Sept. 1: Documentary on first generation college students

As part of the University of North Dakota’s  College of Arts & Sciences initiative “UND 1st G,” which works to connect first generation students in the College of Arts & Sciences with faculty, staff and administrators who were also first generation, there will be a film screening of First Generations at 3 p.m., on Thursday, Sept. 1, in the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl.in the Lecture Bowl.

The film chronicles the lives of four low-income students striving to be first in their families to go to college.

In connection with the screening of First Generations, Arts & Sciences and the Division of Student Affairs have partnered to bring to campus Allison Hurst, an academic researcher and expert on successes and challenges of first-generation college students. Hurst will visit UND next week on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7-8.

Hurst, the author of The Burden of Academic Success and College and the Working Class, will take part in a panel discussion on Wednesday and a public lecture on Thursday. All events associated with Hurst’s visit are free and open to the public.

In the lecture, Hurst is expected to address a number of areas of her research, including class-identity construction and reconstruction among students before and during college; the interplay of class identity, educational success and social mobility; and the psychological and social costs of academic success.

Along with partnering with the Division of Students Affairs to bring Hurst to campus, this semester, the College of Arts & Sciences will be launching “UND 1stG,” a first-generation logo that will proudly identify those students who are first in their families to attend college.

For more information regarding UND 1stG, check out the website and follow on Facebook (UND 1st G) and on Twitter (@UND1stG).