Welcome!
To the event page for the conference "First-Generation/Working-Class Students in Higher Education: Understanding their Experiences, their Struggles, and their Strategies to Mitigate Potential Disadvantages in Order to Foster Success."
Below you will find everything you need to know, including the schedule as well as information on the plenary speakers. Notably, we request that you explore the possible sessions to attend, and RSVP by February 7th for each session as per the schedule. We look forward to seeing you soon!
This all-day conference is free and open to the public. People from all backgrounds are welcome. You do not need to be of first-generation/working-class background to attend. Please note that the sessions at the event will be video-recorded and uploaded subsequently on YouTube and other social platforms to make available to a wider international public. Also note that photos will be taken for media purposes.
To the event page for the conference "First-Generation/Working-Class Students in Higher Education: Understanding their Experiences, their Struggles, and their Strategies to Mitigate Potential Disadvantages in Order to Foster Success."
Below you will find everything you need to know, including the schedule as well as information on the plenary speakers. Notably, we request that you explore the possible sessions to attend, and RSVP by February 7th for each session as per the schedule. We look forward to seeing you soon!
This all-day conference is free and open to the public. People from all backgrounds are welcome. You do not need to be of first-generation/working-class background to attend. Please note that the sessions at the event will be video-recorded and uploaded subsequently on YouTube and other social platforms to make available to a wider international public. Also note that photos will be taken for media purposes.
Location
Sessions:
Michèle Pujol Room,
Student Union Building,
University of Victoria
3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2
Reception: Upper Lounge
Michèle Pujol Room,
Student Union Building,
University of Victoria
3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2
Reception: Upper Lounge
Date & Time
Friday February 9th, 2024
8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Our Purpose
The notion of "privilege"
While privilege is a common topic of conversation in Canadian higher education, students from less economically privileged backgrounds are often left out of conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion. Existing research shows how one’s socioeconomic background affects one’s likelihood of success in higher education. Specifically, these students are at higher risk of abandoning their programs of studies, if they even make it to the university at all. Even after university admission, these students’ struggles continue without supports to navigate an unfamiliar environment.
A step in the right direction
To begin to address this issue, our conference will gather internationally recognized experts presenting on topics pertinent to first-generation students in academia within Canada and the United States, where “first-generation students” are defined as students whose parents did not receive a higher education diploma.
The concept of being a first-gen student is widely recognized in higher education in the United States, but not in Canada. To our knowledge, this is perhaps the first event of its kind in the country, and we are excited to share it with you.
The concept of being a first-gen student is widely recognized in higher education in the United States, but not in Canada. To our knowledge, this is perhaps the first event of its kind in the country, and we are excited to share it with you.
Conference Overview
The overarching aim of the conference is to stimulate innovative discussions between scholars, first-generation/working-class faculty members and students, educators, and administrators on how best to support first-generation/working-class students to be successful in higher education. It can help to bring awareness to the frequently unacknowledged disadvantages that students from less economically privileged backgrounds face while seeking upward mobility through higher education. By doing this type of pioneering work in Canada, the University of Victoria can become a trailblazer and perhaps inspire other universities in the country to instigate initiatives that are critical to first-generation/working-class students’ success in academia.
Elder Barb Hulme, of the University of Victoria’s səlxwéyn sqwél | SELWÁN SḰÁL | Elders’ Voices program, will do a welcome to the territory, which will be followed by opening remarks by the cofounders of the “First in Class” mentoring program.
Words of welcome will be given by the president of the University of Victoria, Dr. Kevin Hall, who was himself a first-generation student and has been (both in his prior academic appointments and in his current position) a champion of alternative pathways to higher education for people who come from non-traditional backgrounds.
There will be three plenary talks at the conference:
• Wolfgang Lehmann (The University of Western Ontario, Profile);
• Alfred Lubrano, a journalist who wrote the best seller Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams (The Philadelphia Inquirer Profile);
• Andrea Dittmann (Emory University, Profile)
The conference will also include a Q&A session that is student-focused. This session will feature faculty members and support staff at UVic who are strong advocates for first-generation students, and students will have an opportunity to ask questions and seek advice from those of a similar background.
The event will include a learning skills workshop, specifically designed for students, entitled “Setting yourself up for success: Motivation, goal-setting, and time management”.
The event will close with a reception, where all participants at the conference can connect, share ideas and expertise, and have a great time.
Words of welcome will be given by the president of the University of Victoria, Dr. Kevin Hall, who was himself a first-generation student and has been (both in his prior academic appointments and in his current position) a champion of alternative pathways to higher education for people who come from non-traditional backgrounds.
There will be three plenary talks at the conference:
• Wolfgang Lehmann (The University of Western Ontario, Profile);
• Alfred Lubrano, a journalist who wrote the best seller Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams (The Philadelphia Inquirer Profile);
• Andrea Dittmann (Emory University, Profile)
The conference will also include a Q&A session that is student-focused. This session will feature faculty members and support staff at UVic who are strong advocates for first-generation students, and students will have an opportunity to ask questions and seek advice from those of a similar background.
The event will include a learning skills workshop, specifically designed for students, entitled “Setting yourself up for success: Motivation, goal-setting, and time management”.
The event will close with a reception, where all participants at the conference can connect, share ideas and expertise, and have a great time.
Schedule
8:30 - 9:00AM
BREAKFAST
9:00 - 9:10AM
Territorial Acknowledgement
by Elder Barb Hulme (səlxʷéyn sqʷél | SELW̱ÁN SḰÁL | Elders' Voices)
9:10 - 9:20AM
Opening Remarks
9:20 - 9:30AM
Word of Welcome
from the University of Victoria's President, Dr. Kevin Hall
9:30 - 10:30AM
Plenary Talk 1: Wolfgang Lehmann
" 'Sometimes I'm amazed where I ended up': Findings from a 16-year qualitative longitudinal study of first-in-family, working-class students"
" 'Sometimes I'm amazed where I ended up': Findings from a 16-year qualitative longitudinal study of first-in-family, working-class students"
10:30 - 10:45AM
COFFEE BREAK
10:45 - 11:45AM
Plenary Talk 2: Alfred Lubrano
"Class in the real world"
"Class in the real world"
11:45AM - 12:15PM
Alfred Lubrano Book Signing
Meet Mr. Lubrano and his book Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams
11:45AM - 1:30PM
LUNCH
Please register for this event
1:30 - 2:45PM
Q&A Session
5 faculty members and support staff reply to questions asked by first-generation/working-class students
2:45 - 3:45PM
Plenary Talk 3: Andrea Dittmann
"Working together benefits first-generation college students"
"Working together benefits first-generation college students"
3:45 - 4:00PM
COFFEE BREAK
4:00 - 5:15PM
Student Workshop: Asmita Sodhi
"Setting yourself up for success: Motivation, goal-setting, and time management"
"Setting yourself up for success: Motivation, goal-setting, and time management"
This workshop is specifically designed for students.
5:30 - 7:00PM
Reception & Social Event
The conference will close with a reception/social event, where all participants can connect, share ideas and expertise, and have a great time. Refreshments and snacks will be served in the Upper Lounge. Please register for this event.
Plenary Speakers
PLENARY TALK 1:
Wolfgang Lehmann - 'Sometimes I'm amazed where I ended up:' Findings from a 16-year qualitative longitudinal study of first-in-family, working-class students"
Although class has remained a relatively stubborn predictor of educational and occupational attainment, the number of students at university from working-class backgrounds has also grown significantly. This has led to a substantial body of scholarship that has documented and analyzed the experiences of working-class students. Most commonly these studies are cross-sectional and focus on either access to university, experiences in university, or transitions out of university. In contrast, this presentation is based on a 16-year qualitative longitudinal study of first-in-family, working-class students in Canada in which I have followed students from their first days at university in their late teens, to adulthood in their mid-30s. Starting university in 2005 with very high ambitions and aspirations for substantial mobility, I will show how they engaged in a range of strategies to negotiate their potential working-class disadvantages to find educational and occupational success.
Bio: Wolfgang Lehmann is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Western University and Assistant Dean, Student Experience, Faculty of Social Science. His areas of expertise are social inequality, social class, sociology of work, higher education, and school-to-work transitions, amongst others, which makes him a scholar of choice for the conference on first-generation/working-class students in the academy. He has published extensively on the link between social class and inequalities experienced in education (and subsequent work experience), including an edited volume published in 2016 Education and Society: Canadian Perspectives (Oxford University Press), and a book that appeared in 2007 Choosing to Labour? School-Work Transitions and Social Class (McGill-Queen’s University Press).
A selection of notable recent articles include “Mobility and stability: Post-graduate employment experiences of working-class students” (2013), “The school-to-work transitions of second-generation immigrant youth” (2021, with Aslam and Adams), and “Conflict and contentment: The social mobility of working-class students” (2021).
A selection of notable recent articles include “Mobility and stability: Post-graduate employment experiences of working-class students” (2013), “The school-to-work transitions of second-generation immigrant youth” (2021, with Aslam and Adams), and “Conflict and contentment: The social mobility of working-class students” (2021).
Plenary Talk 2:
Alfred Lubrano - "Class in the real world"
He will be discussing aspects of his book, Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams, including definitions of class; the pain and struggle of social mobility; the differences between the middle- and working classes; how Straddlers are found in every race and ethnic group; the myth that America is classless. He will also be talking about what has occurred since his book came out, including the creation of first-gen programs. For The Philadelphia Inquirer, he followed an incoming class of blue-collar freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania for several years and chronicled what they experienced. Also, since the book, he has become a father and can talk about the experience of being the blue-collar-born dad of a middle-class daughter.
Bio: Alfred Lubrano is an award-winning journalist. He is currently a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He also contributed to GQ, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among others. Lubrano is the author of Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams, which details the struggles of people from a blue-collar upbringing having aspirations of a better socioeconomic status. He recounts not only his personal transition from a working-class child from Brooklyn who gained upward social mobility after the completion of an undergraduate degree at Columbia University, a transition he describes as “challenging”, but also those of more than 100 interviewees, all straddlers trapped in between two worlds, who feel uneasy and out-of-place in both of them.
Plenary Talk 3:
Andrea G. Dittmann - “Working together benefits first-generation college students”
Previous research has documented how first-generation college students have worse outcomes in higher education than their more advantaged continuing-generation counterparts, even with the same qualifications (e.g., tend to earn lower grades). I propose that focusing on what first-generation students lack compared to their continuing-generation counterparts often fails to take into account the vital role that academic institutions play in systematically amplifying or attenuating social class inequality. I theorize that when institutions include practices of working together, this will create a cultural match with the interdependent selves common among first-generation students, therefore improving their experiences and outcomes. Across four studies utilizing diverse methods, we support this theorizing. My findings suggest that both institutions of higher education and workplaces might promote working together in both their values and their practices to more effectively realize the strengths of individuals who were the first generation in their family to go to college.
Bio: Andrea G. Dittmann is an assistant professor of Organization and Management at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. An emerging scholar, Andrea G. Dittmann’s research deals with inequality in professional workplaces, including how the social class of one’s upbringing can continue to shape obstacles and strengths in the workplace. Her work has been published in top academic outlets, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Her work has been covered by media outlets including the Harvard Business Review, Politico, and the Christian Science Monitor. Most recently, she has been investigating how the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected people from lower (vs. higher) social class contexts across a number of important life domains, including work, social relationships and mental health.
STUDENT WORKSHOP
"Setting yourself up for success:
Motivation, goal-setting, and time management"
Motivation, goal-setting, and time management"
Do you ever find yourself procrastinating, struggling to get work done, or being overwhelmed in your academic life? Chances are you have felt this way at some point or another – we all have! In this interactive workshop, participants will reflect on some of the things that motivate them in their university studies. Among topics that will be discussed are techniques to build motivation at times when it is lacking, setting SMART goals on different timelines, including for a single work or study session, and strategies to organize and manage time so things can get done. Participants will leave this workshop with some tips and resources to help them make the most of their study time.
This workshop is specifically designed for students
Bio: Asmita Sodhi is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria. When they were a graduate student, they worked at the Bissett Student Success Centre at Dalhousie University as a study coach in the Studying for Success program for four years. In their role as a study coach, Asmita Sodhi delivered over 60 workshops to groups of students on topics such as time management, goal-setting, reading strategies, concentration, and note-taking. They also developed a workshop on motivation that is currently being offered to students at Dalhousie University 10 times per year. In addition to presenting workshops, they have also spent many hours coaching students one-on-one to support them in developing the study skills they need to meet their individual academic goals.
Co-organizers of the conference are:
Dr. Catherine Léger: [email protected]
Dr. Colette Smart: [email protected]
Dr. Su Urbanczyk: [email protected]
from the First Generation Mentorship Program at UVic
[email protected]
Website created by Cian Dabrowski, a first-gen student in the Clinical Psychology program.
Dr. Catherine Léger: [email protected]
Dr. Colette Smart: [email protected]
Dr. Su Urbanczyk: [email protected]
from the First Generation Mentorship Program at UVic
[email protected]
Website created by Cian Dabrowski, a first-gen student in the Clinical Psychology program.
Location
Michèle Pujol Room,
Student Union Building (SUB)
University of Victoria
3800 Finnerty Rd
Victoria, BC V8P 5C2
Student Union Building (SUB)
University of Victoria
3800 Finnerty Rd
Victoria, BC V8P 5C2
Thank you to our sponsors
Contact Us
Please reach out with any comments or concerns at [email protected]