Alright, Good afternoon everyone. We are going to give all of our participants and people tuning in a chance to finish logging in and getting their audio setup and so we were gonna wait just a moment and then get started. So thank you for joining us today.
Erick Donlucas
02:01:07 PM
Hello everyone!
Alright, thank you to everyone who is joining us right now. We're going to get started and so you are tuning into the tips, tricks and advice for 1st Gen students web and R as part of our webinars series this week. So thank you for participating virtually. We hope that you are well and taking care of each other wherever you may be and so to kick a soft.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Priscilla cardiac or pronouns or she her. Hers and I serve as a senior assistant director in the office of admissions. More specifically, I work with inclusive recruitment. Which part of that focuses on 1st generation students, and so I myself, I'm a first generation student and proud a first generation college graduate and we haven't really, really exciting webinar for you today. So the way it's going to work is that we have a total of.
Eight different people tuning in from each of their respective homes to chat with you today, which means there has the potential to be some technical difficulties. So please bear with us as we manage that we're going to see you're going to see people popping in and off the screen, and so we're going to try to have it be as clear as possible. Keep in mind that yeah, there reach tuning in respective places, so please bear with us and give us a little bit of patience as we figure this out because we couldn't.
Limit how many people were going to be chatting with you because everyone is so amazing at either. What they do has amazing stories and they're just wonderful people and resources. So That being said, I'm going to just give some quick overview.
We're going to have a few different offices represented on campus, and so I am with the admissions office. We're going to have the key communities person come on 1st. After that, we're going to have the academic advancement center represented and then our community for excellence where we have two scholar success coordinators. Each person is going to introduce themselves, share a little bit about what they do, what their program is, the resources that they offer for first young students, and if they have any tips, tricks, or advice for 1st Gen students and families.
And then after they are all done, we're going to bring on some of our current students and they're going to come out at the same time, introduce themselves, share a little bit about their story, and then at the end we're going to open it up to questions there. Is that chat feature, and I want to give a special shout out to Jocelyn, who is moderating our chat today, because we want to make sure that we get as many of your questions answered as possible, and as resources come up, we're going to try to put those links in the chat.
Asia
02:03:51 PM
Hello from California!
Natalie
02:03:53 PM
Hellooo from California!
Mason
02:03:54 PM
Awesome thank you for all the information
Mason
02:03:54 PM
And I’m Mason’s mom Tammy
Victoria
02:04:13 PM
hi from colorado
Feature, so make sure that you do that. Does that sound like a good plan? I'm imagining a lot of head nods and thumbs up. OK, perfect. Well to kind of set the tone as my colleague and friend, Anna Marie, joins us. I want to clarify what a first generation student is. So first generation student is a student who neither parent has completed a four year college degree. So that means neither mom nor dad has a four year Bachelors Degree.
That means that they could have an Associates Degree and the student is still a first Gen. That means that grandma auntie deals TS Cousins, siblings. All of them could be in college and doing their own thing. But that doesn't matter for 1st Gen status. So the way CSU has it is that any student who's neither parent has a four year college degree is considered 1st Gen. And that's something that is really special to us because we have.
Olivia
02:04:55 PM
Hi from Houston
Hannah
02:04:56 PM
hi from kansas
1st in scholarship and it was really neat because in 1984 CSU was the first University to establish a scholarship and a kind of a program supporting that classification of students, and it has then since turned into a national best practice. So very exciting. Here is my information.
For those of you tuning in, so feel free to reach out. I'm in the office of admissions an our office is doing video chats 1 on one video appointments with students as well. As we staff are chat on our website pretty much for most of the day. We're also doing phone appointments, texting with students, and so whatever questions you have, please reach out and that would be the tip that I give is to ask. You don't know what you don't know and so ask all of the questions.
And chances are that other people have those same questions and you are probably not the first person to ask and so please please please ask away.
Anna
02:05:47 PM
Hi from Texas
Sydni
02:05:48 PM
hi from California!!
All right, so Next up we are going to bring in Anna Marie Hey Anna Marie. Nice to see you.
Hi everybody, thanks for having me.
Of course, thank you for joining us.
Alright, so I will hand it over to you and you can take it from here.
Thank you so much. Um hi everyone, thank you so much for being here. We're excited to be here. My name is Anna Real Montanan, the recurrent outreach coordinator for the key communities at Colorado State University. I'm also a first generation student, an first generation college grad, so I'm really excited to be able to provide some insight and be here with all of you, as well as like talk about my own experience. I'm really excited to talk to you as well about the key communities.
And what we do, my whole experience is like Oh my gosh, your first year should be amazing, right? And what are you going to do to get that going? And being a part of the communities is such a great way to do that because you're able to just connect with students, be able to take smaller class sizes, and also build that community around yourself with the people who who you feel could. You could call your family away from home. And so essentially, that's what we do in helping students transition from high school to college, knowing that college is going to be.
Inconsistent as every semester changes, so it's not going to be something that you're going to be. You know consistently having on a yearly basis, and so that's something that we really want to be able to help you through that transition. And make sure that you not only have you know the academic growth, but also the personal and social growth and making connections across campus. And so we are one of the biggest presenter learning communities on campus, which we're really excited for our students because we are first come, first serve community so we don't have any test score GPA requirements for students to apply. It's more so about.
What are you wanting to get out of your first year experience and what are you going to contribute to the overall community and how can we help with that? And so we really want to be able to focus on how our students are building that community are really rallying around one another and utilizing all of their resources and knowing that we are there no matter what, and so they're not here alone, and they're not a number at CSU, so that's kind of what we do in our program. I'm not sure if anyone has any questions or has heard about the key communities before, but if you do I have.
Additional information that I can give you based on what we we do an I can also give you the link to our website so you can check us out we have 4 different communities that fit the needs of various students and so I just want to make sure that you have every opportunity to know about all the resources that are available to you that can really help you in that first year experience especially as a first generation student knowing how to advocate for yourself and also knowing that you can get all kinds of support not only from your peers in the classroom from your faculty in the classroom but you also have a peer mentor.
That navigates in and out of the classroom in and out of the residence Hall and then all of the key staff that is basically in your corner so we can serve as this really nice little like you know puckett like card that you can remember and then you get us out whenever you need us we can always come to you as well as you coming to us so we are really flexible people were very laid back and we want to make sure that we can provide you with the best first year experience possible so please let me know if you have any questions about the key communities I don't take too much time 'cause we have a lot of people and so I want to.
I'm going to the next person and make sure that they have the opportunity to talk about their program as well as.
Giving everybody their their amount of time I apologize if it's a little loud here in my house or if it's kind of glitchy. I'm in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, so my apologies and I appreciate your patience. Thanks so much over to you, Diana.
Hi, I don't know if it folks can hear me.
Anna Marie Almanza
02:09:52 PM
Yes
OK sorry I'm just OK. Awesome, sorry about that high everyone. My name is Deanna Delacruz Aparicio, my pronounce or she her hers an I serve as a retention specialist at the academic Advancement Center at CSU. So welcome everyone. Sorry for the glitch, but I'm super excited to be here with you all today to talk about first generation students at Colorado State University. And so I'll definitely make sure to put any questions that you have for our group today and so we're really excited to talk about just the resources and so the academic advancement center serves.
As a trio office on campus an we serve first generation students. Students who are low income and or students who have disabilities, and so we are an application based program.
And our students come to us their first year. Or they transfer in and they're looking for support and our students find out about us a little late in their journey at CSU. And that's totally fine. You don't have to be a first year student to apply and students come to us because they had. They need additional support. And so we provide advising which is the retention specialist. We provide free tutoring to provide academic support, and we do a lot of community building within some programs that we have, and so we have an arrive program where all of our first time students come.
Got community and we try to build some skills and leadership. Some development things that we feel will be successful in your journey right? And then we pass it on to thrive program for students to continue building these skills that will come up for you throughout your journey as CSU. And then Lastly we also provide graduate support and career support and so that's the program that I specifically coordinate. So it's the thrive grad program. And so this is a program where students who are in their last two semesters participate in and so we collaborate a lot with the Career Center with the Graduate School Department so.
We throw on Graduate School fairs, um conferences. We do a lot of volunteering within just our community to bring our students together. We have over 300 students. We have students who are in the key communities who are also part of our office and who are also part of the community for excellence. So there's definitely overlap there, and we work closely together as offices to provide support to all of our students. So yeah, so there's a little bit about our office. If you're interested in applying, our application is open and it's in our website, so definitely reach out if you have any questions about that.
So yeah, um, some advice. I think that is important. Working with an academic advancement center as I can. Community is a big part of your journey. You are experiencing your joining us with your community, right? And so your family, people that you meet as to Sue. Other folks who are cheering you on. That's your community. Who you're doing this with Ryan? So don't forget about them. And definitely don't forget about the community that you have at CSU. Continue to grow that because you're doing that together, right? And so I think that's a big part of.
But we talk about at the academic advancement center and a lot of these other offices who are here today, and that's something I think from me was really important. And so I forgot to mention that I was also a first generation student at CSU, and I was also part of the academic advancement center as a student and just having that community along with so many others where so critical in my journey as a first generation student, and so that's something that I always love to emphasize and something that we love to emphasize at the academic advancement center, so.
Super excited to be here like I said, but I also don't want to take too much time, so I'm going to pass it over now to Mellie from your excellence.
Alright, so while Emily, I'm hops in and we're going to give her a second so I just want to pop back in and remind people that we do have that chat features. So start asking those questions.
We will get those answered. Hey Millie.
She's getting her audio setup.
Ola hi how's everyone doing?
Nice to see you. I'm going to hand it over to you.
Alright, so it looks like Emily we're having some problems with your audio and so see, let's see. There should be God heading to look like that.
Yeah, that's you OK? Perfect. Take it away. Take 2.
Anna Marie Almanza
02:16:01 PM
Key Communities: www.key.lc.colostate.edu
Email: Key_CSU@mail.colostate.edu annamarie.almanza@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-2366
Kelsey
02:16:19 PM
No audio
Victoria
02:16:20 PM
no audio
Priscilla Gardea
02:18:13 PM
yes
Anna Marie Almanza
02:18:21 PM
yes
Take a quick break. So while our community for excellence friends are getting reconnected, I'm tricky Wi-Fi these days, I'm sure everyone has had those kinds of experiences, so a reminder that we do have that chat feature on our.
Addy
02:20:08 PM
Hi from Oklahoma!
Addy
02:20:15 PM
Are there any out-of-state tuition discounts for students from Oklahoma?
Website here, so make sure that you chat in any questions. We did get a question already about out of state tuition and so I can definitely address that. I'm so happy to see so many out-of-state families who are joining us and so to answer that question, we do have some different tuition rates and so for Colorado students who we have our in state tuition rate and then for students living and we so any western states like California, Arizona and Hawaii Alaska.
Amelia Castaneda
02:20:22 PM
So excited to see you all here. Welcome! Please ask us questions :)
Etc. We do have a woolly tuition rate and that is based on your GPA and Test score of addition and so.
That's that's what we use, so it's not guaranteed, but we do want to work with students from those areas, and so it really is important to try to keep your grades up and do well on your test scores. And then for students that don't live in Boise States, we do offer presidents, provosts, andenes. These are automatic scholarships and you can get those again based on your academics. So those are the two primary ones that we have that are merit based for nonresident students. I also want to make note of Arnala.
Erick Donlucas
02:21:10 PM
My Wifi is back, sorry
Which is Native American Legacy Award and that is for students who are either enrolled in a federally or state recognized tribe or a direct descendants of someone who is, and so students who meet those qualifications and submit their tribal enrollment verification forms. They may also be eligible for the nala which is a tuition scholarship. So talk with your admissions counselor. You can always reach out to us on our admissions website. Is the list of all the admissions counselors there.
Joselyn Loya
02:21:38 PM
Scholarships for Entering Non-Resident Freshmen: https://financialaid.colostate.edu/scholarships-for-entering-non-resident-freshman/
And so you can see who your admissions counselor is based on, either where you live or your high school here in Colorado. So Eric, do we have in back?
Yeah, I can hear it well so I'm gonna head over to see you can take it from here. Thank you.
I'm looking outside. I think it's that storm that Anna Marie was talking about, 'cause I see it coming too. So hopefully I get to go through this as well.
Sorry for the interruption. Um, like I said, my name is Eric Don Lucas. My pronouns are he him, his Ann. I work in the community for excellence as a scholar success specialist, just like Amelia. A few moments ago.
Joselyn Loya
02:22:12 PM
Find your assigned Admissions Counselor for CSU here: https://admissions.colostate.edu/find-your-counselor/
Um, she pretty much explained pretty well with the community for excellence is, uhm, it's all scholarship based program based on typically from where where you come from. In high school there are a few scholarships that you can apply to get into the community for excellence, and the one I work with, which is the first generation award, is one of them.
So a little bit about me. I am actually a first Gen student or I was the first year student as well, uhm?
I came to see you see you I was part of the communities and actually I was in the community for excellence, which I work at now an I was a first generation award recipient. So now I'm working exactly where I was a student. I think it's such a great like experience to become full circle now.
The first generation award. So what we do we offer um.
Similar to the AC like Deanna, we offer a one on one mentor, so I'll be the mentor for students who have the first general award an we pretty much talk about. Anything, any questions we kind of like to say we're like the one stop shop for just general questions and then we refer you to pretty much all around campus and we do work with other partners. We do work a lot with key communities and the AC. We collaborated enough and specifically for the first generation award. what I do is.
There's a huge celebration at spring semester of every year. It's called the first Generation Award Dinner Celebration, First Generation Award dinner celebration. Um an we just honor all the students and then we have students, speakers and it's like a like a really good celebration to end the year.
Other than that, we do have smaller social events.
I like to take students off campus to kind of get to know the community, and then we also have. I also like host like smaller scale like.
Just get to know you lunches throughout the year. Um, just to kind of build the 1st Gen community and then also get connected with the larger community for excellence.
And I think that's about it. So I think the ambassadors are next. Is that correct?
That is correct. Thank you so much, Eddie.
Represent the color ship something about that, but I did want to clarify is that it is for Colorado residents and so Colorado students are invited to apply for the first time scholarship. There are some others longships for nonresident students, but not specific like that one is, and so on. Our financial aid website. You'll find all of the different scholarships that we offer. There's quite a few, so make sure you take a look at that.
So before I ask our students to hop in, I'm going to have them introduce themselves and then share a little bit about their stories, their first Gen stories, why they chose CSU and just kind of tips and tricks that they would like to recommend. So with that, I'm going to ask Darlene Miguel and you Lissa, or you need to join us on our web on our screen here.
Again, it sounds like there's a big storm coming through Northern Colorado, so bear with us that.
Alright, take it away you 3.
Yeah, I can go next time. Hello everyone. My name is Darlene. I'm currently still a third year student, still got some finals out. I gotta get out of the way. I'm majoring in ethnic studies with a concentration in education. I am in the teacher licensure program, so if any of you are looking into getting your license here at CSU for teaching, definitely ask those questions down below. I'm from Aurora, Co. Originally from Mexico. I am an asset student as well as if you have any questions about that, feel free to drop him down below on campus. I'm involved in fraternity and sorority life.
I'm part of the I'm part of a culturally based organization and so that's really helpful as well as many of our sisters are fresh generation students as well, and so that's a really large community that I've found here on campus through them.
Sean
02:28:05 PM
What isnthe requirements for 1st gen scholarship
Hello everyone, my name is Miguel. I am a recent graduate. I finished all my finals and work yesterday so finally process say I've graduated here. CSU and I studied communication studies and doubled minor in legal studies and media studies. I'm from Denver Co. I also identify as a first generation student I had the opportunity to study abroad before I did semester at C. I'm also an admissions ambassador. I was an orientation leader and.
Said amongst other really great stuff here at yesterday, if you have any questions in regards as to how to get involved into CSU, any leadership roles you might be thinking about or what's it like being a first generation student? Feel free to ask those questions to all three of us. I was also a key student. I was focused on key service so if you have any questions about that feel free to ask as well.
All right, so thank you so much students. I I can't believe it's right. You graduated Miguel. I'm so proud of you, so it's hard to believe how much time is past. But I will ask you all what tips our advice would you have for students? Maybe we have some students that are non resident juniors and we have some Colorado seniors. What are some kind of tips that you would give to that?
A tip that I have for students is arm whatever you're doing through like the next years in your life. Just make sure that you're doing it for you, right? Like you don't want to be doing it for anybody else, or feel as though you have the pressure to do something because someone else is forcing you like you want to. Make sure that everything is coming from you in your passions and for like true happiness and stuff you know. They say that if you love what you're doing, you'll never be working a day in your life, so that's at least what I aspire to do. And also to know that it's OK if, like you get here in your passions, change like don't be afraid to want to explore those and follow those like you have so much time.
You have about 3 semesters to decide what to major in, and I know that I I like took some time to decide what to major in. And even after that I decided to change my major. So definitely, you know, take your time and just do things for you.
Kind of going off from what Darlene said. Be sure that whatever you do get involved with, you do it with a purpose and a passion. And even if you don't know what that purpose or passion is, Pope, that curiosity, you never know where that might lead you or that might take you personally for me. Where that comes from, I never thought that I had the opportunity to study abroad, and it was until I really started to talk about it with advisors and my friends. And then I really started to push the idea and really started to get into more details as to how could this happen.
Erick Donlucas
02:30:54 PM
Here is the information for the 1st get scholarship! https://colostate.academicworks.com/opportunities/29367
Erick Donlucas
02:31:11 PM
Also feel free to email me at Erick.donlucas@colostate.edu
I'm fortunate to say that I was able to fully fund that program with scholarship, so I did not pay my study abroad program out of my own money. So I was really glad that all that was taken care of because of scholarships and CSU made that a possibility for me. So I was really glad and kind of going off of that. With scholarships. Know that there's so many scholarships out there. Definitely take a look at everything that is offered to you and look at anything. That's yes, you might be offering to students, so whether that is the CSS USA definitely takes some time an apply to those.
Institutional scholarships as that is what helps a lot of students to kind of pay for tuition as I know that could be a big concern for a lot of students.
It's true there's so many scholarships out there. Alright, so since we have you here, I'm gonna jump ahead. We are going to try to get to all the questions but keep them coming. But one question that I would love to ask since you're up here is the question is what do you do in a sorority? What are the benefits of that?
Yeah, that's a great question. Uhm, so in my sorority, but in most of these in general you do a lot of programming, so there are a few different things that are involved. So if you want to join you either go through a rushing or an intake process, but in general you'll go through a new member education process and so that just means becoming aware with the organizations values and history getting to better to know the sisters or brothers.
Amelia Castaneda
02:32:15 PM
Community for Excellence http://www.c4e.colostate.edu
And from there you'll be doing programming, whether that's programming on like awareness issues, fund raising, philanthropic, any of that cause. And yeah, I am my benefits. I like to say I'm definitely like this sister had aspect. My sisters are like a home away from home and it's a really great place, especially for some of my sisters. Some of us are from Fort Collins and still need at home away from home. Some of them are 8 hours away from home. You know, it's all very different. And also it's really great networking, not just within your own organization but outside.
Amelia Castaneda
02:32:54 PM
Amelia.Castaneda@colostate.edu (970) 491-3830
Joselyn Loya
02:32:56 PM
Fraternity and Sorority life at CSU: https://fsl.colostate.edu/
With other members of fraternity and sorority life, I know that a ton of my sisters and other people have been able to network with one another. Do thanks to being part of that Greek system.
Eve
02:33:07 PM
What do you do in a sorority? Any benifits?
All right, so the other thing I wanted to ask about is the family dynamics and so we don't know. Sometimes people think that when you're a student like it's, it's very individual. But I think one of the really powers and in great part about being 1st Gen is that you include your whole family. in Spanish. There's a saying that nobody will know who is almost like what I hear, so it's not. I'm going to college, it's we're going to college, and I've seen the power of how that works first hand.
And so when I was first, well, I understand. But when I went to college, my family didn't didn't really know a lot about it. And so when they drop, miaf was the first time that they got to set foot on a college campus. And then I got to see how we got to kind of incorporate that together and also really proud to say that my little sister is now college graduate. And so that's what 1st Gen students do. Is you kind of paved the way for the people who come after you. And so I would love if each of you wanted to share something or if you have.
Something that you wanted to relate about how being 1st Gen impacts the family.
Or I can start for myself. I was out of my cousins, but I kind of for myself for like my brothers and sisters that I grew up around. I was the 1st to go on this path.
Aina pursue a higher education so it was definitely something that within kind of like my immediate family. We weren't very familiar with, I think throughout the college process it was a little bit difficult just because there was a few things that they didn't really understand or why I needed this information or that information, but I think one thing that I really relied on was my college career counselor. I went to her for everything and she kinda helped explain things to my family.
So definitely, if you have someone like that, your high school or if someone in your support system definitely reach out to them or reach out to us your admissions counselor, that can help you relate that information out to your family. So that was one thing where it was a little bit difficult to get that information now and really.
What is college? Another thing that I gotta lot was like, well, what are you going to study and what is going to make you the most money? I had the opportunity to go on vacation with my mom's cousin this past summer and it was amazing and we were kind of like for the first time talking about like college and she was like you should be an engineer and I was like I don't know about that. She's like yeah they make so much money like you should be an engineer and I was like yeah I am.
Awful at math. That's definitely not a passion for me, but for my family, that's kind of something that was like, OK, what's gonna make you the most money? That's why you're going to college. And as I have been here on campus, I've definitely learned that that is not necessarily the case. I am here to really pursue my dreams and what I'm passionate about and kind of time that back up to what Darlene said earlier. Like I am doing this for me. I am majoring in communication because that's something that I enjoy doing, not necessarily because that's something that's going to make me a lot of money. So that is one thing that has been kind of like tricky.
And then Lastly, another thing that was very difficult at 1st and kinda has been easier is being able to talk to my family about the struggles once you are here on campus. I think it's something that I don't think my family will ever truly understand, but there are definitely sometimes where you can feel very lonely or feel like you don't belong. Something called impostor syndrome or even though you are a capable of being in college.
I'm doing well and you got in for a reason. It's because you met all of our requirements. You still feel like you aren't good enough, and sometimes I stay in the classroom and I'm like, Oh my God, like I am not prepared to be here at all. I don't know what the professor is talking about. All these students are raising their hands and they have like using all these big words and I'm just sit there like there like who let me here and that is, you know even to this day something that I still struggle with. But one thing that I have really utilized to kind of combat.
That feeling is going to all my different support systems that I have made on campus. So as a key community student, I went to my key mentor law and talk to her about these things and she really helped me work through it and realize that that is not the case. I am 100% capable of being here as a part of the academic advancements center. I talked to my retention specialist who last year was smelly and she really helped me remember that I am an amazing person I.
And such a great student, and I do belong to be here. So I think just being able to reach out to those resources whenever I was feeling down was definitely something that really helped pick me up and realize that I do belong here. So those are some of the struggles that I have kind of dealt with in how I have compact, combative those with my family and then using resources.
Yeah, thanks so much for being so honest about that because I think that's something that people sometimes don't feel comfortable talking openly about because you could kind of like a secret that you want to keep to yourself, but I 100% resonate exactly with what you were saying and now that I'm a professional and in my role, I can tell you yes, 100%. We admit students because we know that they can be successful at CSU. So every single student that we admit there is a reason for that. And our University was built for all students.
I'm hard for 1st Gen, so that's really powerful. Thank you so much you need.
Alright, anything from Darlene or Miguel.
Mason
02:39:08 PM
Congratulations!!!! AWESOME
Mason
02:39:09 PM
ITS AMAZING TO SEE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO THIS!!!!
Mason
02:39:11 PM
YALL MUST BE SO PROUD OF YOURSELVES AND SHOULD BE !!
I could go up personally for me, so, uh, kind of the same thing as you leave. Um, I definitely agree with a lot of what she said, but I also want to call you all to kind of be patient with your family members. I know sometimes it will definitely be a little frustrating when you want to tell them like what the final is or that the professor you have and the lectures you're receiving is a little difficult to understand and you want to reach out to your parents. And they're not really the really can't provide that support that you're seeking for so.
Be patient, don't get frustrated and you'll definitely have. Like those moments asks you like what am I doing? am I even good enough for this? Don't not doubt yourself. Just like you Lee said. And Priscilla how said you admitted you for a reason. You are here to kind of pass all of that challenge. And those challenges are also what kind of makes you greater, stronger an aside from that. Just know that your family will always be supporting you no matter what. It looks like it may not be the same way that you are imagining it, but just know that they are there caring for you and cheering you.
On no matter Wat and also try and reach out and build your own community here at CSU, at least for me, it has been a really wonderful being able to kind of create a really great network to kind of help support my own identities, especially being a first generation. I know that I had numerous conversations with Priscilla and Arlene annually about the struggles here at CSU. When I face about being a first generation, but by having the support system and network that really allows me to feel like I'm not by myself and I have other people supporting me along side and so.
It makes you feel like you're not fighting a battle yourself, but you have like a whole, UM, kinda kinda army with you fighting this huge battle and you know at the end of the day you are going to win and you're going to succeed as long as you persevere.
100% yes, I feel so proud. Just watching all of you. Um, but yes, I completely agree in our friends in the community for excellence. Have a really nice saying. It's exactly kind of what you were talking about me yet about how you may come to college alone, but you're not on your own. So yeah, sometimes students. Yeah you come a lot of times you leave your family behind, but you're not on your own. There's lots of support available, so whether that's your family who supporting you, whether that's a family of choice.
Family and community that you build on campus. You have lots of cheerleaders here.
Darlene, anything you want to add.
Uhm, yeah, I think just um, for me, one of the most beautiful parts about going through this with my family is like they don't really understand, especially like the sorority aspect. Like you know, I tell them like, oh like, especially like in culturally based organizations like we each have like our colors that we're at bar signs or calls. And so like when you explain that to a parent there like that sounds like a gang you like. Well, it's not a gang mom. It's a support network. Their wonderful woman. So they really just don't.
They don't really understand, but it's really nice. Um, especially like I love. I love going home like my sorority sisters have spent like Holidays with me. They go home like my mom literally considers them like to be second like other daughters. And so being able to tie in my family here in Fort Collins being my support networks in my family from back home has been really nice and throughout this experience, kind of. I think my brother got the final push and he was like, oh like my little sisters are kind of on her way out of college.
My brothers, 10 years older than me and he finally went back to school and so like that was really proud. Really proud of him as well and like being able to experience that together. It was really nice.
That is really nice. Look at you little sister being a role model for your Big Brother. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and something that I think everyone's kind of touching on. And then I want to make sure it's very clear and direct is that college has its own cultural norms like there are these terms that we use only in college and these traditions that we have that are very specific to college. And if you don't know anyone who's ever been to college or your parents or family members are not been.
How do you know about that? And so think of it. Like if you were to go to a restaurant that you don't understand the menu, but everyone else is like you want to participate, but it's really hard if you don't know what is on the menu or if you were to travel to a different country and everything is in a different language and they're doing things that you're not used to, and so that's what it can feel like for students coming to college. And so we just want to say that's a very normal feeling, and after a while you Start learning those things you start picking up on those traditions and cultural, cultural norms, and you kind of have people teach you.
I remember when I first got to college. I was so excited. So I'm analysing student. I came from Colorado from Texas to come to Colorado and I was so excited to get out of the house. I was very focused on like OK I need this comforter and I need to bring my pictures and I want to make sure I have like whatever I forgot to bring school supplies and so the Sunday before classes started. I was talking to this person who is a sophomore in the Hall. He was an RAA resident assistant and I was telling him about these classes.
And he's like, yeah, all you need tomorrow is just a notebook and a pen. and I was like Oh my gosh, I don't have any of those things. I just not prepared. And so you just lean on people to kind of help you along the way. So we're going to shift gears a little bit. Thank you so much to our amazing students and hopefully you'll be able to pop back in. But we are going to go to the.
Question section, so before we do, here are the three main partners that we have on our panel today. So we have the key communities, academic advancement center and the community for excellence. And so now is the time that we were going to answer questions. And so I'm going to ask some questions and then to our panelists who are watching. If you feel compelled to pop on up, please broadcast an you can answer that question. And so while we're going to have Eric come up first because we do have a first Gen question specific.
I am going to address a few of these other scholarship questions so Eric go ahead and come on into the broadcast and I'm going to have you talk specifically about the first generation scholarship.
And while you do that, I did see a few other ones, so I wish we had a twin scholarship. We do not have a twin scholarship specifically, but I think that's a really important part of your story to let people know the other part is that when you do your FAFSA it asks for information about your whole family. So the buyback set, which is the free application for federal student aid.
Abigail
02:46:12 PM
are there any twin scholarships? My twin sister and I are both first generation students!
Kelsey
02:46:14 PM
Deadlines for scholarships say March 1st. Have these been extended?
Will kind of take into account that there are multiple people in the family going to college at the same time, and that can sometimes positively impact your financial aid. So that's something that keep in mind. Scholarship deadlines have not been extended for this current year, so students that are starting in the fall, you solve a scholarship deadline was December for March 1st, and the CSU institutional scholarships are not being awarded anymore, but you can apply for those every single year, and so we have scholarships that are just for sophomores and scholarships that are just for students in a certain major and so.
Those can change, so we encourage students to apply for scholarships through CSU or the CSS USA CSU scholarship application. See lots of acronyms that people use that if you don't know what it is, it's hard to figure out, but.
Right now there may be other scholarships that are non specific to CSU that you can bring in like a local boys and Girls Club where your local bank or things like that. So if you are incoming senior please look for scholarships in all places and I think those are all the scholarship considered ones so Eric if you want to take it away and talk about first Gen and the requirements for that.
Sure, so I did. If you see the chat, I did send a link that's this year's first generation scholarship and then it says eligibility. So In summary, be a first Gen student. And as Priscilla said earlier, Colorado resident.
Take um transfer students an.
High school, like recently high school graduates, so um, it doesn't matter if you come in with some credits or no credits. So the only requirements are first generation Colorado resident and.
Complete your FAFSA. Do you have to complete your faster or the CSU scholarship application? And that's pretty much it. That's the only requirements.
Can you remind us what a first generation student is, please?
Yeah, first generation student is that neither parent has.
Completed a bachelors degree.
Kaitlyn
02:48:20 PM
Please go over the definition of a first generation student again.
Alright great cool and we did get another question here, so those are the only requirement so they're not looking at race ethnicity any other kind of identifying status only first Gen and you can complete the fast set but for students who are undocumented. We have an institutional aid application that you can complete instead of that, so students that are first generation and undocumented can also apply for the first generation scholarship correct Eric.
Great look at us rocking and rolling. We're not even in the same room people and we're communicating this way may end up so proud of us. Alright, thank you so much Eddie. Alright so let's keep those questions going.
Let's we're getting so. Anna Marie is having a tough time connecting. It sounds like the storm because of where she lives. It sounds like there is a bit of a storm there, and so I'm going to talk a little bit. Actually, no, we have students that are in communities, so if we have our student ambassadors at one, oh good, you're here and really great. And then if we have some students that want to chime in to talk about key communities, this would be a great time to go over that question. So yeah, we gotta question about.
Asking For more information about that, what do they do? and I will let you all take it from here.
Awesome, thank you so much.
Joselyn Loya
02:49:32 PM
CSU First Generation website: https://firstgeneration.colostate.edu/
So, as I mentioned before, the learning community with key, we're for under one umbrella until we focus on making sure that students are able to transition from high school to college, and so we're able to help you navigate. What does that support look like in, uh, the residence Hall in and out of the classroom, and also just understanding that you have a community that you can build the great thing about key is we're open to all students. We have a big population of 1st generation in or students of color, and so I think that no matter what background you come with, that.
All your stories and all that you bring your identities, everything. Everything fits within key in your very welcome and so that's one of the things that we love to stress because not only do we focus on making sure that students feel at home at CSU, but within key that they can build their own community surrounded by people that they can connect to. Have things in common that they feel like that could be their family away from home, essentially because that's what we want to do. And that's essentially like the basis of what we do because we want to push the limits a little bit and encouraging you to get involved and do a lot of other things that you have to offer.
But we also want you to know that no matter what you have, people in your court and that you yourself are able to go out and be friend. Anybody that you want to, and so we want to encourage that with the academic support that we provide within our students. You get the benefit of a smaller class size, and so we intentionally create Co curricular experiences where you have the opportunity to continuously think critically about how things are connecting outside of the classroom, in your personal life, anything like that, and so it's always about making those connections and really thinking outside the box.
Come into our faculty very dedicated to making sure that you have an excellent academic experience so that you can go ahead and continue to enhance your learning. And then we also provide social events throughout the year that you can participate in to get to know folks to learn about service learning opportunities, leadership opportunities. If you want to find a job on campus. If you want to learn about studying abroad. All of these different things come into play until we really facilitate a lot of that and bring it to you. But we also celebrate your accomplishments along the way an if you're struggling in any way. We help you navigate that if you need to get connected to a tutor.
Joselyn Loya
02:51:58 PM
Key Communities: http://key.lc.colostate.edu/
If you need a muno, a great place to just go and study without disruptions will help you with that too. If you know where to print for free, like we will get you connected no matter that. And so we make all of those connections across our campus with various collaboration so that we know everything that's happening on campus and we can make sure that we get you connected so it's not only the key staff, the key students, your peers, your mentors, your faculty, everybody pretty much knows how to get you connected, because that's the kind of people that we want to be. We want to know that you are cared for and that no matter what you have.
Somebody there so I don't know if students you wanna have had anything or have anything else to say.
Natalie
02:52:23 PM
What is the KEY community, and what do they do?
Justin
02:52:39 PM
Thank you for the information
Yeah, absolutely, I could definitely attest to everything that Anna Marie said. I don't think I would have been as successful as I was in my undergraduate career if it wasn't for key in the support that they were able to provide. I was a key service student and basically what that meant was that I was able to engage a law in kind of more community community engagement work. So it was a lot of fun to be able to get to know not only the CSU community, but as well the Northern Colorado community and being able to kind of get a little bit more involved with that.
Mason
02:52:53 PM
I keep having to re-connect
But aside from my own experiences, it's funny that, like you mentioned, key right now and all that stuff, I had a FaceTime call with my old roommate from key last night, and he's an out of state student were talking about that like 4 key for him. It was so meaningful to be able to have a program that really helped him kind of make friends. He is from Chicago and so being able to come from Chicago auto way to CSU and being able to have a program that allowed him to connect with other students and within their own interest and being able to connect with them in that way.
He was able to kind of really build up support system an I can attest to that as well, kinda coming even from Denver. It's from Colorado, same state and still being able to connect with other students from out of state and also being able to meet others and just having that great support system that you'll be carrying on throughout your four years. That's yes, you not just your first year.
And it also one of the benefits of key is that we not only recognize that this is a transition for all students. Also transition for families and so we can support them in knowing that they have so much opportunities to reach out to the Department of campus and that their students are going to be taking care of whether you're the first of the last one to leave home. It doesn't matter, because when you're on campus, you're missing home. And when they are at home, they're missing you. And so we understand that and recognize that and support the entire process so the families, students, and what are we going to do to make it work? And so we do everything.
That we possibly can to ensure that everyone feels comfortable than that they have all the resources that they can connect, whether it's in their language or if they're like. Can I just have your phone number and I'll call you anytime. And I'm like, yes, by all means please or email me. And so I love establishing those relationships with parents and students because I wouldn't be here to tell you about a program if I did 100% believe that is actually going to do a lot of good and not only helping you in that transition, but also making racket images successful and connected to campus.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know. You all have my contact information. Let me know what you need. Email me. Call me, I am here for you a man. So I just want to hear if you have anything else that you need. I'm definitely whatever it is I will connect you an if I can connect you. I will find someone and then I will give you their information so no matter what I will bend over backwards.
And she'll do it too. I know that she is an amazing resource. That's why people like Darlene still remember her from visiting her high school when she was back a few years ago. So thank you so much. Anna Marie. Thank you so much to all of our students. At this point, I'm going to open it up to any of our other panelists who have any final thoughts and the final things that they would like to share on your screen. There you'll see the three different offices that we have represented, so a huge thank you to our friends at the academic Advancement Center. The Anna, which is going to ask thank you for being our panel today.
And talking about the great resources that the academic Advancement Center at CSU offers, thank you so much to Anna Marie for participating an representing the key communities, and to Millie and edit for talking about the community for excellence. The other last few things that I want to share with you.
Mason
02:59:11 PM
Thank y’all for all the information, this really helped me
If there are any parents or guardians or grandparents or aunties or whoever is watching this web and are with you as a person supporting a first generation student, you are already helping them by participating in this webinar. So just the fact that you are encouraging your student and helping them to stay connected and know that you support them in this is huge. My family was never able to write me a big fat check to go to college. They didn't know how to now help me navigate through my advising.
But they came determination an they gave me the and Spanish. We say goodness the determination to continue on and I knew that I had. I had to do it for them. And yes, it sometimes feels like added pressure to do this for your whole family and your little siblings, perhaps but it also makes graduation that much sweeter and so I'm really excited for Miguel to be graduating soon and for I think back to my graduation when I got to represent my whole family.
Natalie
03:00:15 PM
Thank you so much! Coming from a Mexican family, I know it's going to be a little hard leaving them, but that doesn't mean I love them any less!
For that graduation and kind of like one of our students were saying how families don't always know what's going on, and that was the experience. My mom didn't have a really good grasp of what college was like, but to this day X amount of years later, she still has my college degree at the House and she won't give it to me because she's like, Nope, I earned that degree in. Like yes, ma'am you did. And so it's something that you all do together. And so I do want to share that every single question that you will have. There's an office for that colleges.
I really like small towns where we have a Medical Center. We have an office dedicated to helping parents and families. We have resident assistance. We have dentists on our campus. We have somebody who helps with issues that come up for you know if there's any conduct questions, we have someone to help with orientation. Like all of these offices will have amazing staff to help our students and so hopefully the biggest thing that you'll hear is reach out. Ask away. We're here to help you and support you. Any questions that you have so thank you so much.
Amelia Castaneda
03:01:06 PM
Students, know you bring so much to these universities. Your identities, backgrounds and experiences are all assets. We are so proud of you for all the accomplishments and hardships you have navigated to make it this far. Please reach out to us if you need anything. GO RAMS!
For sharing your afternoon with us, be safe, be well and go. Rams have a great day everyone. Thanks for tuning in.
Anna Marie Almanza
03:01:14 PM
Thank you all for your time. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or want to get connected. Natalie and VIctoria, thank you for your questions.