{"id":11908,"date":"2023-12-26T16:14:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T21:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/?p=11908"},"modified":"2025-03-18T08:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T12:33:23","slug":"the-journey-of-two-first-generation-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/the-journey-of-two-first-generation-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming the College Myth \u2014 The Journeys of Two First-Gen Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

When young people aspire to higher education, preconceived notions can cloud reality \u2014 leading us to envision something closer to Animal House<\/em> or Legally Blonde<\/em> than an authentic college experience. Pop culture inundates us with ideas of what attending a university “should” look like (often conveniently glossing over the parts where characters are actually<\/em> learning).<\/p>\n

When you pan away from fantasy and zoom in on reality, however, you will discover that most media representations of college read more like a myth than the truth. Movies and television shows often portray higher education from a narrow scope \u2014 inclusive only of cookie-cutter experiences concocted by screenwriters.<\/p>\n

For first-generation students<\/a>, university life can look especially unlike the pop culture picture. Although first-gen learners enroll in universities at high rates<\/a>, they\u2019re more likely to drop out before earning their degrees. Whether it\u2019s a lack of institutional familiarity, psychological factors like imposter syndrome, or difficulties juggling non-academic responsibilities<\/a>, first-gen students often confront unique trials \u2014 obstacles many learning institutions lack the resources to help them overcome.<\/p>\n