Columbus Rotary, The W, EMCC partner to help first-gen students
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – First-generation college students often face more challenges navigating higher education than some of their classmates do.
A new partnership among the Columbus Rotary Club, Mississippi University for Women, and East Mississippi Community College is designed to help them overcome those challenges.
The W and EMCC will each recruit up to 10 first-generation college students to participate in the inaugural Lowndes First-generation Youth Realizing Success Together, or Lowndes FYRST, program.
Lowndes FYRST will establish learning communities, and provide seminars geared to first-generation students.
Columbus Rotary will provide financial assistance and networking opportunities with business and community leaders to the program.
Columbus Rotary Past-President Lauren Barker, herself a first-generation college student says the program can help them navigate the college landscape.
“Yeah, so a lot of times students don’t have someone to reach out to when they need help, and they just need a community that can kind of help walk them through the next steps, and things that are thrown their way. If they don’t have parents or siblings who have kind of paved the way for them, sometimes, they don’t know how to reach out, so I think having a cohort of students will really help them have a community to reach out to,” said Barker.
Lowndes FYRST leaders will also conduct a service project aimed at high school students who will be first-generation college students.
