First Generation Students

In 2017, the Council for Opportunity in Education and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ Center for First-Generation Student Success launched the inaugural First-Generation College Celebration on Nov. 8, the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965. This year, Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College is joining with College for West Virginia (CFWV) to celebrate the successes and contributions of first-generation college graduates and students in West Virginia.

There are many definitions for identifying first-generation students, and many of those definitions assume at least a bachelor’s degree.

At Eastern, a community college that awards 2-year associate degrees, we are defining first-generation graduates – for the Nov. 8 First-Generation Celebration – to be those who are the first in their immediate families to have earned at least an associate (2-year) degree. The same follows for first-generation students to be the first in their immediate families to be actively working toward at least an associate degree.