Driven to Achieve: First-Generation Students' Narrated Experience at a Private Christian College

Abstract

This qualitative study examined the narrated experiences around the college choice and persistence of junior and senior first-generation students attending a private Christian college. Using interviews and focus groups, the author identified three key factors that emerged from the data: faculty, faith, and family. Faculty involvement was critical in the decision both to attend and to persist at the college; family support also was a consistently salient theme that emerged. Surprisingly, the faith factor was important to some in their decisions to attend, but for religious minority members it was actually a detracting factor, largely overcome by the strength of the professional programs and faculty involvement. For the students in this study, first-generation status did not emerge as an important part of their identify-formation.