Easing the Burden for First-Gen Students

Boston University President Robert A. Brown knows that first-generation students are a remarkable bunch—motivated, resilient, high-achieving. After all, he was the first in his family to attend college, too. But he also knows their experience at BU is different from that of peers whose parents went to college.

“They don’t have the same resources that are available to continuing-generation students,” Brown says, “resources that will make their experiences at the University more similar and more rewarding.”

A new center aims to change all that.

In January 2021, the University opened the Newbury Center, a support hub for first-generation students—undergraduate, graduate, professional, and nontraditional students—from matriculation through graduation.

Located in the heart of the Charles River Campus, the center offers mentoring, engagement, and family outreach, and it helps students connect with paid internships and study abroad programs—all aimed at strengthening academic, social, and postgraduation success.

The center is named for—and endowed by—a $6 million contribution from Newbury College, a private liberal arts institution that closed its doors in 2019 after more than half a century of serving students from all backgrounds—70% of whom were the first in their family to go to college.

At BU, roughly 19% of BU undergraduates, and nearly 18% of the freshman class, are the first in their families to go to college. Over 50% of first-generation students are Pell Grant–eligible and a significant proportion are from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, including 8% who identify as African American and 24% who identify as Hispanic or Latinx, according to University data.

Crystal Williams, vice president and associate provost for community and inclusion, oversees the center, and BU appointed Maria Dykema Erb as its inaugural director. Erb, who grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont and was the first in her family to attend college, arrives with more than 29 years of experience in higher education and student affairs and has won national recognition for her work with first-generation students.

“My philosophy is that we can’t keep adding to the burden of marginalized students by expecting them to do everything for themselves,” Erb says, “but rather ask, how can we provide support, professional development, and social networks for students so they can thrive.”