{"id":9207,"date":"2019-01-20T22:35:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T06:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=9207"},"modified":"2019-01-20T22:36:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T06:36:52","slug":"the-perspective-of-a-first-generation-college-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-perspective-of-a-first-generation-college-student\/","title":{"rendered":"The perspective of a first generation college student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Meyers<\/strong> | Lifestyle editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Western has a wide diversity of students from different kinds of backgrounds. Some come from a family of college graduates, while others are the first generation to take on the challenge. While the college experience can sometimes be boiled down in pop culture as a universal experience, the reality is that these experiences can be as diverse as the people. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For first generation college students like Madison Gaylin, a junior education major, there are some similarities and some differences between students who came from college-educated families. One similarity, in her case, is that she had high hopes from a young age. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI decided when I was little that I wanted to be a teacher,\u201d Gaylin said. \u201cEveryone said it would be hard work and there wouldn\u2019t be much money in it, but I was set on it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gaylin has some other members of her family that attended college, but not in her immediate family. She attended a community college where she got her AA, then transferred to Western. The transfer took her away from home, the small town of Clatskanie east of Astoria, for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

For many students, even though college and their career path was ultimately a choice that they should be deciding, there was always an unspoken pressure to get a degree. This is especially true when one or both parents have a degree. For Gaylin, there wasn\u2019t pressure so much as a hope or an expectation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it always came down to me wanting to go (to college),\u201d she said when asked about the pressure many students feel from their families. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t, there might have been some disappointment \u2014\u00a0but not anger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She also said this internal, rather than external, motivation helped keep her focus when things got rough and she considered dropping out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just had to keep telling myself to keep going,\u201d Gaylin added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with many other students at Western, Gaylin is now on her way to a career in education. While her experience isn\u2019t shared by everyone, she can relate to those who have worked long and hard to achieve a lifelong dream as a first-generation college student. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Meyers<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle editor Western has a wide diversity of students from different kinds of backgrounds. Some come from a family of college graduates, while others are the first generation to take on the challenge. While the college experience can sometimes be boiled down in pop culture as a universal experience, the reality is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":9208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}