Increasing Access

It started with an email. Reading it on her phone, Angel Lin ’23 learned she got into Santa Clara University. The news reached her in Seattle, where Lin, who had never seen a palm tree in real life, lived.

“I was overjoyed,” Lin says, remembering when she and her mother celebrated her acceptance letter to SCU. “I had gone to private, Catholic institutions growing up. And mom was super excited.”

Lin had studied hard. She had been involved as a student, competing in speech and debate on the national and state level. But as a first-generation college student, this was something not just Lin, but her entire family had worked for. She was ready to take things to the next level.

About an hour later, a second email pinged. Lin’s studies at Santa Clara would be fully funded. A grant underwritten by the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation would cover the gap between federal funding and other scholarships. Lin’s time at SCU would be free.

“I get to go to college and not have to worry about all of the other things I would otherwise have to worry about,” Lin remembers thinking. “I wouldn’t have to take an extra job or fewer classes or limit myself to only paid internships. I could really embrace being able to go to college and studying what I really wanted to study.”

The money would give Lin space to develop a fully formed life—built from lots of small moments of discernment. What do I need to achieve my goals? What can I achieve on my own? And where do I need help? A clear career path comes from the scaffolding of experiences. More of this. Less of that. In combination, people find the place they will flourish, where their gifts can shine for the benefit of others. For many, the way is lit by family experience—first college applications and acceptance, then internships and educational experiences. Often, we become what we see modeled for us while growing up.

Our family’s past lives help us to envision a future, then they help us create a plan to get there. But what happens to first-generation students who have to blaze new trails on their own?

Research shows that first-generation students need what all students do: access, community, time, opportunity, and, yes, money. Being surrounded by people we trust, who can see the real us, helps us grow. Having time to dig into experiences and studies lets us discern. The freedom to seize opportunities lets us see what’s possible. And in our society, very little of that is possible without proper funding.

All of this is harder for first-generation students because of a lack of network or home pressures. They are twice as likely to drop out of college as their peers with family college experience. They are less likely to graduate on time. They tend to earn less right out of college.

At Santa Clara University, programs funded by foundations and individual donors give first-generation college students like Lin access—time to discern, an opportunity to flourish, and insights into the world of the possible. And the numbers show these programs at SCU are working—94% of first-generation students participating in these programs graduate, much higher than the 57% graduation rate for first-generation students nationally.

Given the demographics of college-age people in the United States, this group of potential students will only grow. First-generation college students are already one-third of scholars nationally, according to research from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Supporting them helps not only the individual scholars but society as a whole as more people access their full potential as humans.

“Ensuring that our exceptional educational experience is accessible to all promising students who want to make our world a better place is one of the most tangible ways we activate our Jesuit mission and values,” says SCU President Julie Sullivan.

Following Lin’s path through SCU, we see how these pieces come together to support first-generation Broncos.

Time

The old adage that time is money isn’t wrong. For college students worried about covering their bills, jobs eat into the time they could spend taking classes, studying, or being part of the campus community through clubs, sports, and socializing.

And when it comes to cash on hand, first-generation students are often at a deficit.

They are more likely to receive need-based federal aid through the Pell Grant program—55.2% compared with 35%—the Postsecondary National Policy Institute found. Even with that assistance, they are more likely to work and work more hours than their counterparts, according to the Center for First-generation Student Success. A survey from the center found that first-generation students come from families with incomes about $50,000 less a year in the median than continuing-generation students. On average, first-generation students are more likely to come from lower-income households than students whose parents attended college. In addition to paying tuition, opportunities presented in college—a year abroad, for example—often come with a hefty price tag.

It was the combination of federal funds and the grant from the Kalmanovtiz Charitable Foundation that gave Lin time to really be a student.

“I took it by the reins,” Lin says. “Because of the funding, I was able to invest my energy into practicing what I was learning. I could make the community in front of me a better place.”

And, she did. Lin went on to be the valedictorian of SCU’s class of 2023. She studied abroad. She took on fellowships. Lin served in student government, in the Vietnamese Student Association, and on the Inclusive Excellence Student Advisory Council.

As Santa Clara looks to increase the number of first-generation students on campus to 20% of the student body by 2030 from 18% of the 2024 incoming class, it also looks to ensure that more of these new students can have the time to be students, as Lin did.

Part of that effort is the newly announced Santa Clara University California Promise and the Santa Clara University Cristo Rey Promise programs. Starting in 2025, these programs will cover the full demonstrated need of first-year students who qualify for income-based Cal Grants or are graduates of any of the Jesuit Cristo Rey Network of high schools nationally.

“This is a significant step toward our strategic goal of making Santa Clara University’s education accessible to all talented students, particularly students from low- and middle-income families who aspire to attend Santa Clara,” says Sullivan.

SCU is also expanding transfer agreements with 43 community colleges and increasing other scholarship and outreach efforts. This comes as SCU received $280 million for scholarships in its most recent fundraising campaign and has committed to raising an additional $500 million for scholarships.

Community

All of the money in the world, however, won’t help students who don’t feel like they belong. Building community is key to the college experience, and for first-generation students in particular.

A recent survey of first-generation students by Inside Higher Ed found these students desired programs that build community, including a special orientation for first-generation students and dedicated centers and events. Through its LEAD Scholars Program, Santa Clara offers such an orientation and community. With money from the Koret Foundation and other donors, LEAD also offers mentoring, special how-to-college courses, and socials. It kicks off with LEAD Week. Before the rest of their class arrives, first-generation students get the campus to themselves for a week of bonding and a crash course on what it means to be a college student. On the third night of Lin’s 2019 LEAD Week, over a card game, she found her people.

“It was a moment where I realized that there were other people who shared similar experiences to the ones that I had,” Lin says. “I knew I could lean into these girls and ask for help when I needed it.”

This group of seven first-generation women remained tight through their SCU experience and beyond. Even as they majored in different subjects and got involved in various student groups, they would regularly check in with each other.

“We were able to validate each other’s experiences,” Lin says. “These brilliant girls would remind me over and over again that I, too, am brilliant. They understood my imposter syndrome and helped me fight it.”

The University plans to double the number of students served by the LEAD Scholars Program by 2030, growing the community for first-generation students while increasing access.

Opportunity

Living and studying among the palm trees at SCU campus, Lin found social programs that support students through a deep understanding of the contexts from which they come. In her sociology classes, Lin learned just how important that understanding is; how community and context make an impact on a person.

Lin had the opportunity to practice this lesson and learn about holistic care in the world outside the University through a Koret Foundation fellowship. Through the fellowship, Lin spent the summer after her junior year with Santa Clara County’s Vietnamese American Service Center just as it opened its doors.

The Center provides culturally competent health and social services designed for the local Vietnamese community in San Jose, with extensive programs offered in the Vietnamese language, including a senior nutrition program, dance classes for infants and new moms, and karaoke wellness events.

“In this experience, I was really able to lean into what it means to be Vietnamese-American,” Lin says. “It is a complicated identity, shrouded in history, colonialism, war, and trauma. I think I’d only ever understood it in the abstract before this. Being able to participate in community with the folks at the center allowed me to learn that the Vietnamese-American identity transcends place and time. It’s more than just shared trauma. It is a desire to build more and build new.”

Helping open the new center and seeing how its programs take complicated cultural and life experiences into account, Lin recounts, “I was blown away by what a displaced people—my people—could do to build community in a new home.”

She left that experience empowered but with more questions. What would that community look like in different contexts? How does caring for the individual change in other situations?

Powered by a second Koret-funded fellowship, she pursued answers—this time in Paris, studying abroad on her first trip overseas. She was eager to see how the legacy of French colonialism in Vietnam was expressed in her own culture.

What she found in Paris wasn’t what she expected. “I found a very different context that I don’t think I was really prepared for,” she says. “I met a lot of Vietnamese people in France who didn’t have many ties to their own background, who didn’t speak the language and who didn’t identify with being Vietnamese.”

Another piece of the scaffolding of Lin’s life had fallen into place. She had just discovered her knack for research. She tackled these differences in cultural expression for her award-winning senior project on how post-colonial identity manifests across international contexts. And she began considering applying for post-graduate programs to further this research.

Putting it all together

As she prepared to graduate, Lin was putting together all her past experiences in order to define her next steps. She had grown up with her sister and immigrant mother, who was determined that her children have the higher education she never did. Lin’s life at SCU helped her understand her family and her cultural background through a new lens. She learned to ask questions about society and context and received holistic support in specialized programs designed to help first-generation students. And then she paid it forward through direct service with the county and on campus.

“I get to go to college and not have to worry about all of the other things I would otherwise have to worry about.”

– Angel Lin ’23

She found fields to research and areas of focus, and ways to make the world a better place.

“Learning how to better create systems that help and empower communities of color was my labor of love,” she says a year after her graduation.

Today, she advocates for equity in access to technology and policies to fight bias in AI through her work with the Greenlining Institute. Established in 1993, the Oakland-based nonprofit seeks to advance economic opportunity for communities of color. Lin sees all the various supports she received to access a university education as building to this place—one where she can, in turn, help others like her access their own dreams.

“When you don’t have to worry about surviving, you can focus on your own flourishing. And I learned about a very similar model of holistic care in my fellowship, where systems could be built so that whole communities had the opportunity to thrive. I saw how capable we are of developing policies that allow people to live as their full, best selves. And all of that, combined with the research I was able to take on, led me right to where I am now,” she says. “It is part of my everlasting effort to make sure that people’s basic needs can be met and barriers to access are removed.”

With Santa Clara expanding programs and funding for first-generation students like Lin, the world of discernment and empowerment, of people for others, could become much more open.