First Gen Journey recently celebrated its first year anniversary and it has been quite a journey indeed. I’ve highlighted 20 amazing stories of First Gen College Students (FGCS) who became First Gen Professionals (FGPs). We’ve heard about their challenges and successes and how they’ve been able to grow in their First Gen identity. For me, anniversaries, birthdays, and new years always prompt a state of reflection but also motivate me to set new goals. I’ve been thinking a lot about how FGJ can and should change moving forward. One of the unique perspectives that I bring to the podcast sphere as a psychologist is my research background. There is so much research being done on FGCS but it’s not likely something you’ll find on the nightly news or Buzzfeed. Although wouldn’t it be great if Buzzfeed created a quiz titled, “What First Gen Strengths Do You Use Most?” I’d definitely take that quiz.
Including more research findings has always been a goal for the podcast and season 3 seems like a perfect time to make that change. You’ll still be hearing personal stories from FGCS and FGPs but I’ll also be adding some solo episodes where I go more in-depth into the research findings on the First Gen experience. The theme for season 3 is going to be 8 Correlates of First Gen Success. Throughout this season, I’ll be sharing a quality, strategy, institutional program, or relationship that has been connected to success in First Gen College Students. Sadly, the same wealth of research doesn’t yet exist for First Gen Professionals but I’ll do my best to try and transfers the lessons/interventions/strategies to the professional world. Here are the 8 topics I’ll cover this season:
1. Social Support
2. Academic Support
3. Financial Aid
4. Mentorship
5. Engagement
6. Personal Motivation
7. Positive Self-Concept
8. Sense of Belonging
As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions for future episodes or the podcast in general. After all, we are all on this journey together.