first-generation

Q&A with first-generation students

A WSU system-wide celebration of National First-Generation Day on Monday, Nov. 8, honored first-generation students, faculty, and staff on each of our campuses. Meet four of our extraordinary CAS students: Angela Hagedorn, a junior majoring in history; Brian Burley and Alma Rangel, both seniors majoring in psychology; and LaShay Wesley, a senior majoring in digital […]

History first-gen grad honored for excellence

Washington educator Jordan Frost received the University’s inaugural First-Generation Alumni Excellence Award, presented by the Office of Academic Engagement (OAE). Frost earned two degrees at WSU—a BA in history in 2018, and a master’s in teaching in 2019. While an undergraduate in Pullman, he was elected and served as head of the Associated Students of […]

McNair scholar bridges cultures in life, research

It’s fall 2014. New freshman Lysandra Perez, the first in her family to attend college, sits on the bed in her Streit-Perham Hall dorm room. The emotional farewells are done, and her parents are driving back home to the small town of Moxee, near Yakima. Her roommates won’t be arriving for another few days. She […]

Campus involvement empowers first-generation, non-traditional student to soar

WSU Tri-Cities alumnus Geoff Schramm never thought he would go to college. Coming from a family where no one before him in his family had gone to college, he said it was sort of a family tradition that he goes straight into the workforce after high school. “That’s just what you did in my family,” […]