Literature Review #5

(1) Visual

(2) Citation            

• Engle, Jennifer, Adolfo Bermeo, and Colleen O’Brien Straight from the Source: What Works for First-Generation Students Pell Institute: 2012. Print.

(3) Summary

•  The report like my other sources, define the characteristics of first-generation students. However, it offers a different take on the effects of these characteristics. Also, it offers strategies that can be used to help these students. Most importantly, it supports the idea of survivor guilt during family and college culture struggles.

(4) Author(s)

• Jennifer Engle Research Analyst at Pell Institute
• Adolfo Bermeo Senior Scholar at Pell Institute
• Colleen O’Brien Director at Pell Institute

(5) Key terms

•  “leap of faith”- many first-generation students take this risk of attending college, without much knowledge about the process
• lack of “college knowledge”- students and their parents lack access to information about the process of preparing, applying, and paying for postsecondary education.

(6) Quotes

• “As Rendon (1992) describes, first-generation students often experience problems ‘that arise from [living] simultaneously in two vastly different worlds while being fully accepted in neither’” (18).
• “…the lower performance and persistence rates of first-generation students are more likely attributable to the fact that they are less likely to engage in the academic and social experiences associated with success in college (Pike & Kuh, 2005) such as studying in groups, interacting with faculty and other students, participating in extracurricular activities, and using support services” (17).
• “Many first-generation students had no or low aspirations for going to college prior to participating in pre-college programs. They did not think a college education was necessary to get a job and/or they did not think going to college was possible because they could not pay for it or could not get in” (5).

 (7) Value

• The report provides a different take on cultural differences that first generation students deal with. It helps my study about competing family and college responsibilities.