First Generation with Gina

Since exciting

let's see.

Who rolls in?

Can I give everyone a couple of minutes to?

Let's see.

To get in.

So excuse me.

OK, much better.

OK dokey

here.

There's just me so far.

If.

Probably 535.

And then I will get started.

On the 1st generation.

It's exciting.

A little.

My mic.

That I brought.

Just make sure that I am heard.

Let's see.

Give everybody three more minutes to come in.

And then we will have a chat.

Lighting is kind of weird in here, I apologize.

Alright.

OK.

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OK?

Well it's 533. I will go ahead and get started. So hello, my name is Gina Soutchay. I am admissions officer for the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith and I'm going to be doing a webinar on the 1st generation.

And we will get started.

I'm a little bit about me, so my first language was actually louse. My second language was English so I didn't learn any English until I got into elementary school. I was in a program called English. I was in a program called English second language up until I was in the 4th grade, and so they would Take Me Out of class and I'd have to learn just simple things like.

You know corresponding pictures with words, and then I had to take an exiting test. My 4th grade year and I succeeded and so.

Kids call ESL. I believe it's what they call it in school now, so I was in that program up until 4th grade. Growing up, I had strict parents and so since I am a first generation student, my parents were very **** ** academically and so I had straight A's all through high school. Didn't make a single B and anytime I did make a BI got punished for it and so that kind of.

Kind of reinforced me to do well in school, and so I'm very thankful for them. I'm glad that they were **** ** me growing up. I didn't understand it at first, but now I get it because my parents actually came from Lao so first generation born in America. My parents are from Lawson, Thailand and so I was born here in the United States of America first generation, so they wanted me to have a successful life. They struggled all their lives trying to make it here in the United States.

And thankfully they got their foot on the ground and so they want me to do the same. But they also don't want me to struggle. As you know, I'm their child, and so they they wanted the best for me, so I appreciate them a lot. I graduated from Van Buren high school with in 2014 with a 4.0 GPA. That kind of corresponds with my strict parents, and so I put that on there just to give a little bit of background as to why I did so well in high school.

And then I graduated from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith in May of 2019. I currently have a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with a minor in business administration and so on. The third bullet up there. It says I'm a business owner and so I am. I own a small business called the raw chemist. And So what I do I make cosmetics natural all natural cosmetics using all raw ingredients, hence the raw chemist all by hand, all from scratch using science. And so I consider myself.

A cosmetic chemist an I'm using my degree that I obtained from the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith and I'm applying it to my business as well as my minor, and so I'm very proud of myself for that.

So what is a first generation student? How do you define a first generation student? It's the 1st in their immediate family to go to college. So if your parents

completed high school but didn't go to college right after high school or didn't go to college at all, and you're their child and you go to college, you are considered a first generation student.

Research research shows that nearly 1/3 of incoming freshmen are first generation, so that's a big chunk of student and a majority of these students are minority, low, middle, or higher income families so they can come from any type of family. But a majority of them are minorities.

So.

That's always something to keep in mind and like I said, the highest level education attained by either parents or both parents was a high school diploma or less, so my mom completed junior high, didn't go to high school and my dad graduated high school and so none of my.

Neither of my parents have a college degree, so that's what that's what a first generation student is defined as. And So what challenges?

Does a first generation student come across so from personal experience? It's just the lack of knowledge and how to sign up for classes and how to sign up for college and what do I need for college? And so I did everything on my own with the help. A little help from my high school counselor in a little help from the college that I applied to, which is the University of Arkansas Fort Smith.

But everything else I did in my own. My scholarships. I applied all of my own. I got lucky and I got a scholarship for my mom's work. Thankfully with my good grades in high school and so my mom asked around for me for scholarships because she works at a big factory and so I got that scholarship. Thankfully an I obtained a decent AC T score with a 4.0 GPA and so I thankfully got a full ride to college.

And so I did all of this by myself. It was very frustrating. Lack of college readiness. I I was scared of college y'all I nobody told me anything about it.

Um Ann, it was just.

I was scared no familial support. A lot of 1st generation students. Their family doesn't support them because they want them to go straight to the workforce after high school. My family was different. My mom and dad wanted me to go to college. They think that without a college degree I wouldn't amount of anything and so that was just my family. My personal experience, financial stability. My parents are there. They're on their feet, but they don't make enough money to support me financially.

College wise and so I worked my butt off. They pushed me to work my butt off and that is why.

They were so strict on me. It was because they knew that if I went through high school doing really well I would get a lot of scholarships and so financially for first generation students. Their family can't support them or they can't support themselves. So they have to take out a lot of student loans, racial under representation. And so like I said, a lot of 1st Gen students are minorities and there's not really a lot of people. Not a lot of diversity in college.

And so and then low academic self esteem. So a lot of 1st Gen students, do you want to go to college but they didn't do so well, so they're scared they're not going to do well academically in college and that kind of goes with lack of college readiness to. And so this all kind of ties together like navigating and adjusting to college. And so these are just a few of my personal experiences as well as statistically, based upon the research that I've done for first generation students, that the challenges that they come across.

And So what does U AFS offer for first generation students help. So we offer a lot a lot, a lot, a lot of help to our first generation students. We appreciate you guys. We want you guys to come here and succeed and that's our goal is to get you through college smoothly and easily so that you can succeed afterwards.

We have events targeted to support first generation students, and so there is on that last little box. It says hashtag 1st to go. That's the hashtag that we use on campus to show our pride as being a first generation student. an A lot of our events are targeted towards that with that hashtag and so the 1st to go is.

That would be.

That would be the targeted on hashtag and then we also have mentors. So we have faculty and staff that are just more than happy to help our students succeed. You can you know their doors are always open for office hours if you have any questions. If you have any.

Complications with homework.

And so that would be an ideal.

Thing, if you're looking for a mentor, our staff and faculty are very awesome, and then your friends or family. If you have any friends or family.

It would be.

Really ideal to to have as a mentor someone, maybe your aunt or your uncle. I you know that have been to college and so you can have them as your resource.

Not really a uas resource, but maybe if you make friends on on campus they can help you guide you. They can help guide you through college technology, digital tracking of course work for advising. So what I mean by that is so are advising Department the roar first year advising is what it's called. They have a digital tracker so you can.

I on track as well as other advising Department on campus.

They'll have a tracker for to keep you on track. I can't even talk to keep you on track with.

Completing your coursework and staying on track to graduate, and so once you take class, they digitally market often there. OK, you're good. And then you move on to the next one so that were up to date on sitting on the technology. And it's super helpful.

And so those are my citations based on the information that I got from my slides. Most of it was, well, a lot of it was, you know, personal experience. But the things that were statistically, you know the numbers on there I got from websites. So now I'm open to any questions or concerns. Thank you guys for coming to my webinar. I had fun talking to you guys about my experience being a first generation student. I can't wait to help my little brother grow up.

And go through college if that's what he decides to do because college isn't for everyone but as a first generation student, just remember that you're going to go through obstacles. But if I can do it then you can do it too. And it's it's so worth it. In the end, getting that degree walking down that stage and seeing your family just being so proud of you.

It's all worth it in the end, and so I would like to thank you guys for all coming to my webinar.

Like I said, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me or call my office phone. We can have a chat. Any concerns about you know any obstacles that you guys come a cross. But yeah, I hope you guys have a great Wednesday and have a great week as well. Bye.