It seems no one can agree on what being a first-generation college student means. According to CalMatters, academic institutions across the state employ different definitions of “first-generation student,” which affects how they see their student body and sometimes what resources they get.

Stanford considers a student first-generation if neither of their parents earned college degrees, a status that applied to just over 20% of undergraduates in 2022. However, regardless of what institutions mean by “first-generation student,” the accomplishment of graduating from college means something different to each individual. 

In the Department of Medicine, we asked several staff members what it means for them to be first-generation college graduates: they shared what a college degree means to them and their families, offered insights into the struggles first-generation students face after graduation, and gave suggestions for how first-generation graduates can succeed in their careers at Stanford.

Coming from working-class families in Hong Kong and Vietnam, Jessica Lau’s parents put everything into giving her the opportunity for a college degree in America that they never had growing up.

“They didn’t have a college education—my dad didn’t even finish high school,” Lau says. For her family, her journey to a degree at UC Santa Barbara, one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, represents a culmination of all of her parents’ sacrifice and her whole family’s hard work. “They gave up everything with their families to come to America,” she says. “The fact that I was able not only to finish high school but apply to and get accepted into a UC was a real achievement.”

Lau loved her time in Santa Barbara—who wouldn’t love a campus that’s literally at the beach? Still, she felt that students from families who already had college degrees had a leg-up in terms of understanding higher education institutions.

“I felt like I was navigating these strange waters all on my own,” she remembers. “Academic institutions can make resources more widely available—not just saying they have them, but actually showing students where to get them.”

Now, Lau hopes that employers, like Stanford, remember that families with previous college graduates likely also have more experience with understanding certain types of workplaces, too.

“When I joined Stanford, it was very overwhelming. People kind of assume you know what things are: like ‘postdocs.’ I came from a first-generation family, and I had no idea what a ‘postdoc’ was,” Lau says. Explaining terms, roles, and concepts for everyone helps first-generation graduates now in the workforce—just like during college, as long as they have the same knowledge and resources as everyone else, they can do just as well.

Still, Lau’s very thankful for her family’s support and proud of her achievements, during and since college. “I had to take initiative to go to college and navigate a four-year university. I think a lot of first-generation college graduates would feel the same—and they should be proud of themselves.”

From Adriana Moreno’s point of view, a big problem that faces first-generation students before and after graduation is impostor syndrome.

“I was raised in poverty. My family didn’t go to school. Then I go to this type of institution where I have the best of the best leaders and resources,” she says with a little incredulity. “It blows my mind a little bit, and the impostor syndrome kicks in: what am I doing here?”

She notes that this feeling doesn’t go away once first-generation college students get jobs after graduation. She stresses, “It’s not just me, but other first-generation people that I know.”

Moreno finds that it can be hard for those who come from families who had gone to college to relate to the experience of first generation students, both in college and later in the workplace.

“If you want to grow in an institution, you want to have close ties, feel included, feel supported. If I were given a choice, for example, to connect with another first-generation Mexicana, we could speak the same language. We could relate in other things,” she nods.

Moreno says that checking in with employees to talk about impostor syndrome can make it a community practice to care for one another. Once impostor syndrome sets in, it makes it hard to progress at work.

“I wish there were a first-generation staff group,” she says. “We could talk about our experiences or things that we’ve done. It could be something to unite this group. We all do such a good job talking about our accomplishments, but let’s talk about how we’re struggling, because chances are someone out there is struggling the same way.”

“Growing up, when I say that education was emphasized, my grandmother was a big part of that,” Cayla Whitney says.

Whitney, and later her younger sister, worked hard to graduate from San José State University. But even though she grew up in the Bay Area, where her grandmother also lived, she didn’t face the same obstacles to education that her grandmother had.

“She said some women had to get approval from their husbands to go to school. But she was divorced. So she could go there,” Whitney laughs.

Her grandmother took a few college classes, but she was a single mother during a time when that was uncommon. Ultimately, she never finished her college degree, but she instilled a love of learning in her family that her grandchildren took to completed degrees.

“My love and interest in learning came from her,” Whitney says.

Still, that love of learning doesn’t demystify careers after college. When she landed her first job, she didn’t know how to tell if she was being given too many responsibilities or paid too little.

“I was half graphics designer and half administrator,” she says. When she finally told her friends how much she was being paid essentially to work two roles, they told her, “Oh, my gosh! You need to go back and ask for more!”

Whitney says career advice like this is harder for first-generation graduates to get, when they don’t know as many people with similar workplace experience.

“If I had more connections or more family members who had gone through this, I could have gotten that advice from them,” she reflects on her wandering career path. “It didn’t seem like an abnormal struggle, but when I look back at it now, I really wish I had someone to help me figure this out. I could’ve gotten settled in at the job I wanted much sooner.”