UTSA celebrates first-generation Roadrunners
(March 31, 2017) -- Nearly half of the undergraduates at UTSA are first-generation college students. So what does it mean to be a "first-gen" Roadrunner?
The UTSA First-Gen Council, in coordination with the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the PIVOT for Academic Success initiatives, is hosting First-Gen Fest to raise awareness about the experience of students who are the first generation in their families completing a four-year degree.
First-Gen Fest will be held in the Sombrilla at the UTSA Main Campus on April 4, 2017, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Student representatives from many UTSA offices and organizations such as UTSA Libraries, UTSA Education Abroad, The UTSA Graduate School and more will gather in the Sombrilla to engage their peers in learning about opportunities, services and resources available to students.
"Our first-gen familia at UTSA is 11,000+ strong," said Rhonda Gonzales, First-Gen Council co-chair and associate vice provost for strategic initiatives. "While UTSA continues to take steps to support first-gen students as they complete their degrees, this event also is an opportunity for first-gen students, staff and faculty to take pride in their shared experience of being among the first in their families to go to college."
Free t-shirts and buttons will be passed out to encourage students to celebrate the common thread that ties them together as a community. Students also can pick up t-shirts at the Tomás Rivera Center in the Durango Building (DB 2.114) on the UTSA Downtown Campus, April 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., while supplies last.
More that 11,000 UTSA undergraduates are first-generation college students whose parents or guardians have not earned a four-year degree, according the fall 2015 enrollment data. Fifty-three percent of those first-generation students are female, and 45 percent are from Bexar County. Eighty-three percent are enrolled full-time. Of UTSA's first-generation undergraduates, 66 percent are Hispanic, 17 percent are White, 7 percent are Black, and 5 percent are Asian.
UTSA is ranked among the top 400 universities in the world and among the top 100 in the nation, according to Times Higher Education.
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