Empowering First-Generation College Students: The Cardinal First Initiative with Julie Carballo

Join Julie Carballo, the assistant dean of students for first-generation and military affiliated initiatives at North Central College, and me for an enlightening journey as we explore the Cardinal First program. Julie's not just an advocate, but a beacon of hope for first-generation college students, guiding them through the labyrinth of higher education with her Cardinal First program. Garner valuable insights from Julie's journey and learn about the unique tools and community-building initiatives Cardinal First offers to empower these trailblazing first-generation students.

We'll tackle the power of storytelling and networking. We'll discuss how sharing experiences can be a catalyst for change and a source of inspiration for others. We'll also highlight the invaluable role of mentorship and strong faculty relationships in shaping these students' college journey. The power of a shared narrative, the strength in community, and the encouragement of mentors can truly have a profound impact on a first-generation student's college experience.

Take this opportunity to learn from Julie, connect with her on LinkedIn, and explore her program, Cardinal First. This episode is your ticket to understanding the challenges, triumphs, and incredible resilience of first-generation college students. Join us on this journey and let's empower change together.

Cardinal First  www.noctrl.edu/cardinal-first 

Cardinal First Facebook @NorthCentralCollege.CardinalFirst 

Cardinal First Instagram  @firstgencardinals 

Julie's Bio
Julie is an educator, leader and lifelong learner with experience teaching and spearheading initiatives for underrepresented students at the high school and college level. She is the founding director of Cardinal First, a cohort-based program that strategically provides community and connection for first-generation students from enrollment through completion. She’s been working with first-generation college students at North Central College since 2010. 

Please help others find this podcast by rating and reviewing wherever you listen!

You can find me at https://www.firstgenfm.com/ and on LinkedIn. My email is jen@firstgenfm.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hi and welcome to First Gen FM, a podcast for educators who want to learn more about serving, working with, celebrating first generation college bound and college students. Welcome, julie, I am so excited you are here and I hope you're excited to listen to Julie Carballo today, who is the assistant dean of students for first generation and military affiliated initiatives at North Central College, which, if you're asking, is in Naperville, illinois. And today, julie and I are going to talk about empowering and engaging first generation college students to inspire first generation college bound students. Both of us have done different kinds of programs and so I'm like, oh, julie, I want to steal everything you're going to tell me and we're going to go and learn. So get ready, get listening, here we go. So, julie, you know, my first question is going to be what sparked you to get into higher ed and, specifically, to work in first gen initiatives?

Speaker 2: 1:19

Hi Jen, I'm so happy to be here and talk about my favorite topic first generation college students and initiatives. So, briefly, my background I started teaching and coaching at the high school level, so the early part of my career I was at Argo High School near Midway Airport in Chicago and started there, and then, after I had my second child, decided I wanted to work more part time and if you're at the high school they would let me do that. But I still needed to go every day. So I looked into some colleges and have been at North Central College since 1997 where I started teaching in the education department there. So I did not have a planned path into higher ed. It kind of was a winding path, but I haven't left, never looked back. I loved very much working at the high school level and it greatly informs my work that I do in higher education, knowing the journey that the students are on and the transition from high school to college.

Speaker 2: 2:25

So, as a half time faculty member in the education department, our college received a grant from Council for Independent Colleges to fund a new first gen initiative in 2008 and we launched the Teach First program at that time for our first gen education majors. And two years later I became the director of that. So I was still a half time faculty member and then also the director of Teach First. And over the next four years that program grew and expanded and, as students, sometimes students would change their major away from education but still want to be a part of the program because of the community that it provided and the connection. So in 2014, north Central College created a new full time position, which was the director of first generation programs, and asked me if I would move into that position and create a first gen program for all of the students on our campus.

Speaker 1: 3:27

And you, because if anybody had heard us, like the first 20 minutes, while we weren't recording, we were just all talking about creating and how we love to create programs from scratch, so that was right up your alley. So did you jump at it and say, like I really like this group working with the first gen students, I'm in. Or were you like I don't know?

Speaker 2: 3:47

I was very excited by the opportunity because I had seen the need and as students, like I said, would change their major away from education and we didn't have anything similar for them on campus. So I was very excited at the opportunity. So the first year we piloted Cardinal First was the name that we came up with after our mascot and we piloted a program called Cardinal First Fridays for our first year, first gen students, and then the program has now grown its cohort based programming from a student's first day at North Central through graduation. So we have Cardinal First Fridays for first years, cardinal First Merceppers, cardinal First penultimate for juniors and Cardinal First home stretch for seniors. And those are monthly one hour workshops offered at multiple times. So we provide content and connections and connection to faculty to students that are developmentally meet where they are on their college journey.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Yeah, that's great. Now can students move between them if they see something that's like, or they have to stay in their lane in their year?

Speaker 2: 4:51

They generally stay in their and we call them by their graduation year. So the 2027s, the 2026s, the 2025s so they generally stay with that cohort because then, for example, the current 2025s we're working with them on making sure that they arrange a summer experience this summer and internship or research that's going to build their skills and resume and set them up for post graduation. And then, with the 2024s, we're working with them on finding community and connection after graduation and getting set up for what you're going to do after graduation. With the 2027s, they're preparing for your first final exams and so each we try to provide them with the content and the information that we think is relevant to where they are at that point in the journey. We do have Cardinal 1st, 3rd Fridays. That's open to all first gen students and those are more community building, stress relieving types of types. I think we're doing rock painting at the next one, something like that. Do they have to bring their own rocks?

Speaker 1: 5:52

No, we have the rocks All right. This, this sounds amazing. We may have to do a whole nother podcast on just all of the activities that you do. So it sounds to me like Having the first-gen college students work and inspire the college-bound first-gen students works perfectly with your background, because not only did you work with the students and see what they were going through, but you were a teacher, so you also know what the teachers can and cannot do, what the school counselors can and cannot do, especially at larger public schools. So what kinds of things are you doing with the first-gen students to have them speak to the college-bound students about? You know why they might want to go to college, how they pay for college, all of the questions that the high school students have.

Speaker 2: 6:43

So we one thing that we do is we have visit days for first-generation college students and we are seeing an increase and they can either set those up individually or their high school or junior high groups can bring a group of students. But when we have those groups or individuals visit, we bring in some of our first-gen students to share a little bit of their wisdom and experience, and when possible, from that exact high school. So we'll try to get those students to and they'll have them give a shout out to one of their favorite high school teachers or something like that. But we it's powerful for the current high school students to see students who came from their high school or who look like them and to say this is what I experienced in high school or this is how I chose this school and why I chose it. And we have different questions that will ask them about like what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were a sophomore in high school? Or what's one struggle? Another common question is what's the struggle you faced during your first year of college and how did you work through it to normalize that? You know struggle as part of growth and doesn't mean you don't belong or that you're not going to be successful. So we'll have that as well. We also talk a lot about successful students ask for help. And how did you ask for help? And you know, as a college student. So we have different topics like that, so we use them as panelists at those. We also try to make sure that we have first-gen students working in our admissions office and so if a student identifies that they're first-gen, then they'll get a tour guide who is also first-gen to be able to talk about that experience. We've also done with some of the high school students, with some of the high school high schools groups, an initiative we called first-gen college conversations, so first-gen college conversations, and we had different topics. So we did these by zoom.

Speaker 2: 8:48

For two years we partnered with a few different high schools and then many of those high schools are the ones that now bring their groups to campus. But we had five first-gen student panelists, so five of our current students serving as panelists. We let them. You know we again we tried to get students from the same high school or from nearby high schools and then we had, we prepared them with questions in advance and said give some thought to these questions and let me know which three you'd like to answer on the panel. And then again, the topics that we used were we did one for college seniors what to know now to be ready for I'm sorry for high school seniors, for high school seniors, what to know now to be ready for what's next. We did one on successful online learning. We did one on successful students asked for help, one on what didn't go right my first year and how I worked through it, and again, what I know now that I wish I knew in high school.

Speaker 2: 9:45

So we offered each high school to choose two of those topics that they were interested in, and then we scheduled the events about a month apart and so we zoomed into their classrooms or sometimes they had students in the auditorium and we did that. And then, since then, some of the more local high schools have invited us to bring a group of students out to talk to their first-gen students. And last month, or earlier this month, on first-gen celebration day, that evening we went out to a more rural high school about 45 minutes from where we are, and I brought three students with me to speak to their students and families who will be first generation college students, and it's just very powerful to watch, to listen to my students realize they are now success experts, college success experts that they can talk to other first-gen students that are now a year, a year and a half away from completing their degree. And then it's also. You can see the reassurance and inspiration on the faces of the high school students and their families as they listen to the students talk about their experience.

Speaker 1: 10:58

Yeah, absolutely, and it's. You know, sometimes they're saying exactly what an admissions counselor would say or what the school counselor or teacher would say, but when the students hear it from their peers it's like, oh, that must be true.

Speaker 1: 11:11

And they just they pay more attention to it. I so I was. I was lucky enough. We received a donation from at Northeastern to take students on. I don't even know what to call it.

Speaker 1: 11:26

It was an alternative spring break where I would take three or four students and we would visit high schools in an area we went to.

Speaker 1: 11:34

It's funny, I'm like oh yeah, I took students to Las Vegas for spring break, but we did, and we would travel to high schools and up-ward bound programs and the students would tell their stories. And I remember one time we went to a school and one of my students was telling his story about how he was suspended in eighth grade for fighting and how he got suspended. And I didn't know it at the time, but the teacher came up to me afterwards and said you probably didn't see it, but there's two boys in the back who were suspended. And as soon as your students started to tell their story, they just perked up and they, she said you could see on their faces that they were now like I can still go to college, like, even though I have this mark, like the suspension, I can still go to college. And she said after that their heads were up, they were fully engaged and there's no other person who can do that except a current student telling their story.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 12:32

The stories are so powerful and just having it's really beneficial for our current first gen college students to reflect on their experiences and what they've learned, and you can see in them like I didn't really think about this, but I have really grown because of that and the struggle that almost made me wanna stop is what got me on this other path or got me connected to this person, and so it's a really good reflection exercise for the current students to give some thought to it, which is why we, when we do these provide, we provide them with the questions in advance to think a little bit about it.

Speaker 2: 13:09

And after we did this, this workshop series with the partner high schools, we then surveyed our own students and their feedback was very, very positive on how they reflected in a different way on their college journey than they had. And when I just came back on November 8th, that evening, when we were doing the 45 minute drive back to campus, the students were so excited and said like we should be doing this, we should be doing more of this and you know what else we should talk about, and this would have been helpful for my parents to hear and things like that. So there's definitely value for both the current college students and for the high school students and the families. But yeah, value for growth and inspiration.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Yeah, I mean, I think it's inspirational, but I think it's also transformational for the students that opportunity to reflect, because so often at least in my experiences with my students they're so busy looking ahead, like to getting to the top of the mountain, that they don't turn around to see the view of how far they've come and all the things that they've learned, like especially that asking for help behavior, because they're so independent, like they have worked to get where they are and they have done it and they feel like they've done it solo. But when they get to college they can't do that. And then when they reflect on that it's like, oh, wait a minute. Like I'm surrounded by the support, like wait a minute, and I've learned to ask for that. I mean, have you found that as well?

Speaker 2: 14:46

Yeah, absolutely. And last year in the fall, our seniors, you know we were saying what sort of programming would be helpful for you this year and a few of them said how are we gonna navigate after we graduate and don't have these kinds of supports around us? So we partnered with our wellness center and offered a workshop on finding community and connection after college, Because it is a big that is a big change too, and again and now we're trying to have alumni share their experiences doing that as well. So we have one of our first gen professors who is amazing. Dr Donabeev Smith always talks about with our students, about you should have one hand forward being mentored by one or two people and you should have one hand back bringing two people up behind you on the journey, which I think is a great visual and reminder that you know I can be inspiring other people and I need to soak up the mentoring and wisdom that's available to me from the people that are a year or two ahead of me on the journey. And we've been talking more now with our current students about, you know, building their network on campus with peers and with, you know, faculty and staff, and in fact, that's one of the other things that we do to empower our first gen students to reflect on their story is we've done an art display that we just did our third one this year. So we did the first one in 2019 and we invited all first gen juniors and seniors to share a piece of advice that they have for younger first generation college students or people behind them on the journey, and we used it with our. We take those posters out to the high school presentations as well, but so we had 60 of our current first gen students. They all were photographed and then we put up these posters with their one or two pieces of advice, and it's very, very powerful to hear what they each have to say. And again, you could see somebody who you know. Somebody's message would resonate with almost every student on campus.

Speaker 2: 16:53

And then in 2019, 2021, we did one on what's one or two things you learned about life from your family or supporters, and so we we shared that, and that was over family weekend, and that display was up over family weekend. It was amazing. Again, we invite the juniors and seniors to participate in that. And then the one we did this year was on that networking theme share about an experience or relationship that opened a door to a new understanding or new experience, and so it was very powerful of how this professor, you know mentioned this to me, or this person that I work with did this. There was lots of shout outs to faculty and staff who connected the student to a new opportunity or a new way of understanding things.

Speaker 2: 17:43

So then, that display is still up, it's up for the month of November on campus, around campus, and many displays elsewhere. So, again, it brings awareness to the first gen identity and then just to their wisdom that they've now gained along the way, and hopefully, for the first gen students behind them on the journey, the importance of building relationships across campus while you're here, cause we do have we have a significant commuter population. I mean more than half of them on campus, but many students are I'm just here to get my degree and I work, you know, and so we really try to work with them on, you know, improving their experience and also building their network and knowing how that, you know, getting connected to faculty, as we all know, connects you to the social capital that you wouldn't otherwise be connected to, and getting connected to peers who are a year or two ahead of you on the journey.

Speaker 1: 18:39

So that's one of the other ways. Yeah, I mean, it gives you tips and tricks when you know the faculty member and you sit and talk with them. And yeah, a couple of stories bring to mind. I remember I had a student named Joe and I had required the students as part of their scholarship you have to go talk to a professor, like that's part of your scholarship, and I would give them some here's some questions you can ask, so that they wouldn't be like I don't know what to talk about. And I remember him doing it and coming back to hand in the sheet and he's like they were like a real person. I was like, yes, they are, and he formed a relationship with that particular professor and that was so much fun to see.

Speaker 1: 19:20

And I had another student who went to a panel discussion of people who were in engineering and she was studying chemical engineering and she really wanted to talk to one of the panelists who was doing something that she was really interested in, but she had no idea what to say. So she was brilliant. She went up and said I'm sorry I really don't have time to talk to you right now, but do you have a business card that I could contact you later with some questions and I was like what a great line. Like you don't have to come up with things for the moment, but you make the connection, you get the card and then you can think about what you wanna say. I'm like, wow, that is so smart.

Speaker 2: 20:00

That is very smart. We have a first gen alum who now works in Major League Baseball, but he tells the story of he went to a panel that was happening on campus that was organized by professors in his major and he debated whether he had time for that or if he should go study or do work. But he went that day, made a connection, got a summer internship that ended up leading him to his dream job in Major League Baseball. It is what I meant to say. I'm not sure if that's what I said MLB, but so again, saying yes to the opportunities that are available on campus too is another important thing, but because I mean it's just like information and connection that you wouldn't have otherwise. So that's another one of our mantras is like say yes or at least think through opportunities that you might not have again that are available on campus to build your network with other people and get connected to other first gen champions.

Speaker 1: 21:00

On campus, yeah, and I think, talking through, how do you make that decision about what might be particularly unique to the campus experience, so that you know to say yes, because it might not be an opportunity that will come to you once you leave the college?

Speaker 2: 21:18

Yes, we try to stress that in our communications too, saying this won't happen again. This is one and only time, like we just did LinkedIn photos as part of our first gen celebration week, and we say this is the one and only time we're doing this this year so that because inevitably, somebody will be asking about it a couple weeks later which is I would have been that person at age 21 too like, well, I didn't need one then.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Right, well, I would have said, but there's no LinkedIn now. When I was a senior, we never had to worry about those things like headshots and LinkedIn and social media. So that's very true. That's very true, goodness, goodness. So let me ask you this what are you seeing in your new students? Maybe that's different from previous years, you know, because I think the students coming in now had an interruption in their formative years of setting a base for learning in high school. I think these students who are first years now were 10th graders. Have you noticed any differences across the years in terms of what they need or what they're asking for, or maybe what they're even not asking for? Right?

Speaker 2: 22:35

We try to anticipate their needs, because you can't know what you need because you're not familiar with the higher ed landscape. We are trying to include in each one of the workshops some study strategies Study smarter, not harder. Yes, study smarter, not harder, With some specific things Within our program, we have leaders. We have a leadership team for Cardinal First with 37 student leaders this year. They work with the first years. They have a group of first years assigned to them. We have them prepare.

Speaker 2: 23:12

What are two ways that you manage your procrastination? What are two ways that you manage your time? Our workshops are always the first Friday of the month. This Friday we'll be having our December Cardinal First Friday workshops. We're going to be talking about preparing for your first final exams. We have the leaders sharing.

Speaker 2: 23:31

This is what I do differently in my life the week before final exams. This is what I do the week before final exams. This is what I do the week of final exams From everything from self-care to using a GPA calculator to decide where you should put your most energy and things like that Listening very carefully to what the incidental information is shared by the professor the week leading up to the exam and things like that. That's our leaders reflecting on their own experiences and what they do that works. We were preparing with them right before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2: 24:14

I said just think back to your first year, first semester. This is their first time going into these final exams. We do everything from here is the final exam calendar and making sure they know when their exam time is, because it's not always. When I was faculty somebody would always get tripped up on that, even though things like that the leaders reflecting on that. Then we'll also often do a Google doc and ask any first gen junior and senior please add on here what advice you have for our first years taking their first final exam, Again them sharing their wisdom, and we'll categorize those and send them out to the first years.

Speaker 1: 24:51

I love that. I'm totally stealing that for our next meeting that we have this week. I'm just going to say let's talk a little bit about final exams. We talked about academic integrity.

Speaker 2: 25:00

Sorry to interrupt. We talked about academic integrity and what that means and how important it is. We'll talk a little bit about that. One other thing we do at this workshop in December is so it's the last workshop of their first semesters we have thank you cards that we print with Cardinal First graphic on the outside and on the inside it says dear blank.

Speaker 2: 25:26

I've been asked to reflect on three people at North Central College who've made my first semester of college a better experience. You are one of those people. Then we asked the student to add one sentence about I really enjoyed the way you taught your class, Thanks for helping me with my financial aid, whatever it is. Then they signed their name and we have it class of 2027 typed on the thank you note two. Then we put those out in the faculty mailbox and staff mailboxes, which ends up being the week before finals. It's just a little bit of wind in everyone's sails for that. Last week we talked to the students about that.

Speaker 2: 26:00

We do it for a few reasons. We do it to reinforce people on this campus who are doing good work with first gen students, because it's human nature to complain with what people want. We do it because it's a good attitude of gratitude as a self care thing that makes improves how you're feeling as well. Then we think it's an important personal and professional habit to take the time to thank people and let people know we have sentence starters that if you have writer's block, which lots of people do, here's a few things you might want to include.

Speaker 2: 26:37

We ask each of them to write three and then we put them in the mailboxes and we have them do that again at the end of their first year and then at the end of their sophomore year and then by senior year we just have thank you notes available to them, right? That don't say Cardinal first on them, so they are just writing you know their own and he's too over there. Oh, that's fantastic. I think it's the faculty and staff and you know are really are grateful to receive them. And I remember one year I had a student to say, like my coach is gonna laugh if he gets this, and then he came back the next week. He's like he was so happy that I said you know that I sent him a thank you note. So I think it just is, you know, building a culture of Expressing gratitude and, again, creating more awareness of our first-gen student experience and that you made it.

Speaker 1: 27:21

You know you improve the students experience and that's we wanted you to know that yeah, well, and that it's Even though you may be directing it, and it's a first-gen initiative that it really is the entire institution that's supporting these students. Yes, yes, yes, students to be successful. And that sends that message that you're part of the whole. Yes, exactly that is leading our students to to graduation and their career and you know, and, and all All the good things that lie ahead for them.

Speaker 2: 27:49

Yes, definitely, and several one of the faculty members, but when she comes to speak at our event, she's like I carry these around with me. These mean something to us. You know, when we get one of these and others have them hanging up in their Office and things like that. So it's, and I do think throughout the students college journey and professional career, it is an important habit to develop to you know, thanks someone who sit down and did an informational interview with you or who mentored you on the job or Wrote a letter recommendation for you and things like that. So again, teaching that as well as part of that activity.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Yeah, I love that, I love, I love everything that you've shared about is it and and as we've been talking, it's really Inspiration all around. It's it's Alumni inspiring the students and sharing their knowledge. It's the students engaging with the high school students, and I love that expression of you know Pulling two up and and sort of holding on to one above.

Speaker 1: 28:45

That's such a good, such a good visual and it's it's just, it's paying it forward and back and just really beautiful kind of stream of Gratitude and help flowing, flowing back and forth. It's like I people call them soft skills, I call them power skills, but it's like it's such, so powerful, these skills, that they're getting from all of these things that you're sharing with them and helping them learn in college. So, yeah, I'm stealing so much of this. I just want you, just just so you know, julia, you know, take it, take it some of these things to heart.

Speaker 1: 29:18

So, as as we're wrapping up here, because we've only got a few minutes, because we just love to chat, what what advice would you give for the folks who are listening? You know they're, they're working with the high school students who are first-gen. How can, how can maybe they work with us to bring some of our students to their schools or do a zoom event. What would just any general advice you have for them?

Speaker 2: 29:44

Well, I think, if there's a way they can keep in touch with their high schools graduates who have gone on, who are first-gen college students, and let them come back and share, either by zoom or we we have an event next week where we have some of our alums just sending a 90 second video in. It's just because of logistics with challenging, but I think it's really, really powerful when it when it's students from there that own their own high school. So we have our very local high schools in Aprilville North. We have a couple of their alums that our current students with us go over there and speak every year and it's very, very powerful.

Speaker 2: 30:16

So, I think, trying to stay in touch with your own alums and then Finding, you know, current first-gen college students who would Resonate the with your students to share their stories about, and I like to talk about the struggles. I think that instead of Just you know, I would choose a student who struggled and overcame a few obstacles over a student who has a 4.0 and is, you know, seemingly as navigated effortlessly through the process, because I think that's empowering, like you shared with the Students who have had some struggles, and when we have our first-gen faculty and staff talk to our students, we have them share a struggle that they experienced in undergrad. So we have a faculty member who was economically dismissed in college and now has, you know, a doctorate and things like that. So I think, similarly, finding and you're finding out at your high school which one of your teachers is Administrators were first-generation college students and having signs on their doors or t-shirts so that it's easily, they're easily identifiable by the current students, I think would be very powerful. Yeah, do you do any training with this?

Speaker 1: 31:26

This is going back a little bit. Do you know any training with the students about sharing their stories and and Kind of what not to share, or that you know? If you're going to talk about your struggles, here's how you might Now I'm not thinking like put a positive spin on it, because I totally agree with you. Sharing struggles is important, but do you have to have those trainings or conversations about how you'd go about doing that?

Speaker 2: 31:53

We do provide some guidance in advance by way of an email and we do one meeting with them before they would talk and we before they do their first presentation.

Speaker 2: 32:03

But we always, when we talk to the one about what's the struggle you experienced, I'm going to say I always say it's a two-part question what's the struggle you experienced during your first part of college and, more importantly, how did you work through it?

Speaker 2: 32:14

So you're, and we typically work with juniors and seniors because the finish line is in sight and they're feeling a little bit more confident. But some of them will even say I did not think I was going to graduate until I got to my senior year, like I had doubts about that the whole time. And with this Teach First program that we still have with the first gen education majors, we have, as they're doing their student teaching, we have them come back to a meeting and we have them share what's one thing you learned about yourself during this experience, and it's you know. One of them said that I wasn't horrible at teaching and that's something I worried about for four years, you know. And so they just really share candidly and vulnerably about their imposter syndrome and their fears and how they kept moving forward despite these fears that they, you know, were navigating.

Speaker 1: 33:03

Yeah, yeah, oh. I'm sure that's so powerful. And now, what advice do you have for folks like me who are in the college working with first gen students? How can we sort of support that wonderful, you know, reaching up to the alum and reaching back to the high school students?

Speaker 2: 33:21

Well, I think that you know partnering with your office of admissions to be able to have your students, you know, being tour guides or speaking when you know it's a first gen group that's coming to campus, or offering first gen visits for high school groups and junior high groups. As much as your school can do that, I think that that's really powerful. And then providing students with the opportunity to share a little bit of their wisdom. So it can be as simple as you know, here's please complete this Google form to tell our first year first gen students to welcome them to your college or to prepare for final exams. We do something similar with making the most of your summer, and we get advice from current student, current first gen students, and faculty and staff to share with first year students about their first summer, and it can be everything from take advantage of the free dance lessons you know in downtown Chicago, or to just a variety of different things too, so that people are sharing.

Speaker 2: 34:18

This is what worked for me. This is what I wish I would have done, because that's another thing that we focus on. You have three summers For most people. You have three summers in college, three or four summers in college, and how to make the most of them, so that you're refreshed and moving yourself forward toward where you want to be when you graduate.

Speaker 1: 34:36

Right, keeping your brain on, yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:40

Or I'll tell them, like even over, I'll say you have a 27 day winter break coming up. Choose for those days to do some of these things you know relax and work and do the other things, but choose for those days to consider some of these things. So that, and same with the summer break, I always count the number of days of summer break. I spend them. A communication where, at the halfway point of summer break, some things you might want to put on your to-do list before the end of summer. So just being mindful of making the most of time when you have a little bit more time during those breaks, but theoretically you have a little bit more time.

Speaker 1: 35:14

Yeah, and it makes it not overwhelming. It's like we're not saying you have 27 days, take 26 days and do all these things. It's like, no, take five days Right.

Speaker 2: 35:24

Right Great.

Speaker 1: 35:26

Well, if somebody wanted to reach out to you and they say, oh, like I love your programs, can I get a list of, like some of your first, you know, cardinal first year programs, how would they reach out to you? How would they find you?

Speaker 2: 35:38

I am on LinkedIn, so they are definitely welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn. And we also have a pretty robust website about Cardinal first. So that's at wwwnoctrledu slash Cardinal-first, but you can just search the college's website for that. We have quite a bit of information on there. And our Cardinal first social media. We have North Central College Cardinal first on Facebook and then our Instagram is at first gen Cardinals.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Okay, all right, so now. Now you know where to find them. Thank you, julie, for being with me and sharing all these things. I learned a lot. I took copious notes, so I'll be experimenting with all these things, but it was a pleasure.

Speaker 2: 36:25

Thank you so much. It was my pleasure. Thank you, jen, and thanks for this great podcast, so we all can continue to share ideas and keep moving first gen forward.

Speaker 1: 36:34

Yes, my pleasure. And if you would like to give us a review, we would love to hear from you your review and your five star rating. And then, if you I've ever wanted to get in touch with me, you can find me at firstgenfmcom or you can email me at Jen that's J-E-N. Jen at firstgen-G-E-N-F-Mcom, and I would love to hear from you if you would like to be on the podcast and share what you're doing, or if you just have any feedback on the podcast about other people we might want to talk to. Thanks again for listening. Have a wonderful week and we'll talk to you again next week.