In Spring 2025, Clayton State University moved from recognition to activation in our support of first-generation students, with this work taking shape through the Dean of Students Office. What began as closer examination of our student data quickly evolved into intentional structures that center belonging, family engagement, and academic connection for first-generation learners and their communities.
Our institutional context adds important perspective. The average student at Clayton State comes from a family with an adjusted gross income of approximately $29,020 per year. This reality shapes how students experience college, from financial decision making to access to guidance about navigating higher education systems. Research on socioeconomic status shows that students from lower income backgrounds often enter college with strong aspirations and ability while navigating systems that may be unfamiliar to their families. This understanding helps frame our work. Our role is to ensure students and families feel informed, connected, and supported throughout the college experience.
Families as Partners in the Journey
We are expanding family engagement through a developing partnership with Campus Life to adopt Campus ESP, a communication platform designed to keep families informed and involved. While this work is still in progress, the goal is clear: families should have accessible information about academic milestones, campus resources, and important moments so they can confidently support their students.
This philosophy is most visible at our First-Gen Graduation Celebration, first held in Spring 2025 and continuing semesterly, pulling in over 100 first-gen graduating students and family member attendees at each event. During the celebration, we have intentionally played Grammy Award-winning artist Bad Bunny’s song “DTMF,” or Debí tirar más fotos, which translates to “I Should Have Taken More Photos.” The message of honoring memories and meaningful moments aligns closely with the spirit of the event. Families share photos of ancestors, loved ones, and important life moments, which are featured in a slideshow while the song plays. Families place First-Gen cords on their graduates, and we present flowers to family members in the audience as a visible acknowledgment of their role in the student’s journey. The celebration reinforces that earning a degree is an intergenerational achievement.
Academic Belonging, Mentorship, and Opportunity
Our commitment to first generation students is reflected in how we cultivate belonging and connection across campus. In Spring 2025, we launched a dedicated First-Generation website that serves as a hub for resources, explanations of commonly used higher education terms, and clear pathways to support. A key feature is a public list of 56 faculty and staff mentors who volunteered to be mentors and supporters of first-generation students. Their presence signals that students have advocates across departments who value their experience and are eager to contribute to their success.
One way these relationships begin is through the “First Gen Connection Café,” a mixer first hosted in February of 2026 designed to bring students and mentors together in a relaxed setting. The goal is to create space for conversation and shared experience so relationships can develop naturally and extend beyond a single event.
Student leadership further strengthens this work through our Iconic Iota Rho Chapter of the national Tri-Alpha First-Generation Honors Society, which has initiated 36 members since Spring 2025. These student leaders help shape our First-Generation Week programming, first celebrated in November 2025 and continuing with First Gen Week in March 2026. These first-generation student leaders are committed to continued recognition and are our “boots on the ground” to make first-generation efforts a norm through peer action and influence. Their events include story sharing, community building, and college-specific mixers where students connect with faculty and administrators within their academic areas.
Skylar McDaniel, a Spring 2025 first-generation graduate, now serves as a graduate assistant for the Dean of Students Office and as President of the CSU Tri-Alpha chapter. McDaniel shared that “being first generation means breaking barriers and creating a legacy of opportunity.” McDaniel uses her experience and leadership to instill confidence in other students. “As president of Tri-Alpha, I want other first-gen students to feel confident embracing their achievements and proud of being first. I want them to not just feel but KNOW that they belong!”
Our commitment to first-generation student success also extends into academic and financial investment. Clayton State’s first-generation Coca-Cola Scholars Scholarship provides meaningful tuition support while connecting students to cohort-based experiences in areas such as wellness, civic engagement, business leadership, and STEM. Beyond funding, the program reinforces that first-generation students are both welcomed at our college and supported as scholars and leaders within it.
Strategic Alignment and Continuous Growth
Our first-generation work is not peripheral to the institution. It directly supports Clayton State’s mission of advancing social mobility through access, support, and student success. First-generation initiatives are embedded within the university’s strategic plan under the Operational Excellence pillar, which prioritizes enhancing student wellbeing and belonging as foundations for academic persistence and degree completion.
These efforts are supported through the work of the Council on Belonging and Student Success, where engagement, student feedback, and participation data are tracked to inform decisions and refine initiatives. By connecting belonging efforts to institutional strategy, we ensure first-generation support is sustained at a structural level. This alignment reflects an understanding that social mobility is not achieved through enrollment alone, but through environments where students feel connected, valued, and equipped to succeed.
A Culture of Memory, Belonging, and Support
Many institutions serve first-generation students. At Clayton State, our aim is to build long-lasting structures that help those students and their families feel seen, supported, and celebrated. When families are honored, mentors are visible, student leaders shape programming, and institutional strategies align with belonging, support becomes part of the culture. And as “DTMF” reminds us, these moments matter. They are the memories that families and students will carry forward long after graduation, cementing our institution as pivotal in their legacy building process.
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