The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of First-Generation, Low-Income Students (Poster 70)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 2023 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities across the U.S. proactively shut down and sent students home during the spring 2020 semester. The impact of the pandemic on college students overall cannot be understated, but it is clear that the pandemic has unequally impacted first-generation, low-income students (Benton, Meade and Vandenberg 2021). Existing research on the experiences of FGLI students at small liberal arts colleges suggests that this student demographic may struggle to find community, establish connections with peers, admin, and faculty, and navigate campus bureaucracy, contributing to a weak sense of belonging (Rueda et al. 2017). Findings on the experiences of first-generation college students during the
COVID-19 pandemic have already been published which highlights how the pandemic affected students’ academic persistence, employment, finances, and mental and physical health. Through forty semi-structured one to three-hour interviews conducted by members of an eight-person participatory action research team during the 2020-2021 academic year, we investigated the educational, financial, and personal impacts of the pandemic on first-generation, low-income students at a predominantly White, small liberal arts college in the Northeast. Academically, students described a sense of academic apathy, heightened stress regarding their academic progress and performance, and overall unstable educational engagement with their peers, teachers, and communities. Financially, students expressed anxiety regarding their tenuous familial and personal income sources because they facilitate access to critical resources, such as stable housing, food security, and technology capabilities. Personally and socially, students
discussed navigating family dynamics and finding community while at college. To some extent, their personal experiences highlighted how the institution functioned as a buffer and mitigated complicated family dynamics and fostered community engagement. In contrast to the aggregate data, students objectively (GPA graduation progress) succeeded which we attribute to the institutional context and self-efficacy but expressed diminished learning experiences.

Author

• Leonard Versola, Vassar College
  Presenting Author