Brown FLiCenter assists first-generation students

STUDENT SUPPORT: Alexis Rodriguez-Camacho, center, of Watsonville, Calif., a junior at Brown University majoring in urban studies and anthropology, in the FLiCenter with Hannah Velasquez of San Diego, a junior majoring in economics, and Anthony Mei of Chicago, a junior majoring in health and human biology. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
STUDENT SUPPORT: Alexis Rodriguez-Camacho, center, of Watsonville, Calif., a junior at Brown University majoring in urban studies and anthropology, in the FLiCenter with Hannah Velasquez of San Diego, a junior majoring in economics, and Anthony Mei of Chicago, a junior majoring in health and human biology. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

On his first day at Brown University, now-junior Alexis Rodriguez-Camacho didn’t identify as a first-generation, low-income college student, even though his mother, a Mexican immigrant, only recently completed elementary school courses.

“I grew up in a community where that experience was everyone’s experience. It wasn’t until I got to this campus, an elite institution with people whose parents have multiple degrees, that I felt different,” said the Watsonville, Calif., native.

As co-president of student group First-Gens@Brown, which helps first-generation college students better understand the ins and outs of the college experience, Rodriguez-Camacho was directly involved with the creation of the university’s First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center, known as the FLiCenter.

Opened at the beginning of the fall 2016 term, the FLiCenter offers information sessions, mentorship events, programming and serves as a home base for students such as Rodriguez-Camacho, who otherwise did not know what to expect from the college experience.

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In March, when the FLiCenter was first announced, it was billed as the First-Generation College Student Center. Since then, the mission grew to encompass a larger demographic, including low-income, undocumented and international students.

Rodriguez-Camacho said he is slowly forming a personal identity as both a first-generation college and low-income student, while helping the Greater Brown campus community understand how the experience of students like him differs from those with other educational backgrounds.

He said when the FLiCenter opened, there was a lot of excitement from those involved, but otherwise “the creation of the center just [prompted] a lot more questions” from students who may not have realized some college students are the first in their family to attend institutions of higher education.

“It’s been a lot of educating people on nuances” about the various identities of students who access the center, he added.

Rodriguez-Camacho recognizes there are unwarranted stigmas that come with being a first-generation and low-income student on an Ivy League campus. But, he said, in light of the recent presidential election, “the topics and themes the center deals with are now the topics and themes” being discussed in classes and on platforms across campus.

Housed on the fifth floor of the Sciences Library near the tutoring center, English-language learners’ programs and quiet-study space, the FLiCenter, said Yolanda Rome, co-director of the first-generation college student program and assistant dean of the college for first-year and sophomore studies, breaks down those stigmas and demonstrates how acceptance of diversity is at the core of Brown’s modus operandi.

“Many first-generation students come to college [thinking] they should not ask for help. … Putting [the FLiCenter] in with other supports is a way to build a community across communities,” she said.

At the start of the academic year, Rome said there were more than 400 students, as well as a large contingent of faculty, at the FLiCenter’s grand opening.

“It was a powerful message to the community about inclusion of both first-generation and low-income students,” she said.

While the FLiCenter has not surveyed students who frequent the space, Rome said three years ago there were 50 students involved in programming the center now manages and 100 students two years ago.

The $30,000 annual budget approved for the FLiCenter in March by the Corp. of Brown University covers six student staffers.

Rome said while this amount covers the FLiCenter’s hiring needs, “one of the things we do great here at Brown is leveraging other programs” and the new center is a collaboration between the offices of the dean of the college and campus life and student services.

While Brown does not disclose budget figures on a department-by-department basis, a university spokesperson characterized the combined budgets of these major academic and administrative offices, which oversee the undergraduate on-campus experience, as “exponentially larger” than that of the new center.

In fact, said Rome, the FLiCenter has generated so much interest on campus that funding for a full-time director of the first-generation college student program will be in place by the end of the academic year.

“That wasn’t funding we thought we’d get for a while,” she said of the fast-paced impact.

Currently, Rome shares directorial responsibilities with Ricky Gresh, director of campus-life projects in the office of the vice president for campus life and student services. Once the new director is hired, both will serve in advisory roles to the center.

Rome thinks the FLiCenter helps set Brown apart from other universities, especially when recruiting first-generation and low-income students.

And the idea is catching on.

On Oct. 27, the University of Pennsylvania held a ceremonial ribbon cutting for their First-Generation/Low-Income student program, which is housed in a dedicated space within the Greenfield Intercultural Center on the Philadelphia campus. FGLI programming provides academic, personal and social transitional guidance to first-generation and low-income students. •

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