Stephens, Nicole M., et al. “Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap: A Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students’ Academic Performance and All Students’ College Transition.” Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 4, 2014, pp. 943–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24543535.
In the study reported here, they used senior college students’ real-life stories and started a difference-education intervention with incoming students about how their diverse backgrounds can shape what they experience in college. Compared with a standard intervention that provided similar stories of college adjustment without highlighting students’ different backgrounds, the difference-education intervention eliminated the social-class achievement gap by increasing first-generation students’ tendency to seek out college resources and, improving their end-of-year grade point averages. Its attended audience is more for an older side of college students who are in their junior or senior year of college. The purpose of this annotation was to bring more analytical evidence and personal answers from the students themselves. Its credibility could be one of the strong points since everything came personally from the person themselves.
NUNN, LISA M. “First-Generation College Students.” Education and Society: An Introduction to Key Issues in the Sociology of Education, edited by Thurston Domina et al., 1st ed., University of California Press, 2019, pp. 110–28. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpb3wn0.12.
In this study, Lisa explains the differences that first-generation students go through from continuing college students. She backs up this claim by providing analytical graphs and answers that she received from both sides of the perspectives. Again it hits the same type of audience focusing primarily on college students who understand how it feels to be at a disadvantage of being a first-generation student. I used the responses that show how first-generation and continuing college students have completely different experiences when it comes to being prepared for college. The bias that are commonly seen throughout the research study is Lisa records more discussions with first-generation college students than continuing college students.
Gomez, Cynthia. “Mental Health: Striving for Progress, Not Perfection.” First-Gen Stories | Close the Gap Blog, 9 Dec. 2021, blog.closethegapfoundation.org/mental-health-progress-not-perfection/gclid=Cj0KCQjwmN2iBhCrARIsAG_G2i5CJrYVBWd6yjJxgmLUJ8ITI5ORz4Gz7oMIK_BoMdTgVt7eRzabJhUaArXxEALw_wcB.
Cynthia Gomez’s blog served as a purpose to show how it is to be a child of two immigrant parents and how the dynamic is different from the standard household compared to others. Cynthia briefly explains her experience with mental health issues and the amount of pressure she endured to try to impress and be enough for her family. She tried to perform the best in college but at the cost of relationships with her friends and family. The intended age this hits is young adults since it’s a blog it’ll be shorter to grab their attention and it serves a real purpose behind what she explains throughout her story. Her personal experience throughout college and being a first-generation student demonstrates the difficulties and how continuing college students could not relate.
Ibrahim Zuher. “A Double Life: The Thoughts of a First-Generation College Student.” Active Minds, 8 June 2020, www.activeminds.org/blog/a-double-life-the-thoughts-of-a-first-generation-college-student/.
Zuher’s blog helps other first-generation students to understand that we all experience the same story and there will be feeling of not being enough for their families. Zuher explains her life of being pressured all the time to bring perfect grades but whenever she did she would get no type of appraisal from her family but a bland expression. Since this source was a blog as well its intended audience becomes young adults that are also looking for reasons why not to give up and to keep thriving for success. The honesty and genuine way Zuher explains her story make it her strong point throughout the whole blog.
Jenna Douglas “The Challenges and Privileges of Being a First-Generation College Student.” All4Ed, 11 Aug. 2021, all4ed.org/blog/the-challenges-and-privileges-of-being-a-first-generation-college-student/.
Jenna Douglas’s short blog explains her story of not having a father understands the importance of having a college degree and her experience to apply for and figure out more about financial aid, scholarships, and the college process on her own. Her experience of being a first-generation student and witnessing the advantages students that have parents who have gone to college seek for advice or anyone to vent to. This connects more to the research because when it comes to the main source of my reasoning to create this paper, I wanted to make it more clear that first-generation students have it much more difficult than students that have one or more parents to compete for college degrees.