Social class is an important source of a student's identity. Higher education is a means of rising or maintaining one's social class. This is particularly true for first-generation students who will graduate with more education and will enter higher prestige occupations than other family members. As first-generation students acquire increased cultural and social capital along with their education, they rise to a higher economic and social status, causing stress and tension while trying to reconcile their old and new identities. Recognizing and understanding the challenges that students face can help students learn to live in a multi-social class community. Career services professionals need to recognize this issue and understand how it affects the student's view and their ability to achieve, develop networking skills, understand unspoken rules, learn methods of job searching, and more. This program will help participants understand the dimension of social class/social economic status and will discuss the concept of "social capital.” Participants will leave with three staff development exercises that will bring awareness to each dimension of diversity on their campus so that staff can better recognize and help students dealing with this struggle.

The recording for this session is unavailable