Local Group Supports First Generation College Students

Going off to college can be a challenging experience.  And there are extra struggles for students who are first in their family to go to college.

One local support group is helping them through these struggles.

 Almost half the student population at Ozarks Technical Community College are first generation students.

And these students might be struggling financially or with a lack of support.  Now a group set up just for first-generation students meets twice a month, to help these student achieve their goals.

A first generation student started the group hoping to provide an outlet for her peers to share their experiences and get some help.

While it only meets twice a month, students who attend the meetings say they have made many friends out, who are there for them when they get discouraged.


"Coming to these meetings, just reinforces there's people here to talk to," says first generation OTC student Peg Walton.  "And it is ok, and you can succeed when you feel you need to quit cause some days you do feel that way."

Fellow student Kelly Bright, is also the first in her family to go on to higher education. Her advice to others, is to just take the plunge.  "Take the first step, the first step is the hardest actually walking through that door.  Some of us don't know how to go about it, we have never done it before and to take that first step and embrace every second, that moment of college."

The meetings are the first and third Wednesday of the month at OTC.

There are usually speakers that talk about their experiences as first generation students and what struggles they had to overcome to succeed, with the goal of giving current students examples and ideas on how they can get one step closer to graduation.