Roped In or Left Out: How First-Generation College Students Build Soft Skills During University (Poster 48)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 3:20 p.m.
  In Invited Poster Session: 2025 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

Emerging literature on higher education suggests that prestigious universities may not provide the same benefits for first generation, low income (FGLI) students as their continuing generation, high and middle income peers. However, this fails to examine the benefit of attending prestigious universities in comparison to other FGLI peers at non-prestigious universities, where the majority of FGLI students attend. Research also fails to look towards non-academic outcomes of university, such as the development of soft skills (applied intra- and interpersonal non-technical skills that relate to how one interacts with others and navigates their environment) especially among FGLI students. Drawing from 19 in-depth interviews with FGLI female-identifying undergraduates of color from 4 universities (2 prestigious PUs & 2 non-prestigious NPUs), this study aims to comparatively understand student experiences understanding and building soft skills using the following research questions: How do first generation students understand and build soft skills? How does this differentiate across universities of varying prestige? Tentatively, the study finds that students across university types were most successful and confident in understanding, building, and utilizing soft skills when they participated in specialized programming aimed at educating FGLI students about campus resources, soft skills, and integration into the campus community. Continually, FGLI students, especially those attending a PU, expressed a conflicting viewpoint of soft skills in relation to their values derived from personal experiences living and working with underserved, nonwhite communities. Future research should explore different programming offered at the university level with a focus on workforce preparation and soft skill education.

Author

• K-LA Spieles, University of Chicago