UW Tacoma recognized as national leader in advancing first-generation student success

FirstGen Forward, formerly the Center for First-generation Student Success, recently announced the University of Washington Tacoma as one of 14 institutions of higher education selected to its inaugural class of FirstGen Forward Network Champions. Network Champion institutions are an exclusive group serving as national leaders in advancing first-generation efforts and contributing to an important knowledge base of evidence-based practices, leadership engagement, and scaling student supports. 

“We are extremely honored to be selected as a Network Champion in the FirstGen Forward Network,” said Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange, chancellor of UW Tacoma. “As a first-generation student myself, I understand the value of having support structures in place for a successful transition to college life. Student retention and success are core to our strategic goals.”

First-generation students are those whose parents or guardians either did not attend college or did not earn a college degree. UW Tacoma is one of only two FirstGen Forward Network Champions in the western U.S. (the other is Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff).

Celebrating, uplifting, and supporting first-generation students is important to UW Tacoma because 54% of our undergraduate students are first gen. The Office of First Generation Student Initiatives was developed because of the advocacy of first-generation students. These efforts began with students, staff, and faculty in a student success task force, evolved into a student club, and then became a staffed office in 2018. 

“To be named a Network Champion is an honor and a testament to the work of UW Tacoma, evidence that it is a national leader in this area.”

The office offers programming that helps students build community, navigate campus resources, expand social capital, and build financial wellness. Importantly, UW Tacoma has also embraced a first gen lens for campus-wide student success work aligned with our strategic plan. In the past three years we’ve closed the first-year retention gap between first-generation and other undergraduates.

Our engagement and development of first-generation student programming also reflects our community-engaged and urban-serving missions because we are a first-generation campus in a first-generation community. Only 30% of adults in Pierce County have a four-year degree or higher, compared to 56% in King County and 37.7% nationally. The recent re-organization of first gen programming into the Office of Career and Social Mobility further supports the local community’s cradle-to-career collective impact goal of increasing the percent of local students to earn higher education credentials and good earning wage employment.

“As a Network Champion, UW Tacoma showed a commitment to actively adopt the continuous improvement model and align their efforts with institutional priorities to guide first-generation students to completion,” said Dr. Stephanie J. Bannister, vice president with FirstGen Forward. “Not only is UW Tacoma doing excellent work to support their own first-generation students, but they continue to provide support and add to evidence-based practices that serve as a model for all those working to support this population in higher education.”

While movement to this phase signals an important progression, Network Champions remain actively involved and committed to continuous improvement principles while emphasizing institution-focused strategic priorities to improve first-generation students’ experiences and completion rates.

“Boosting the success of first-generation students has a life-changing impact across generations, as college completion is a significant contributor to education, workforce, and life success for the families of graduates,” said Maurice Jones, CEO of FirstGen Forward. “To be named a Network Champion is an honor and a testament to the work of UW Tacoma, evidence that it is a national leader in this area, and a role model for the field for years to come.” 

The FirstGen Forward Network provides a three-phase approach to scaling holistic first-generation student success by engaging and empowering higher education institutions to transform the first-generation student experience, advance academic and co-curricular outcomes, and build more inclusive institutional structures. To date, 429 institutions of higher education, including two statewide systems, have entered the Network, representing 49 states and the District of Columbia.

To learn more about first-generation efforts at UW Tacoma, visit the First Gen Initiatives site. To learn more about FirstGen Forward and the Network, visit firstgenforward.org.