At Eastern Michigan University, our 2025 First-Generation College Student Celebration Week was intentionally designed to do more than honor first-gen pride. We set out to build infrastructure that connects recruitment, belonging, academic preparation, and partnership into a bridge to postsecondary success.
We opened the week with Athletics. With support from the Provost’s Office, we secured a suite at a home basketball game and launched the Suite Life: First-Gen Fan Takeover. Students celebrated during halftime, but the deeper impact happened in the suite. First-gen students engaged with faculty and staff in an informal space where real conversations could happen. Belonging was not performative; it was relational.
The next day, we shifted to academic strategy. In collaboration with Academic Advising, we hosted a virtual “How to College, First-Gen Edition” focused on the responsible use of AI in academic spaces. First-generation students are often navigating unfamiliar systems. Understanding emerging tools and expectations is equity work. Celebration must be paired with preparation.
Midweek, we expanded beyond our current students. During Slice of College Life, we welcomed 75 high school juniors and seniors from across the region, students who will be first-generation when they step onto a college campus. We paired them with current first-gen students, creating a near-peer model of possibility. They built connections with one another, shared lunch, and most importantly, attended real classes.
We partnered with faculty across the university to ensure these students didn’t just tour campus; they experienced it. Sitting in live classrooms, hearing lectures, observing discussions, and feeling the rhythm of college life demystified higher education in ways marketing materials never could. Exposure builds confidence. Confidence builds persistence.
The week continued with First-Gen Game Night, strengthening peer connection, and cider and doughnuts honoring first-gen faculty and staff, a reminder that representation exists at every level of the institution.
We closed with a football game against Bowling Green State University. What could have been another campus event became something more. We invited Bowling Green’s first-gen planning committee to join us. Their students traveled to Ypsilanti. We tailgated together. Both presidents were present. Across institutions, we modeled collaboration to support first-generation success.
This week was not about optics programming. It was about alignment.
Alignment between recruitment and retention.
Alignment between academic preparation and belonging.
Alignment between institutions committed to access.
When we plant with intention, we move beyond celebration. We design systems that support students before they arrive, while they are here, and long after they leave.
That is how bridges are built.
For more information on Eastern Michigan’s approach, please visit their website.
