First-Generation Day celebrates students

Friday was National First-Generation Day nationwide. The First-Generation Organization and Multicultural Center (MCC) held a special event to celebrate first-generation students, faculty, staff and future students at CSB+SJU last Thursday. Food, raffle prizes, merchandise and a keynote speaker were in the program lineup. National First-Generation Day is a designated day to celebrate the achievements and community of first-generation students. This is the third year that the First-Generation Organization and MCC put on an event at CSB+SJU.

Jackie Perez, ‘15, was the keynote speaker. Perez came to CSB+SJU as a first-generation student. She graduated with a political science major, going on to receive her law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn. She now works as an Associate Child Protection County Attorney at Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Perez concluded her speech at the event with words of advice for first-generation students at CSB+SJU.

“Let me tell you, one day you’re going to surpass what I’ve done, alright, and keep your head up, because Lord knows it’s hard out here. Live in your truth and embrace the experiences that made you who you are today,” Perez said.

Perez stayed around at the end of the event to mingle with students, including with fellow first-generation students from Texas, where Perez is originally from.

Malik Stewart, director of the MCC and the coordinator for Intercultural LEAD, shared that bringing in a keynote speaker has been an important part of these events.

“We always have an alum speaker come back who is a first-gen student themselves, and I think part of it is about representation. When you’re a first-gen student, you’re navigating that by yourself,” Stewart said. “Celebrating this day is about making sure that first-gen students know that, yes, it’s challenging, but this is their community too, and they need to embrace both the challenges that they’re going to have, but also the triumphs.”

Current students and alumni were not the only people in attendance. Alexandra Scheibelhut, program director of TRIO Upward Bound at CSB+SJU, brought potential first-generation students from the surrounding areas to the event. TRIO Upward Bound is a federal grant program that supports high school students who want to go to college someday, specifically if they are first-generation or if they are from low-income homes.

Scheibelhut shared why this event is also important for potential first-generation students.

“The biggest thing that we find when students are unsure about going to college, it’s just that they’re unsure if they belong in college, and so bringing them to events like this that are centered around students like them helps them seem feel seen and heard,” Scheibelhut said.

The MCC has many resources for first-generation students, the biggest one being the First-Generation Organization that is housed in the MCC. There is also a peer mentorship program where first-year first-generation students get paired with an upperclassman first-generation student.

The MCC has information for all first-generation events and programs for students.

“We pride ourselves on community at CSB+SJU. And within this larger community, there’s all these other smaller communities. We are constantly building community, specifically for first-gen students.

Tonight, there were groups of friends that came in who met through first-gen or first-gen adjacent things like Intercultural Lead. That’s what that is trying to do, is to make those connections and community within the larger one,” Stewart said.