First-Generation College Students

SUPERIOR, Wisc. — Haley Stalls is a senior at the University of Wisconsin Superior. She is majoring in Elementary Education and wants to teach kindergartners.

Haley knew she needed to go to college to be a teacher but neither her parents nor her three sisters had attended college.  She would be a first-generation student.

She heard about the Upward Bound program that works with disadvantaged and first-generation students. Upward Bound helps them understand what is needed to get into college and what’s needed to make sure they finish college.

When she told her parents she wanted to take part in the program, “They were like okay, I guess if you want to apply for this, okay.”

Well, she applied and was accepted. When it was time to apply to colleges, she had a lot of help from Upward Bound and decided to attend UWS. “It was because UWS had started as an education school.  This Is the perfect school for me to go to. I want to teach, I might as well go to a school that started based on teaching teachers how to teach.”

Her father was exceptionally pleased when she was accepted to school.  “Every time I’ve ever been accepted in a Trio program my dad was always the first one to find the acceptance letter and open it.”

But in May of 2021, Haley’s dad passed away. That summer she wasn’t sure she could handle going back to school.  But then she heard, in her head, her dad bragging about her to his workmates. “I need to do this for him because he would want to see me walk across the stage, he would want to see me get that degree as much as me/ He would be equally as excited and he as much as I wanted it, he wanted that for me.”

So now that she is nearing the end of her college career and looking forward to becoming a teacher, she has some advice for anyone who would be a first-generation student.

“If you are trying to go to college and you would be a first-generation student, do it!.”