First-Generation Support

Each year on November 8, the Chaiken Center hosts the college’s First-Generation Student Celebration as part of the national celebration by the same name. But our first-generation activities aren’t limited to one day a year. The Chaiken Center hosts workshops, brings in first-generation alumni speakers, and organizes meet and greets for first-generation Liberal Arts students throughout the year. 

Roughly 25 percent of Penn State’s undergraduate student population are the first in their families to graduate from college. Within the College of the Liberal Arts, the Chaiken Center works to provide support and resources for first-generation students.

Four Liberal Arts students pose with Dean Lang (center) in front of a College of the Liberal Arts backdrop in the Chaiken Center during the Liberal Arts First-Gen Celebration on November 8, 2022.
Four Liberal Arts students pose with Dean Lang (center) in front of a College of the Liberal Arts backdrop in the Chaiken Center during the Liberal Arts First-Gen Celebration on November 8, 2022.
As a first-generation low income college student, for me it was all about diving into and exploring the unknown. Being the first to break barriers of this magnitude for my family, I decided to embrace the good, bad, and ugly of this journey! With time and a change of perspective, I have seen the privilege in this journey and been able to embrace my downfalls and celebrate my success from a much greater lens.
Troy Turner
Troy Turner

First-Generation Committee

In the fall of 2022, the Chaiken Center for Student Success formed a First-Gen Committee of students, faculty, and staff to provide greater support and community to the first-gen population in the College of the Liberal Arts. Thirty-two members are currently involved in the committee.

Our Mission

To engage and support Liberal Arts first-gen students by identifying their needs and informing our student success efforts. We are also building a sense of community and belonging around the identity of first-generation college students.

Interested in learning more or joining the committee? Email Patty Klug, director of the Chaiken Center, at pfk5256@psu.edu.

Upcoming First-Gen Events

Future Students
CURRENT Students
Graduate Students
Get Funding

Rock Ethics Institute research associate Yael Warshel is poised to receive a book award at the International Communication Association’s annual meeting for her pioneering work in the book “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication, and Socialization.” Her book, a critical examination of peace communication interventions and their effects on children in conflict zones, has received international acclaim, with this being the book’s second major accolade.

Penn State University Libraries’ Open Publishing program recently launched a new Open Access monograph. “The Future of Foster Care: New Science on Old Problems,” edited by Yo Jackson and Sarah Font, is a collection of expanded conference proceedings from the 2019 conference of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, a national leader in research designed to influence public policy that better protects vulnerable children from abuse.

P. Gabrielle Foreman, Paterno Family Professor of American Literature and professor of African American studies and history at Penn State and a 2023 MacArthur Fellow, embarked on a decade-long creative endeavor that culminated in her recently released edited volume, “Praise Songs for Dave the Potter: Art and Poetry for David Drake.”

WPSU uncovers the stories that unveil the triumph, grit, caution and legend that make up the history of the commonwealth in a new digital series titled “Past PA.”

Janet van Hell, a longtime Penn State faculty member in the College of the Liberal Arts’ Department of Psychology and director of the Center for Language Science, was recently promoted to distinguished professor of psychology and linguistics.

Liberal Arts Professor of English and Asian Studies Xiaoye You’s new book on rhetoric in early imperial China offers insights into how ancient rulers built and maintained an empire, and what that may reveal about contemporary issues.

Nearly 100 Centre County high school students visited Penn State’s University Park campus on April 12 to participate in the fourth annual Language and Linguistics Day hosted by Penn State’s Center for Language Science.

The Penn State Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction recently hosted its fourth annual conference in the HUB-Robeson Center at the University Park campus. 

An interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers have received a $442,750 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, to support a multi-faceted, three-part study that observes how gay and bisexual men search and find HIV prevention information — specifically information about pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a medicine that when taken as prescribed, is very effective at preventing HIV.

Two Penn State professors — one in history and the other in art history and anthropology — have collaborated on a three-pronged project that will spark conversation and awe about the art, culture, science and history of Andean peoples.