GenEx Startup Begins Support for FGLI Students
“We tend to believe that we live in a bubble [at Exeter] free from the hardships we face in the real world, meaning success on this campus can be achieved by anyone who works hard enough,” senior Julie Chung, a first-generation college student, wrote in an opinions piece in last week’s issue of The Exonian. “Thus, while we hold such elitist standards of success (e.g. a prestigious college education), we often ignore the barriers that underrepresented students face to achieve these ideals.” By underrepresented students, Chung said she meant other first-generation college and low-income (FGLI) students like herself. On Wednesday, May 4, she and senior Cesar Zamudio held a meeting for First-Generation Exonians (GenEx), a newly founded club designed to provide aid for these types of students.
“This can help Exeter be a truly more welcoming and compassionate environment for its ‘youth from every quarter.”
Originally conceived as a small support group for first generation/low income students at Exeter, GenEx has since gathered a large and committed following on campus. Founded by Chung and Zamudio, GenEx has spearheaded movements such as guiding first generation students through their transition to Exeter, reaching out to first-generation Exeter alumni for testimonials and providing college guidance to students who may not have access to those resources prior to College Counseling office experiences.
Around 20 to 30 students have attended GenEx meetings so far. At the meetings, the students, who come from a range of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, considered initiatives to begin next year, such as cultivating honest discussions about the experiences of first-generation college and low-income (FGLI) students at Exeter and how to work more closely with the Academy’s admissions office to reach potential FGLI students and encourage them to apply.
In the words of Chung, the idea to create GenEx sprang from a discussion with Zamudio. They shared feelings of being absolutely lost as they began the college process and having no one to turn to for advice. “We both had frustrations as first-generation college, first-generation American and low-income students on campus, and we were really lucky to discover that we had similar backgrounds,” Chung said. She also noted that “the discussion around first-generation college students grabbed national attention that year.”
Chung had felt that the setbacks and disadvantages that FGLI students face had not been sufficiently discussed on campus. “Nationally, every institution acknowledges its social-class and first-generation achievement gap, but we never seem to talk about it here at Exeter,” she said. In creating the club, Chung said they hoped to “fill in the gaps of support and essentially become the parents for these students who lack critical information in how to navigate an elite institution like Exeter.”
The club plans to create a space for FGLI students, guide them as they transition into and move through Exeter, connect these students with pre-college programs, summer enrichment opportunities and college counseling that they otherwise would be unable to access and de-stigmatize low-income status.
Chung placed an emphasis on the importance of normalizing FGLI students. She felt that by breaking the stigma surrounding being low-income, GenEx could open discussion around privilege and social class, in turn making the Exeter community as a whole more open. “This can help Exeter be a truly more welcoming and compassionate environment for its ‘youth from every quarter,” she said.
Members of GenEx said that the club has helped them adjust to Exeter through student mentoring and solidarity. Lower Amanda Sherwood explained how the club provided her with “a network of people” with similar experiences to her who could share their knowledge. She said that the club has shown her “that there are problems because of my background that I do not face alone.”
Upper Irene Chun, a member of the GenEx board, said that, in leading GenEx, she hopes to encourage dialogues about what it means to “succeed” at Exeter. “Students who do not “succeed” at Exeter (in respect to academics and extracurriculars) are not lazy or not intelligent enough, but rather they simply have not benefitted in the same way others who do “succeed” at this school have,” she said. “It is saddening that such a group was unable to grow prior to today to help advocate and assist Exonians who truly needed the support; however, this serves as motivation for me to pass on the knowledge that I have acquired throughout my experience of being thrown into a rigorous educational system.” Chun, a full-financial aid student, said she knows “firsthand” about the troubles of navigating scholarships and standardized testing on her own.
Moving forth, members of GenEx will continue to take steps to advocate for FGLI students through a multi-step plan. The club will gather stories from current and former FGLI Exonians to provide role models for club members to follow.
Involved students also hope to call on the school’s administration to examine how a student’s background effects achievement and to provide more academic support to such students. The club will be divided into small groups to allow for more intimate and frequent discussions and to create closer mentorships between members. This will also allow incoming students to get involved in the club more easily.
Many of the plans in store for GenEx center around incoming and prospective Exonians. Current club members plan on creating a guide for incoming students to help them adjust to life on campus, reaching out to admitted students during the summer prior to their arrival to ease the transition and to working with the Admissions office to aid applicants.