Gen1 Kickoff

Dr. Kevin J. Manning

Being the first to do something can sometimes be a daunting task, such as being the first member of your family to attend college. Since the day of your birth, there have been people that you’ve deemed significant, giving you advice on how to live your life, and encouraging you to become a better citizen of the world.

 You took that advice because you trusted them and their experience in this world outweighed yours. Now, having graduated high school, you move on into the college setting, which for you and your supporters is the realm of the unknown.

I’m sure this was the feeling many first generation college students and their supporters had when they were entering the unknown world of college, at least that’s the way I felt.

 I always trusted my parent’s advice but since they never attended an institution of higher learning, I was always skeptical when they would give me advice on how to adapt to the college environment. I love them dearly but didn’t have the heart to tell them maybe they didn’t understand.

 It was going to be more than just studying hard and making good decisions. I felt completely alone on my first day of college, and I thought that I was the only one whose family really had no idea what to expect, my parents had never gone to college.

            Hopefully things will change now for incoming freshmen, as 2010 marks the beginning of the Gen1 program at Stevenson University, geared specifically toward assisting first-generation students.

Kelly Medinger

 The program is sponsored by a generous grant through the CIC/Walmart College Success Award. The Gen1 program strives to provide support for 30 of Stevenson’s first-generation first-year students by mentoring them through their first two years of collegiate life. Paired with a faculty or staff member who themselves were also a first-generation college student, these mentors meet regularly with their mentees and help guide them through the process of getting acclimated to an environment that may, at times, seem overwhelming

The CIC/Walmart College Success Award Gen1 program had its official kickoff on Friday, September 10, 2010 with a cake-cutting ceremony; Stevenson’s Director for Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations, Kelly Medinger did the honors of cutting the cake. Speakers such as Dr. Kevin J. Manning, President of Stevenson University, Dr. Paul Lack, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Stevenson University, and Dr. D. M. Greene, the Gen1 Faculty Leader, graced the podium and spoke to the students and their mentors.