$4 million National Science Foundation grant<\/a> that she and ESU professors Bonnie Green, Ph.D. and Michelle Jones-Wilson, Ph.D., obtained in 2016. The grant — the largest ever awarded to ESU \u2013 is aimed at ensuring students in science, technology and math fields who transfer in from community colleges graduate on time.<\/p>\nCarducci read how the University of California at Irvine had t-shirts made to identify faculty who had been first generation college students. She brought the idea to ESU Provost Joanne Bruno, J.D., who was enthusiastic but suggested buttons would be easier for faculty and staff to wear in class and for other occasions. David Mazure, associate professor of art + design, developed the button design and ESU ordered 250 for less than $300.<\/p>\n
Faculty and staff will be invited by email to self-identify as first- generation and volunteer to wear the button.<\/p>\n
Pratik Patel, a senior majoring in computer science and computer security and a first-generation college student from Bensalem, Pa., said he thinks the button is a great idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the students know that then they\u2019re more likely to ask questions instead of being discouraged or feel like they are being judged,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n
ESU junior Zikiye Odubo arrived in the United States from Nigeria when he was 14 years old and had to convince his parents that getting a college degree was important. A math major with a concentration in physics and a minor in Spanish, Odubo said the 1st<\/sup> Gen project could help students like him who needed advice on balancing school, work, and financial obligations.<\/p>\n\u201cTo be a student is hard, to be first generation is even harder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some ESU professors who plan to wear the button recall their own struggles as students.<\/p>\n
Mary Ann Matras, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of mathematics, grew up in a suburb of Chicago and had to pay her own way through the University of Illinois at Champagne.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father believed that women did not need to go beyond high school because all they were going to do was get married and have babies,\u201d Matras said, adding that her parents were of \u201ca different era.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her high school counselors encouraged her to go to college to fulfill her dream of becoming a math teacher but attending a university with 35,000 students was daunting at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe university itself, especially that first semester, was very overwhelming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Laurene Clossey, Ph.D., said her parents never went to college but saved $2,000 for her tuition while the rest of the cost was up to her. Clossey, associate professor of sociology, social work and criminal justice, worked as a bookkeeper and waitress to put herself through college and graduate school.<\/p>\n
Arriving at college with no real knowledge of what to expect, Clossey had to learn as she went.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was afraid of my professors,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a clue they would help me if asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Josie Kraemer, she says she\u2019ll proudly wear a 1st<\/sup> Gen button and hopes current students feel comfortable coming to her with questions or if they want to talk about their own experiences.<\/p>\nKraemer\u2019s daughters Eliana and Krystal graduated from ESU before she did, but they and her son Kevin and daughter Emma witnessed her hard-won triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son was like \u201cI\u2019m so proud of you mom,\u2019\u201d Kraemer recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me tell you there\u2019s no better feeling than walking down the aisle on graduation day. I still get chills. \u201d<\/p>\n
Those who identify as a first-generation college student can email 1stgen@esu.edu<\/a> for support. They can also go to the Provost Office, located on the second floor of Reibman administration building for a 1 Gen button.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josie Kraemer struggled so much in one of her psychology classes during her junior year at East Stroudsburg University that she almost quit school. A native of the Dominican Republic, Kraemer was a first-generation college student who had enrolled at ESU after years of working and raising a family. \u201cYou always have in the back of your mind, \u2018I shouldn\u2019t be doing this, I don\u2019t belong here,\u2019\u201d said Kraemer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,20,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-esu-success-stories","category-provost"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16314,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16308\/revisions\/16314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}