Harvard scholar Anthony Jack to discuss first-generation student challenges

According to Harvard sociologist Dr. Anthony Jack, higher education institutions do a great job recruiting first-generation students, but most fail to provide the institutional resources to ensure their success. Many first-generation students are not aware of the significance of office hours and participating in extracurricular events, for example.

This Thursday, Oct. 29, UF’s First-Generation Student Celebration will kick off with a session featuring Dr. Jack, a junior fellow and assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. Jack will discuss the challenges faced by first-generation college students at predominantly white universities and provide strategies on how to improve first-generation students’ experiences.