An excerpt from the LA Times -
At UCLA, a dorm floor dedicated to first-generation students
By Teresa Watanabe
Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays.
Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments.
At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and she came close to missing UC’s application deadline.
In her freshman year, Felix has chosen to live on a newly created dorm floor just for students like her who are the first in their families to attend college.
“I wanted to be around people who understood and shared my experiences so I could connect with them,” she said on move-in day as she unpacked her bags and arranged her new desk.
The dedicated dorm floor is UCLA’s latest effort to support its first-generation students, who make up 32% of undergraduates — a strikingly high number for an elite university.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ucla-first-gen-students-20171002-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
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