{"id":24671,"date":"2020-11-03T16:52:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T21:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=24671"},"modified":"2020-11-03T16:53:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T21:53:06","slug":"bu-launches-new-center-for-first-generation-college-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2020\/11\/03\/bu-launches-new-center-for-first-generation-college-students\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Launches New Center for First-Generation College Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/922906489&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/wtbu\" title=\"wtbu\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wtbu<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/wtbu\/bu-launches-new-center-for-first-generation-college-students\" title=\"BU Launches New Center for First-Generation College Students\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BU Launches New Center for First-Generation College Students<\/a><\/div>\n<p>By Grace Ferguson<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This January, BU is opening a new center for first-generation college students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will be called the Newbury Center, after Newbury College, a small school in Brookline that closed in 2019. The college endowed BU with $6 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university has appointed Maria Erb as the Newbury Center\u2019s inaugural director. She comes from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was the co-director of diversity and student success in The Graduate School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Associate Provost for Community and Inclusion Crystal Williams said BU conducted a national search to fill the director position. Erb stuck out to Williams because she was so focused on building lasting relationships with students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cShe just emerged as an extraordinary candidate,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI feel so fortunate that she is excited to come to BU and help build this endeavor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While at UNC, Erb led an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/graddiversity.unc.edu\/initiatives\/1st-gen-grads\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">initiative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for first-generation graduate students. Before that, she supported first-generation and low-income students at Elon University. She is also a member of the Advocacy Group for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/firstgen.naspa.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Center for First-Generation Student Success<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Erb is a first-generation student herself. She said that helping other first-generation students has been a common thread throughout her career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s always thinking about how can I make it better for students knowing what I didn\u2019t have and provide those opportunities and that support for them as they\u2019re going up through their bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s and doctoral degrees, and professional degrees,\u201d Erb said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Newbury Center is aimed at increasing first-generation students\u2019 engagement with BU\u2019s programs. Williams said that these students often struggle to take advantage of everything a university has to offer, including things like internships, study abroad programs, and alumni networks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf no one in your family has gone to college, then you have no one to ask at home, \u2018Where do I go?\u2019 or \u2018What should I do?\u2019 or \u2018How do I think about navigating this?\u2019\u201d Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being a first-generation student can affect the college experience in less tangible ways too. Some first-generation students who come from low-income backgrounds feel alienated by the amount of wealth they see on campus. Some of them also feel an immense pressure to perform, knowing that their family is watching.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere are very complicated and personal questions first-gen students are turning over, and they\u2019re often doing that by themselves and in isolation,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think that that is either necessary or good, and we can help with that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of Erb\u2019s job when she comes to BU will be to figure out the best ways to help these students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy philosophy that I work from is very student-centered, so it doesn\u2019t help if I just create programs that I think are good. I need to make sure that I\u2019m meeting the needs of the students,\u201d Erb said. \u201cSo I accomplish that through student advisory boards, making sure that there\u2019s input from the students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One reason first-generation students don\u2019t get the help they need because their struggle isn\u2019t always obvious to those around them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThose are challenges that, I think, many people don\u2019t think about unless you say, \u2018These are the issues,\u2019 and then people are like, \u2018Oh, okay,\u2019\u201d Erb said. \u201cBecause being first-generation in college is an invisible identity, to a certain degree, where people don\u2019t really know unless you tell your story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Williams and Erb pointed out that an important part of serving first-generation students is recognizing their diversity. They come from a variety of places and backgrounds, so they have a variety of different needs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williams said that this recognition can have a positive effect on the BU community as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOne of my beliefs is that the more we as a community talk about our distinctiveness as individuals\u2014and as groups of individuals\u2014and talk about it with the goal of valuing those differences, I think we become a healthier, more vibrant, more interesting community,\u201d Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Newbury Center won\u2019t only serve undergraduates. The university is also working to build a community of graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni who are the first in their families to go to college. Already, Williams said she has identified 350 of these faculty and staff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat I know about first-gen undergraduates, at least, is that when you connect them in cohorts, and show them how the differences even between them are a source of mutual power and effectiveness\u2014boy do they latch onto that,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAnd they push into it and they use it like nobody\u2019s business. So I can\u2019t wait to see what that looks like across these multiple groups of people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>wtbu \u00b7 BU Launches New Center for First-Generation College Students By Grace Ferguson &nbsp; This January, BU is opening a new center for first-generation college students. It will be called the Newbury Center, after Newbury College, a small school in Brookline that closed in 2019. The college endowed BU with $6 million. The university has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1597,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24672,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671\/revisions\/24672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}