This collective volume fills an important gap in first-generation college student research by simultaneously achieving several important goals. Collectively, the essays represent a balance of personal narrative, qualitative, and quantitative approaches that extend our understanding of the first-generation college student (FGS) experience. The essays review the existing literature on FGS; outline the barriers to college success faced by FGS; update the existing literature by introducing new and cutting-edge first-generation research; and recommend solutions to those in the trenches, who include support staff who design programs to support FGS. The book's contributing authors bring important personal and scholarly expertise to the project. The authors include faculty, administrators, support services personnel, and former students at private liberal arts colleges, major research universities, community colleges, and comprehensive universities in urban and rural settings. The diverse perspectives represented in the essays will benefit administrators and staff working at diverse types of institutions with FGS. In addition, many of the authors were first-generation college students. Socio-economic background profoundly shapes a person's cultural transition into college and heavily determines what barriers to academic success he or she will face. This collection's authors have a keen understanding of the FGS experience having made the transition into a foreign academic culture themselves. The book's essays address the following topics of concern of staff who interact with FGS: - Understanding classism in the academy and class segregation on campus - Race, ethnicity, class, and immigration as they impact FGS' campus experiences - Insight for developing successful first-generation support service programs - FGS' emotional, academic, and cultural adjustment to campus life - The role of support groups in shaping the first-semester FGS college experience - The importance of mentoring in aiding FGS' cultural transition to college - The impact of a FGS' living situation (such as in a campus living-learning center) on academic and cultural transition

Women Educators’ Experiences During COVID-19: On the Front Lines examines the gendered experiences, challenges, and rapid changes faced by women in higher education during COVID-19. The book’s chapters cover lived experiences ranging from graduate students navigating the pandemic to those grappling with balancing motherhood and the academy. Through these diverse perspectives, this edited collection explores the impact of the diversity and nuances of the feminine identity on navigating higher education during an international health crisis. Ultimately, contributors provide recommendations for best practices and suggestions for change for administrators, faculty, and policymakers to dismantle the academy as a male-dominated institution. Scholars of communication, gender studies, and higher education will find this book of particular interest.

Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Studentsaddresses how many academics who experience mental distress or mental illness are afraid to speak out because of cultural stigma and fears of career repercussions. Many academics' reluctance to publicly disclose their struggles complicates attempts to understand their experiences through research or popular media, or to develop targeted mental health resources and institutional policies. This volume builds on the existing studies in this greatly under-researched area of mental health among faculty, administrators, and graduate students in higher education. The chapters' research findings will help institutions communicate about mental health in culturally-competent and person-centered ways; create work environments conducive to mental well-being; and support their academic employees who have mental health challenges. This book argues that discussions of health and wellness, equity, workload expectations and productivity, and campus diversity must also cover chronic illness and disability, which include mental health and mental illness.

Health Care Disparities and the LGBT Population addresses a people whose lack of health care access, including mistreatment and refusal of services, are often omitted from discussions about health care and insurance reform. Research suggests that LGBT people experience worse health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. Low rates of health insurance coverage, high rates of stress due to systematic harassment, stigma, discrimination, and lack of cultural competency in the health care system frequently manifest in negative health-related behaviors. The dearth of data collection on sexual orientation and identity in state and federal health care surveys has led to inadequate information about LGBT populations, and has impeded the establishment of health programs and public policies that benefit them. With its diverse perspectives, this book will not only benefit LGBT people, but will also more broadly improve the lives of entire communities, medical care, and prevention programs and services. This research provides a better understanding of the social and structural inequalities that LGBT populations experience. Improvements to our country's health care system should go beyond just providing universal insurance and should ensure equitable health care for all.

This co-edited volume addresses a population of people whose lack of health care access, mistreatment in health care settings, and refusal of health care services are often omitted from discussions about health care disparities and insurance reform. The perspectives and needs of LGBT people should be routinely considered in public health efforts to improve the overall health of every person and eliminate health disparities. Previous research suggests that LGBT people experience worse health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. Differences in sexual behavior account for some of these disparities, but others are associated with social and structural inequities. Low rates of health insurance coverage, high rates of stress due to systematic harassment, stigma, and discrimination, and a lack of cultural competency in the health care system frequently manifest in negative health-related behaviors. The lack of data collection on sexual orientation and identity in state and federal health care surveys leads to inadequate information about LGBT populations and impedes the establishment of health programs and public policies that benefit them.This volume's research will increase people's understanding of the social and structural inequalities that LGBT populations experience. With its diverse perspectives, this book will not only benefit LGBT people, but will also more broadly improve the lives of entire communities, medical care, and prevention programs and services. Improvements to our country's health care system should go beyond providing universal insurance and should ensure equitable health care for all.

First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities examines the intersecting relationships between a student's identity as a first-generation college student (FGCS) and other identities such as race, class, LGBTQ+, and spiritual identity. This book breaks new ground by examining highly diverse populations of FGCS, rather than predominantly White undergraduates at four-year public universities. First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities explores the intersections of identities that may be marginalized in different ways across a student's educational journey in research-grounded chapters that discuss real academic experiences of faculty, administrators, graduate students, and undergraduates.

First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities examines the intersecting relationships between a student's identity as a first-generation college student (FGCS) and other identities such as race, class, LGBTQ+, and spiritual identity. This book breaks new ground by examining highly diverse populations of FGCS, rather than predominantly White undergraduates at four-year public universities. First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities explores the intersections of identities that may be marginalized in different ways across a student's educational journey in research-grounded chapters that discuss real academic experiences of faculty, administrators, graduate students, and undergraduates.