Improving Career and Engagement Outcomes of First-generation Graduates

Through generous support from the Crimsonbridge Foundation and a data partnership with RTI International, the Center for First-generation Success recently released a series of fact sheets, an issue brief, and a practitioner guide providing national statistics about first-generation college graduates’ transition to graduate school and employment in the year after earning a bachelor’s degree. They also show the extent to which first-generation college graduates had used career planning services and participated in extracurricular and co-curricular activities when they were undergraduate students, activities that can help individuals prepare for graduate school and employment. 

This panel session will bring together a variety of perspectives to discuss the latest fact sheets from the Center for First-generation Student Success and the Crimsonbridge Foundation on the career and engagement outcomes of first-generation college graduates. By tying together a philanthropic, institutional development, and practitioner perspectives, this session will include dynamic discussion as the panelists discuss improving first-generation student outcomes using external and internal resources.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• interpret key statistics from a national study of first-generation college graduates’ transition to graduate school and employment; and

• discuss key philanthropic, institutional development, and practitioner perspectives and their implications for promoting first-generation college student success.