Source: The SMC Collegian, May 01, 2007
Convention displays Lasallian values
First Generation convention highlights diversity of college, research opportunities for anthropology, sociology department
By: Casey O'Brien
Saint Mary's College celebrated the second annual First Generation Conference along with De La Salle week. The First Generation Project is an ongoing qualitative research project that analyzes the experience of first generation college students.
"The Saint Mary's College definition of a first generation college student is a person who is the first in their family to attend college in the United States," said Anthropology and Sociology Professor Dana R. Herrera.
President Brother Ronald Gallagher began the conference with the Lasallian prayer, and then proceeded with explaining the significance of first generation students at Saint Mary's College. "First generation students provide a richness at Saint Mary's College, in that they spread diversity on campus, and have an eagerness to pursue higher education," he said.
The First Generation study is currently one of the newest and largest research projects that is being conducted at Saint Mary's College. "Students enrolled in sociology courses have the option of doing hands-on research with the First Generation Project. If the student is a first generation student, he/she may tell a personal story, in which they will be both the subject and an objective researcher. If the student is not a first generation student, he/she will interview an individual asking them to tell their life history," said Anthropology and Sociology Professor Phylis C. Martinelli.
The First Generation Project is not only manifest at Saint Mary's College, but throughout other universities, in particular the California State University at Monterey Bay. At the second annual First Generation Conference, Dr. Rina Benmayor from the Institute for Human Communication at CSU Monterey Bay gave her keynote address, titled Narrative of Empowerment and Belonging: First Generation College Students of Mexican Heritage.
From her research, Benmayor has given depth to experiences of first generation students from hundreds of interviews. She began her speech by explaining that a first generation student, "is navigating between two different identities. First being the historical identities, what these students are used to. When they are at home, there is a strong sense of community... Whereas in college, sometimes first generation students struggle with creating a self-identity as a college student and finding their voice."
Benmayor then gave insight into these identities. One of her interviewees explained that she was accustomed to, "seeing [her] father wake up at three or four in the morning every day to go to work, and come home late, like around nine or ten." Another problem that first generation students may have is fitting in. "First generation students sometimes have trouble integrating themselves onto the college community, making connections, and forming relationships," she said.
Benmayor continued her keynote address which explained resistance and cultural citizenship. According to Benmayor, "Cultural citizenship refers to the way people organize their values, their beliefs about their rights, and their practices based on their sense of cultural belonging rather than on formal status as a citizen of a nation."
The anthropology and sociology departments will continue the First Generation Project in order to maximize the benefits of college for these students. "The First Generation Project expresses the Lasallian Mission: to enter to learn, and leave to serve," said Gallagher.
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