SUNY Plattsburgh Receives Grant For First-Generation Orientation

First-generation college students at Plattsburgh are set to benefit from a $4,000 SUNY grant aimed at improving their experience at orientation prior to the start of classes in the fall.

The SUNY Office of University Life and Student Affairs’ First-Generation Student Orientation Grant was established to create a model “tailored to the unique strengths of our first-generation students,” said Cheryl Hamilton, senior associate vice chancellor of student life, opportunity programs and student advocate at SUNY. “(SUNY Plattsburgh's) proposal stood out for its potential to enhance academic readiness and foster a deep sense of belonging before the first semester begins.”

Lauren Gonyea, SUNY Plattsburgh’s assistant director of access and opportunity programs who oversees the first-generation initiative on campus, submitted a proposal to SUNY spelling out how her office would fulfill the requirements of the grant.

Included in the First-Generation Student Orientation grant proposal were funds for:

• Students to staff the HUB for first-generation orientation students who have questions or need help
• Refreshments
• Marketing and outreach materials
• First-gen swag — pins and other giveaways like stickers and lanyards
• Other giveaways, raffle prizes and incentives

“We received our full funding request,” she said. “This is the first time we’ve been able to do this because of the grant. We’ve done programming before for orientation, but we’ve never had anything of this scale.”

Gonyea said that this kind of approach, and having ongoing support, is important because first-generation college students are “navigating a new system.”

“When students come in, they don’t know what they don’t know. When you’re the first in your family to attend college, you really don’t know — you have no prior frame of reference; you may not have the support from family. You may feel like you’re the only person going through this,” Gonyea said.

‘Not Alone in This’

Having a support network in place during orientation “will make our first-gen students realize they’re not alone in this. They’ll feel like they can continue forward. It’s an empowering experience, working with the first-gen population. They are incredibly resourceful,” she said. “If they can just make that first point of contact, we can make such a huge difference in their lives.”

An enhanced orientation experience will help achieve that goal.

Gonyea said she's discovered talking with students that “there’s an outside perception that everyone else knows what they’re doing and that they don’t.”

“We’re trying to demystify that. Once they find us, that goes away,” she said. “I hear from our first-gen students, ‘I just wish I came in sooner; I wish I knew I had all these resources available to me.’ Once they make that connection, they do incredible things.”

— Story, Photo by Associate Director of Communications Gerianne Downs