During our College Day with seniors from Alisal and Gonzales high schools, there were several comments of concern about friends and life away from home. This is a concern for almost all students going away to college for the first time. They are leaving the protection of their home and family to venture out into new territory. Though common, this concern is very hard for first-generation college students to overcome. According to Richard C. Richardson Jr. and Elizabeth Fisk Skinner in "Helping First- Generation Minority Students", "First-generation students frequently describe their first exposure to the campus as a shock that took them years to overcome" (33). They don't have the support of a family member who has been through the same thing. There is no one to help guide them as they experience the frustration of new friends, dorms or just being overwhelmed by a new school.

   The lack of friendship on a new campus is one of the fears that can keep some students from going away to college. It almost kept Sandra Chavarin away.

My best friend and I were planning on going to Sonoma State. But then she just backed out and she left me by myself I didn't know what to do. I just got so scared because I was going to come to a university by myself At one point I decided I wasn't going to go. That I was just going to stay home but then I'm like how can I do that? I mean I've tried like my hardest in school. I've been getting good grades and I have the classes to go to a university. I just said, I'm just going to go. Who cares if I'm going to come by myself? I don't care (6).

However, once she arrived at CSUMB she learned the world isn't as big as she had imagined. On check in day she ran into an old friend from her freshman year in high school who ended up living in the dorm room right next to hers. No, such a coincidence does not happen every day, but there are programs that help students bridge the gap between high school and college. One such program at CSUMB is FOCUS (Freshman Orientation for College/University Success). It is a program that starts in the weeks preceding the fall semester. Within the program the students are prepared for the Entry Level Mathematics and English Placement Test exams. They are given an orientation to campus life and provided academic preparation that helps them adjust to the college classroom. The program helped Carlos Armenta in this way:

[G]ood thing that I went through - it's a program
during the summer, it's the FOCUS Mini Bridge and that kind of like gave me a pretty much introduction to what kind of college is about. This is kind of like you've got to write your papers like this, and this is kind of like how the people are, and that kind of like eased the fears. I was like OK, alright, I can handle this, like I think I can handle this. So ... that program here really helped me.

    The belief that high school did not prepare them for college is echoed by all of the sophomores interviewed. Programs like FOCUS helped the students adjust to college life, but once they were here, what then? A comment by Richardson and Skinner seems to be supported by our interviews. It is, "the most effective programs are ones that provide
support for underrepresented students by developing bridge programs and by providing systematic and comprehensive academic support services ... until a student was firmly established in a major"(39). Once on campus many students turn to ASAP, Academic Skills Achievement Program, to help them with homework. Maria Lupe Figueroasays, "I use ASAP sometimes to do my essays, to revise my papers like with grammar and spelling and all that"(8). However, ASAP is not only for writing as Cesar Mora has discovered: "Well there's ASAP, I have taken a couple of two three courses, like the tutoring for math English, writing, it helps a lot"(6). ASAP is a positive program, but we are still missing something at CSUMB. There are students who are doing fine academically, but are feeling lost or confused. These students are nowhere near being "firmly established in a major". They do not know where to go to find help or who to talk to. Sandra is a clear example of this.

No, I don't know where to go! That's one of the problems I have. That I don't know where to go ... because I don't know what to do. I know I need the help now. I want the help now. Because I want to know what to do. I don't know where to go or who to ask though. I don't even know where the liberal studies department is at. Yeah they need more
Advising (21).

    Reaching out and finding a connection within the administration or with a professor can really help a first generation college student. They feel a place of belonging in the college community and have a person to depend upon. They know they can go to that person for help in areas they don't understand. Maria Lupe has taken full advantage of this when she talks to the Migrant Program director or to some of her professors to find out which classes are best for her and what she wants to do (8). In fact Richardson and Skinner found that successful students formed relationships with their instructors, found mentors and advisors, and created support groups and connections with other students (37). "All students identified peer support as important ... these groups provided invaluable support in many ways" (37). Finding a peer group has greatly helped Maria Lupe.

Well most of them are women. And most of them have the same background as me. They are either Chicanas or Latinas... in a way I feel more like comfortable with them cause like when I talk to them, if I don't know to say something in English I just say it in Spanish. With the rest of the people sometimes it's hard to communicate cause we don't have too many things in common. So but little by little I'm getting to know people from different backgrounds. But first I think that they have to establish a peer group where they can feel comfortable if we made friends so everything if need something I can just go and talk to them. So that was, I needed to establish like a base for me. Some kind of secure base for me and go on and explore more and get to know people from different backgrounds and different ethnicity and different ways of thinking (10).

    Finding a peer group that she felt comfortable with helped Maria Lupe move forward at school. During the interviews we found evidence that supported the need for a firmly established peer group. As a group we have come to the conclusion that this school needs to set students up in small peer advising groups as well as assign each incoming freshman and sophomore with a faculty advisor until they enter and are established in a major. We also found a need for more involved advising from a faculty advisor - one who understands the different majors, ULR's, and what the different classes can offer a student.In addition to faculty and peer advising for support, our students spoke of a need for family support. Those who were receiving support emotionally from their family seemed to be doing much better in school and with the transition to college than those who were not receiving it. Part of the reason many of the students claimed their families were not supporting or encouraging them is because they do not understand what their child is going through. There is a great need to help parents of first generation college students with the transition as well. These parents are just as lost in the shuffle of administration as the students are. Additionally, they are left at home to wonder and worry. They often come up with ideas that are very far off the mark of what their child is going through. Some students spoke of their parents forming telephone connections with other first generation parents and the help and support this gave them. Parents also need to be informed before the child leaves for college of what will be expected of them - what college life is really like and what information their child will need from them. It has been suggested that we have parent days, where the child's parents or family can come and spend time at a university, ask all the questions they have and receive open, honest responses from other parents who have gone through what they are going through. Perhaps they could participate in a mini Summer Bridge, where the parent lives in a dorm room for a weekend and goes to a couple classes. Once a parent is no longer afraid of what college means or what it will do to their baby, they can, and have, become some of the biggest supports and retention devices that a first generation student knows.