At Lawrence, we consider students whose parents/guardians do not have a four-year degree to be part of our cohort of first-generation students. Being a first-generation student myself, I can speak first-hand about navigating college unable to rely on the people I normally would for advice: my parents. As we work to support all of our students of varying identities that they hold, we are continuing to look at the best ways to support First-Generation Students. One way is to keep a running list of first-generation faculty and staff — these faculty and staff may choose to put up a door sign by their offices to help students easily identify that the person working there may be a person who understands their perspective of navigating the college experience, or wear a pin to different occasions on campus to identify themselves as first gen.
If you haven’t identified yourself as a First-Generation faculty/staff member yet, please fill out the First-Generation Faculty and Staff Form with a few questions that includes your choice of being contacted about anything involving the topic of first generation students. If you HAVE already identified yourself in the past, but need to indicate that you need a door sign, pin, or want to be added/taken off of a mailing list, please head to the form!