As the year winds down, we celebrate the graduation of 170 students from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Some will stick around for a teaching certificate or graduate degree; others will be entering the job market. A lucky few might even be taking a break before embarking on their next adventure. If we have been successful, these students are well prepared for what comes next.
Other students, not ready to graduate yet, will be heading home for the winter break. For new students, especially those who have been studying far from home, this may be the first trip home, which can be somewhat stressful. They have changed, and their families may or may not be ready for that. If a student has not changed at all in college, I would argue that we have not done our job. Learning changes us; interacting with new people changes us; separating ourselves from day-to-day contact with family changes us.
For first-generation college students, this change can be profound and unsettling for both students and families. Universities like UH-Hilo do a great job at making the campus welcoming for students, easing their path into the world of higher education. We sometimes do not do as well at preparing students for re-entering family life, especially at this first break. Many first-generation students begin to live a double life, one at college, and one at home. They maintain two languages (even if both are English!) and two identities. To find the familiar comfort of home means to slip into old patterns of behavior, even if those were shed at college. The irony of this situation, of course, is that in the vast majority of cases, their families strongly encouraged them to go to college. And the vast majority of first-generation college students will tell you that they are in college because they want to help their families.
The pressure on these students is heavy. They feel responsible to live up to their families’ expectations of them; they carry on their backs their families’ hopes and dreams. Yet, at the same time, they feel what has been termed “breakaway guilt.” While they are in classrooms studying, their parents, and often their siblings, are working and sacrificing to make that dream of college attendance possible. College is still the gateway to the American dream of greater opportunity and prosperity, and when we all join together to support our students, those dreams are achievable.
While pursuing those dreams, students change. The changes that take place within students include the acquisition of new skills and knowledge, but these may also be accompanied by changes in attitude and priorities. Those of us at universities can pay closer attention to the fact that our culture is a strange new world for many of our students. We can also work to make sure that families are prepared to support their students and realize that change, while scary, is part of the process of education. Education does not mean the abandonment of long-held values, but it might mean a broadening of those values to include new things.
It may look like college students have it easy, and some do skate through and party more than study, but the vast majority of students I know, especially those who are the first in their families to attend college, work hard and take the responsibility they have been handed seriously.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with some scholarship students and ask them what their scholarships meant to them. Many mentioned how pleased they were that the support eased the burden on their families and might allow their siblings to also attend college.
When students cross the stage at commencement, a speaker often talks about responsibility, a variation on the theme that the world has a number of challenges that they will need to step up and fix. This information comes as no surprise to our students, so when they come home for the holidays, give them a hug, let them put their feet up for a few minutes, and give them the encouragement they need to continue to thrive in our ever-changing world.
Happy holidays.
Bonnie D. Irwin is the new chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She began July 1. Her column appears monthly in the Tribune-Herald. Email comments to urevents@hawaii.edu.