On Sept. 7, Megan Robillard used a mailbox emoji to begin a lengthy, exclamation point-laden Facebook post about her first week of college.
Thank you to everyone who has called, texted and just kept up with me as I have been at college! A brief update — it is going great! Learning to balance the workload has been an adjustment, as has being in a new place. But I really like Campbell! And to answer a few common questions I’ve gotten:
My roommate is AMAZING, and we are getting along so well. Living with someone isn’t as hard as I thought it would be! Everyone tells me people tend to change their majors a few times, but I am currently a BBA marketing major with a minor in health care management.
I am involved in an on-campus lifegroup and have made some great friends there, as well as connected with the leaders. They are fantastic, Godly role models! I am also a part of the Marketing Club 🙂
The post — directed at her parents, her siblings, her aunts and uncles and her three cousins also attending college — had the feel of a letter from summer camp, something hand-written and personal from an era before cell phones made updates as easy as a text message.
“I wrote it because people back home were asking about my P.O. box, but I also wanted to put a blanket statement out to those who I knew cared,” says the freshman from Mooresville, North Carolina. “Everyone was super excited and genuinely interested in my first week.”
Robillard’s father, an engineer, did earn his associate’s degree but never had the four-year college social experience that included living on campus and being a part of that culture. Her mother grew up on a farm and is now an RMA specialist at the same company her father works. The oldest of three, she is the first in her immediate family to seek a four-year degree and hopefully one day work on the business side of the health care industry.
She says college was always in the cards, for as long as she can remember. A straight-A student, she chose Campbell because she liked the smaller atmosphere and the professors she met during visitation days. She also heavily weighed advice she received from her father: “You’re not going to be a number there. You’ll be a face.”
“I think my dad pushed me the most growing up [to attend college], because his thinking was that was the best way to get a career that I can advance in … make more money so I wouldn’t have to worry about expenses as much when I’m older,” Robillard says.
“My parents often told me, ‘You have to get a degree so your life isn’t as hard as ours was.’”
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Knowing that they have the unconditional support and love of their parents goes a long way to alleviate the common fears of a first-generation college student, says Michelle Perez.
“Those mistakes that you might perceive as failures, you’re still a success in their eyes,” she says. “Nobody wants to fail, but knowing your parents are behind you — your biggest fans from Day 1 — really is a blanket. It’s a comfort. And it’s a reality that family support makes a difference in student success.”
In his Huffington Post article, “Five things families of first-generation college students need to know,” James T. Minor, former deputy assistant secretary for postsecondary education with the U.S. Department of Education, called the success of these students “critical” for the future of the country. And he called family support “as critical as any campus-based intervention designed to retain and sustain students.”
His five tips for parents of first-generation students: Remind them that college is a place where they belong; eliminate their distractions; plan beyond the first year; see that they’re not alone during short and lengthy academic breaks; and finally, make sure they are connected. “Asking questions about what they are doing outside the classroom is just as important as prying about grades,” Minor writes.
Perez has noticed during her career that the parents who are most involved (positively) in their child’s college career are the parents who are also enjoying certain aspects of college life that they didn’t get to experience as young adults.
“You see it as early as freshman orientation,” she says. “They’re having fun, too. They’re living vicariously through you, and they want to know what this is like for you.”
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Robillard’s father has two “Campbell Dad” T-shirts already. Her mother is also stocking up on orange and black. The Robillards are “super involved” in their daughter’s new life, and while that prospect may scare some teens who view college as an escape, their excitement only adds fuel to her desire to succeed.
“I have friends whose moms give advice on things like what it’s like to be in a Christian sorority — I even have a friend whose mom founded a sorority at her college. Their parents can share what their experiences were like, and my parents didn’t have that much to tell me going in,” Robillard says. “But what they did do was push me. I know they really want me to succeed, and I want to graduate and make them proud. I also want them to know what I’m going through. My entire family was here for Move-In Day and didn’t leave until the end of the day. They were here for Family Weekend. College tours. Orientation. All of it. And I loved it.”
Even with all the love and support, she stops short of calling her first semester at Campbell “easy.” She’s worried about balancing a social life with academics, joining groups and academic clubs but hesitant to overwhelm herself in her first year. Her most difficult adjustment has been the food at college — not a knock on the quality at Campbell, she’s quick to point out, but she’s also a very picky eater who misses home cooking more than she ever thought she would.
What has helped greatly is the first-generation group at the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business headed by the school’s director of student success Renee Greene. Greene, Robillard says, has become an instant “go-to” staff member at the college when guidance or answers are needed.
“I go to her for academic coaching or if I have a question on something like transfer credits, things I can do with my major or the overall college experience,” she says. “I didn’t expect to have a connection with someone like that so early on, and she’s been a Godsend for me in my first year.”