A Long Way from Home

Abstract

Rhian’s story speaks to the promise and burden of the educational opportunity that many first-generation (FG) students grapple with when preparing to enter college. The journey to college is influenced by many factors that will be addressed in this chapter, but even for those who capture the prize of admission, the reward is weighty in that it carries expectations not only for the student but also for his or her entire family and community. As Rhian’s states, her experience in college may be lonely, but her dreams and expectations are crowded with the faces of her mother, her inner-city community, and the demands of doing something that will “change the normal flow of things” in her life. Like Rhian, many FG students and their families want and need the college promise to translate into opportunities that will allow them to collectively cross the boundaries of class, race, and geography into a place of greater economic stability.

I have to be the first one in my family to graduate from college; I am seen as the golden child. My mother has high expectations of me, and I never want to let her down in any way. See, where I’m from, there are not many opportunities, so when I was given a scholarship to attend the university, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. It is very important to me that I succeed at this college because I want to be able to get that good paying job, so that my mom won’t have to struggle anymore. I want to be able to set the bar and show people that it isn’t impossible for an inner city kid who came from a low-class family to be able to graduate from a four-year college. I want to be the one who changes the normal flow of things and shake things up a little. I want to be able to help change the lives of people who are just like me who came from nothing, but is working hard to become something great. With that said, college for me is the lonely way.

—Rhian, African American female student