As a growing number of higher education institutions commit to first-generation student success, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers should aim to better understand how to deliver on promises to first-generation students within institutions and across the higher education landscape. First-generation students are a particularly important population of study due to their heterogeneity and because they comprise a large and growing share of current college-going or college-ready students. It is also important to understand how different types of institutions are supporting first-generation students, as institutional diversity is a hallmark of American higher education. This qualitative multiple case study investigates three diverse institutions—a comprehensive regional public university, a moderately selective private liberal arts college, and an elite historically Black college—and their unique approaches to enacting a stated commitment to first-generation student success. Through document analysis, interviews, and site visits, this study explores how policies and practices relate to this commitment; which institutional stakeholders are engaged in promoting first-generation student success; how institutions define, support, and measure first-generation student success; and whether enacted commitments to first-generation student success inform a broader culture of student success. In addition to investigating institutional perspectives, this study considers how first-generation students experience and perceive their institution’s efforts and explores alignments or misalignments between these two perspectives. Findings offer new insights into how distinct types of institutions—types underrepresented in research on student success—approach first-generation student success and contribute to a growing literature that takes an asset-focused, intersectional approach to understanding the experiences of first-generation students. Findings suggest that the first-generation identity, when understood in concert with students’ other identities, helps students make meaning of their college experiences. Explicitly recognizing first-generation students as a population—including by disaggregating institutional data on first-generation students—helps to ensure that institutions design programs, supports and initiatives that meet the specific needs of this population. Additionally, findings suggest that constituents—including students—across institutional contexts play important roles as cultural navigators for first-generation students and may serve as change agents who can help identify and resolve disconnects between institutional decisions and students’ experiences. Finally, the analysis suggests that approaches to student success can be rooted in an institution’s distinct culture, but institutions must work toward a holistic understanding of students’ identities, needs, and goals and dismantle biased or hegemonic practices that obscure and reinforce inequitable outcomes. / Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies

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Throughout the years the admission of Hispanic and or Latinx students to colleges and universities has risen dramatically. So much so that the relatively new concept of an HSI (Hispanic Serving Institute) was created; meaning that at least 25% of the student population of a university is Hispanic. This advancement for this Hispanic community is a huge advancement for the overall community, but how many of these Hispanic students are aware of the academic services that these universities offer. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the awareness of academic services and the participation and or engagement of those services amongst Hispanic, Latinx, and First-generation students. For this study 300, University of Central Florida students were asked to fill out a survey to further understand the awareness and participation of academic services at the University of Central Florida. This study was distributed through Qualtrics. Certain questions used a Likert scale and a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions to find out information on the engagement and or participation of services. I hypothesized that Hispanic and or Latinx students, once they are made to be aware of these academic services, the more likely they will participate and continue to engage in these services that are being offered to them. The expected findings for this study are that there as there is an increase in the awareness of services offered, the participation of those services will increase amongst the Hispanic student body. This information will be significant because it can help the university understand where they can improve to help their rapidly growing Hispanic population; this study can also be used to figure out what policies or other further implications that are needed to be created to help the Latinx population.

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