Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, is national First-Generation College Celebration Day. Western Washington University kicked off its week of celebration with a drop-in event on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room.
Emmanuel Agboje, president of the First Year First Gen Club and Marelly Reyes, vice president, both got involved in the club earlier this year. Their biggest question heading into the event and their first club meeting was whether people would show up. On Monday, they got their answer.
“My qualms were quelled,” Agboje said. “It’s been a struggle up until yesterday.”
Several attendees came to Agboje’s table at the drop-in event to exchange contact info and express their interest in the club’s meetings. The next First Year First Gen Club meeting is Nov. 21, 2024, at 5 p.m. in VU 740.
Hailey Cordell, a first-gen college student at Western, said she never had any doubt she would go to college.
“I remember being 8-years-old and saving my money because I knew college was expensive,” Cordell said. “I wanted to go because school has just been something I've always loved.”
Cordell said that the biggest challenge she’s faced in college has been the bureaucracy of it all.
“The websites and the logging in and not knowing what to do or how you are even supposed to pay tuition? How do you even register for classes?” Cordell said. “It's all just so new and intimidating.”
Students, faculty and staff converse at the first-generation college celebration on Nov. 4, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. Dozens of tables were set up for anybody to learn more about first-gen resources on campus. // Photo by Ayden Sweat
One of Agboje’s missions for the club is to help first-year and first-gen students with the bureaucratic processes and introduce them to resources like Western Libraries and Career Services Center.
“[Our goal] is to help people navigate the systems,” Agboje said. “If someone has a problem, I want to be able to answer them knowing that there’s actually a way to consult that.”
In addition to helping students navigate unfamiliar systems, the club is a place for students to build community, Reyes said.
“There's a lot of people [on campus] that want to collaborate and help each other out,” Reyes said. “Other people that are going through the same thing as they are.”
The first-gen population at Western has hovered around 25% since fall 2020. One of the biggest challenges in increasing the first-gen population has been retention, said Sara Wilson, executive director of Student Success Initiatives at Western. Like Agboje, Wilson mentioned that first-gen students are less likely to know what resources are available to them.
“[Student Success Initiatives] knows that first-generation students need to learn how to navigate and figure out what those resources are,” Wilson said. “They may actually be uncertain where to ask for those, or might be embarrassed to ask those questions.”
Wilson hopes that by building up the First Year First Gen Club, students will have a safe place to ask those questions. She also noted resources like Academic Advising, First-Year Academic Programs, First-Generation Family Toolkit and Viking Resource Hub as helpful tools for first-gen and first-year students.
Wilson considers herself a “commencement junkie” and works as many graduation ceremonies as she can because she loves to experience the joy in the room. In June 2024, when Western started offering first-generation graduation stoles, her joy reached a new high.
“It was great to see [students] wearing those and coming off the stage with those and just the family pride,” Wilson said. “For a first-gen student in particular, college is a family affair. They're forging the way, hopefully for generations to come.”
Agboje (right) visits Amy Appleton’s table at the first-generation college celebration on Nov. 4, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. Agboje became involved in the First Year First Gen Club in February 2024. // Photo by Ayden Sweat
Milo Whitman (he/him) is a campus news reporter for The Front this quarter. He is a news/ed journalism major and a film studies minor. You can reach him at milowhitman.thefront@gmail.com.
