FirstGenFM is broadcasting to high school and college educators who are working with first-generation college and college-bound students. It will be like a mini-conference session each week with takeaways to help you and your students thrive and learn about success. My goal is to create a web of knowledgeable advocates for first-generation students and to inspire conversation among all of us looking to open up educational access and opportunities for all.
Please help others find this podcast by rating and reviewing wherever you listen!
FirstGenFM is broadcasting to high school and college educators who are working with first-generation college and college-bound students. It will be like a mini-conference session each week with takeaways to help you and your students thrive and learn about success. My goal is to create a web of knowledgeable advocates for first-generation students and to inspire conversation among all of us looking to open up educational access and opportunities for all.
Please help others find this podcast by rating and reviewing wherever you listen!
Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of First Gen fm. My name is Jennifer Shone, and since I'm your host for First Gen fm, please just call me Jen. This is something I've been really excited about doing for a long time now because as an educator, as someone who's worked in higher education for 35 years, I am always interested in learning more about how I can serve first gen students. And I've been lucky enough over the course of my career to work with both high school students, helping them navigate the college admissions and financial aid and scholarship process. And with college students, helping them get to college, be successful in college, and then find out what they wanna do next, and then go after it in their careers. I've also had the privilege of working with educators, in high schools and in colleges, and helping them learn more about how to best serve first gen students. The thing is, I feel like I have all this knowledge, and I also feel like there's all this amazing activity programming, research going on around first gen students, and I wanted a way to share that weekly and so first Gen FM was born. What I'm hoping is that this is an opportunity for you as an educator, whether in high school, working with first generation college bound students, or whether you're in college working with first generation students. That you can find something in this podcast that's of value to you. My goal is to have each podcast, whether it's a guest or, or just me, talking, about what I've learned and things that I've seen, that you take away some action steps that you can use with your students, with other staff, and that you can just create your own welcoming first gen space. For your students and your colleagues? For me, I go to these conferences which I love, conferences that focus on first-generation college students or access, for students to get to college who are from first-generation and, or low-income backgrounds I love meeting people who are, who are doing what I'm doing and learning and, and adapting what they've done at their institutions to what I can do at my institution. And what I hope is that this is almost like a weekly conference where you tune in, you're like, oh, this is a really interesting speaker, this is a really interesting topic. I can't wait to learn more about it. And as you listen, you take away some great ideas and then you go back and you take action on them. So I'm gonna have episodes that are interviews with practitioners, working with first gen students. other episodes will be me sharing some of the knowledge I've gained or some information on articles and research I've read recently, but it's all in service of the students. I'll talk college admissions, I'll talk retention, I'll talk financial aid. We are really gonna go all over the map, however we can think of, to best serve our students. I'm excited about getting started with these episodes, and I know we have some great episodes coming up on financial literacy, on storytelling, on mentorship, just to name a few, and whether you're in the high school or whether you are in the college, please reach out to me. You can find me@firstgenfm.com. You can learn more about who I am and my experience in education these past 35 years, but just to tell you a little bit about me, I went to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and college was a transformative exprience for me, I took college as a clean slate and reinvented myself to be the person I really wanted to be in terms of involvement, in terms of studying what I wanted to study. And it was an absolutely joyful experience. And then when I thought about leaving, I decided I wanted to stay in higher ed. And so off I went and my first job in higher ed was in admissions. I have spent a lot of time doing admissions work. Helping students get to college, understanding what the admissions and financial aid process is. And these past 20 plus years, I've specifically been working with students who are first generation and who are also first generation and from low income backgrounds. It has been a, a privilege and a pleasure to do that at both the University of Washington and Seattle, and currently at Northeastern University. I have been able to work not only in admissions, but also in career development in residential life in. Orientation programs in student activities, in leadership development and commuter programs. And now in a dual role that is both, recruitment and retention. And so I have experienced many facets of education and at different kinds of colleges. I worked at one college that had about 200 resident students. That was a women's college that went co-ed between my first and second year. So that was an amazing experience. Maybe amazing isn't quite the right word, difficult and wonderful. At the same time, I think is what I would describe it, and that university is now thriving. I have worked at large public schools like the University of Washington and the University of Vermont, where I got my master's degree. I have worked at. Private colleges, like Susquehanna University, a small comprehensive institution in rural Pennsylvania, and schools in the city like Northeastern University where I am currently situated, right in the heart of Boston. It's been a pleasure working at all of these schools, and I've learned a lot from each of them, whether they were Lutheran or Catholic, or secular, public or private. each experience has given me, Insight into education, into students, and into all the people who work in education and I have enjoyed all of that. I hope that as you listen, you maybe jot some notes. You maybe think about how you can participate in this podcast because you're probably doing some really cool things where you are, or you've read a cool article you wanna bring my attention to. You can find me@firstgenfm.com and there's a contact page. Please reach out to me if you wanna be on the show. If you wanna share something with me, I would be so happy to hear from you. Let's have some great conversations. Let's learn from each other and please share any ideas you have for things you'd like to hear on this podcast, whether it's a guest speaker or a topic. I'd be delighted to hear from you. Here's to creating a web of knowledgeable advocates for first gen, college bound, and in college students, and to inspiring conversations among educators. Thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next week.
