So whether you exploring the identity as a first Gen college student or you getting connected to the resources and the awesome opportunities that are available at McAllister were going to help set up some of those conversations so that you can plan with purpose with him, including study away, will have students were have students and staff members from the study away office.

To have a conversation with you early about the things that you need to do to prepare yourself. If you want to study away and you make that preparation and you may decide that you know it's not for me and that's OK.

A lot of people don't study away, but if you do, you're in a good position to do that. So that's what research that's what. Be sure that you get connected with the administrative and academic resources on campus and that you're having certain conversations. That's going to help you advance the ways in which you want to advance on campus, and so that's what that first generation college network is all about. The first gift is each other so that you can begin to talk and relate to one another, and then you begin to tap into the awesome resources that.

That's on campus in a timely manner so that you have the resume that you have the application to submit so that you can do resource research in the natural Sciences. Or you're going to have an internship, or you can be in entrepreneurship.

Program in one of those opportunities. Or if you want to serve off campus and will connect you with the Civic Engagement Center and others so that you can do that and take advantage of our great urban location.

Thanks Cedric, we got another question here. Oh, how do you talk to your how I talk to my family about what I'm learning about a college if they don't understand the experience.

Yes yes yes.

Another $1,000,000 question, how do you explain the value of a liberal arts education to someone?

Who hasn't had had that experience? And so my first suggestion over the years has been in that you do it overtime and you do it slowly.

All of us and even for those who haven't had their college experience and then those who haven't had the liberal arts college experience have some notion of what it means to go to college.

And so you start there. You start where they are and then you begin to fill in the gaps. The critique of of liberalized education are people would say that then is education for education's sake.

And I said, OK, absolutely, but I wouldn't think about it that way. I would think about it as yes is education for big questions about how we exist in this world. What kind of world do you want to see? And then you work to create it as opposed to always working with what you got out there. Now that's a reality as well, but we gotta have an imagination right about what we want to see in this world. And so your families have some notion.

About what that is, and as you're going through overtime each semester, each break, each phone call, each email, etc. Is that you begin to fill in the points for them about wow. I didn't realize that by going to College in this particular college that this was the case. I never thought, for example, that I would be so interested in the Mississippi River that I am right now. And that's be'cause. We take students to New Orleans every year, and then we begin to talk about how important.

The city of New Orleans, in his location had been going back a couple 100 years and then you begin to discover that, wow, the Mississippi built land in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, how did it happen? And so we're learning about those things. And when I came into college again, as I always want to make some money. But then I was like wow, begin to be curious about something else, and then I can begin to explain to my family along the way about why is important. It is to understand something about the Mississippi River because we're still shipping on that River.

And you want to get your iPhones and Android devices had not stuff in coming down the Mississippi River and the light. And so again, I humbly submit his employees excuse me along with that answer about you talking to your family. One email 1 phone call 1 break at a time about what you're learning and how it applies to everyday life.

Alright, so Dillon is asking I'm going into my senior year of high school and I'm wondering in what ways I can continue to build strong application with a short time that is flat. So yeah, admissions, caution.

Yep.

Right?

So I think you know, I think one thing to keep in mind is that we want you to be kind to yourself. You know we're very much aware that you know not only assume you're already stressful, but you are going to be entering it in the midst of a pandemic, and then Mrs. Uprising in the midst of a lot of social change. There's a big election this year. There's a lot of things that are just kind of up in the air and so unknown, and so we don't mission side nessa expects you to do all the things, be the leader in.

Right?

All the time and everything else, and so I think that as far as putting the other strong application, it's about really showcasing who you are at the core of what are those passions of interest is experiences that you have had and been able to accomplish, and what are you hoping to pursue an accomplished in your college environment, right? So again, I think it's important to know that that many liberal arts colleges like McAllister, we use a holistic review process that I'm not just looking at a GPA or a task, or like I said, we're test optional, so even that now.

Not everyone is going to have that information, but we're really looking at more complex and more contextual information besides that, so thinking about who are you choosing for your recommenders are the people who actually know you and not just how well your hamlet essay is. But really, people would talk about maybe the dynamics that you have in a classroom setting or the dynamics of things going on at home, or the things that you've accomplished in the community thinking about your activities list right?

Is often a conversation about quantity versus quality, and you know, do am I supposed to have all 10 things a common app allows, or is one or two? But you see that I'm really dedicated. I think this is, you know, there's an argument to be made for both sides, right? Like we want you to have tests it out some things and shown that you want to experience. That's what college is going to celebrate and encourage you to do. But we also want you to find the things that fuel you, the things that motivate you, the things that the center you and feed your soul so fast that one activity that you've done for.

Four years great if that is, you know, you still trying to figure it out. That's OK too. Um, your personal statement right? This is, I think the one piece of your application that's fully in your control at the time that you apply them into missions, right? For the most part, your grades are done for the most part, your teachers are going to write what they're going to write about you. Your activities list is pretty much set in stone, right? For maybe a couple of things that you're adding here at the end. But the personal statement is really your chance, and it's your voice in the application process, and so really taking some time with that, not rushing it, not waiting to the last minute.

I argue start now right. Go through, go through a couple iterations of what that is, and making sure that that story that you're telling us really centers on you. You know I always appreciate the telling us of the role model in your life. Maybe it's your grandmother. Maybe it's your parent and sometimes those are really great, but oftentimes I don't walk away always knowing who you are as an individual and as much as your parent or grandparent is lovely, they're not the ones that are going through this experience. You are, and so really it sure sure. Chance talk about yourself. So centering yourself like I said earlier.

In this process, I think this wanted to build that strong application. Think of it as a whole whole product, not singular pieces.

Alright, can you put your questions in the chat?

Um question from Macaya. One of our fellows, uh, who's also fresh and so? How do you find a community or family away from home? If your family can't come visit you particularly for our silver out of theaters.

So that for me to respond or.

Wow, another phenomenal question be'cause.

Many of you may know the schools like McAllister McAllister in particular that most of our students are not from the state of Minnesota. We have a national, an international student population. That means that as you come to campus, you would do want to find you know chosen family at some point or is our sense of community that gives you purpose that helps you feel like you belong in very particular ways. An in general at McAllister so there are over 100 clubs and organizations as one place.

They were in which you can find, you know, a sense of community and sense of belonging. There are programs like our lives of commitment programs that's aimed at first year students and they come together as a community and they choose a few. A couple of community based organizations to relate to throughout their first year at McAllister and then they cluster back on campus and they reflect upon those experiences that they are working in the community. We have our bond community scholars program and where which it is a civic engagement in college access program.

That takes place for all over four years and they traveled together as a 12 in a cohort among the 48 or so other students that are in the bottom program. And that's another way in which you can build community. Some of you may be student athletes on the team, you'll find family and community in those programs, and then also, if you're not varsity sports competitor, we also have club sports wear in which you can find that.

You may form study groups, right? Uh, in your classes, and eventually your majors, or certain classes that you take and you begin to find those who you mostly want to closely associate for a good part of your time and day at McAllister. So we do have the benefit of being a small campus environment where everybody is somewhat familiar with each other. But also it takes work. It doesn't happen.

By spontaneous combustion you have to be intentional in it and you have to get out there and put yourself and take some risks and to build some relationships and friendships with people.

And then all of a sudden you may come up with an organization on effort to be sure that when new students come in, and then as you progress through your McAllister experience, that you find ways to help welcome people, whether returning or new to campus and help them discover their why. You know why they're here in McAllister. So athletics, clubs, organization, Department, organization. You also will be working on campus and you have your fellow coworkers.

And apartments and so forth. And you'll find various ways to cluster. And again just last limb. And although we are small, it is one of the most difficult things we do is try to build a sense of community because we also know that we have a number of introverted people on campus and that sometimes can take a little while to do that. But there will be opportunities for you to do that in the residence halls and your classrooms and other ways in which we cluster on campus.

This is a reminder we bought 10 minutes remaining, so this would be the time to ask any final questions that you have as you'll see on the slide, both my and Cedric's emails are on here. You are more than welcome to utilize those with any additional questions you may have following this event in the other events that you are attending with us this summer, etc. As you explore McAllister, so can you talk about how Mac celebrates the first journey.

Yes, so I think the year was 2014. We had some graduating seniors come to us and they said, you know the first young students, their percentages and numbers were beginning to increase on campus and we want to find a way to celebrate that.

And uh, during, uh, as we ready to graduate from McAllister and so group students got together with a few staff members an week and they came up with a graduation ceremony call honoring the journey. And what the graduating seniors want to do is to honor their parents or family or chosen family.

Uh, as they have.

Continue to inspire and work with them in their journey at McAllister and so.

The graduating version students those who opt in will be given a couple minutes to send a message to their families doing a graduation ceremony.

And they get 2 minutes to say whatever they want to say to their family and whatever language that's appropriate for their families to receive it. And it has become one of the most popular programs doing the commencement ceremonies at McAllister because it's so heartfelt and students are sending messages to their families about their journey and what their families mean to them. And Lastly, about that one of the most significant things about.

On a journey is that it centers of families, uh, in particular, who are first yet because they made so many sacrifices along the way, and a lot of times the overall graduation ceremonies can be about lot of pomp and circumstances and other things. And then this certain moment you get a chance to center their families and their contributions, and we recognize them. And so is one of the most touching and tear jerking.

Ceremonies that we have and it really, really touches upon the significance of the families as it made those sacrifices and contributions to those graduating first young students.

Alright, so with that, any final words of wisdom that you have? Refreshments, collars, they enter the admissions process, Cedric.

Just know as as I alluded to before, that you have many, many, many gifts that you're going to bring to McAllister or whatever college that you decide you want to apply to.

Dumb isn't very important that you focus in on those gifts and not so much in a kind of insular way, but you focus in on those gifts and you find a way to make connections to others.

I'm reminded of the words of the scientist Einstein when he talked about engaging in the natural Sciences, that it is 90% perspiration.

And 10% inspiration, so it's mostly hard work. Trial and arrow setting up experiments, failing.

Failing well, doing it again and 1010% inspiration, which is about mental acuity. Alot of times we think about math and science that either you have it or you don't.

And again, it's all about you coming in in developing your gifts.

As an individual and see how those individual gifts connect with others on campus. How do you build community with those who are similar to you and how those who are different from you? That's what it means to be invited into this enterprise. If you will, as a community of learners and scholars on campus so that you can bounce ideas off each other so you can walk into a meeting, walk into a classroom with one idea and then emerge with a different one.

And that is all about the Magic of education. And Lastly, finding a way to put yourself in the shoes of another person. It has been said by those who are wise that you really don't understand an issue unless you understand it in more than one way. And by having people from around the world from different perspectives in different languages and different ways of seeing the world, you get a chance to expand your knowledge base, expand your understanding and engage in this quest.

And a spiritual quest for meaning.

And what we otherwise call education. So no, that you bring something to that enterprise and you're there to develop it along with others. And if you focus on that, I think the admission process would be a lot easier. And definitely when you come to campus and you begin to choose what you want to do in and out of the classroom, and that becomes a focus, college would be a lot easier. I didn't say it was going to be easy.

But it will be easier and then you begin to understand your purpose and your why and then you're what becomes infinitely more easier as Michael Junior said. So I wish you well as a Asia mentioned our information is there. I don't care where you go to school I just want you to make a well informed decision as to where you going to go and I'm more than happy to to play whatever role that I can in that process.

All right?

Thank everyone for joining us tonight, um afternoon for some of you evening. For others, you create your time and your energy and we just wish you well. Can you take care of yourself and define community an string from those around you?

You can do this. Let us now with that will see you later.

Thank you.