Recommended Titles: First Generation College Students

Updated October 25, 2023
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Reimagining the Higher Education Student
Brooks, Rachel
Paper Book
Drawing on the perspectives of scholars and researchers from around the world, this book challenges dominant constructions of higher education students. Given the increasing number and diversity of such students, the book offers a timely discussion of the implicit and sometimes subtle ways that...
The light we carry : overcoming in uncertain times
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER * In an inspiring follow-up to her acclaimed memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today's highly uncertain world.<...
Decoding College: Stories, Strategies, and Struggles of First-Generation College Students
Clark, Kallie
Paper Book
Decoding College is a slice-of-life, college exposure guide aimed at first-generation college students and their families. Decoding College provides a comprehensive guide to the basics of the college admissions, selection and enrollment processes while specifically focusing on issues unique to...
African American healers
Cox, Clinton.
Paper Book
Throughout American history, determined African Americans havebecome healers. As doctors, nurses, and scientists, they have madevital contributions to the health of the American people. The road to attaining the knowledge these healers longed for was adifficult one. But they kept going,...
Make your home among strangers
Crucet, Jennine Capó.
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, winner of the International Latino Book Award for Best Latino-themed Fiction 2016, Longlisted for the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Named a best book of the season by Cosmopolitan, Vanity...
Ruth Bader Ginsburg : a life
De Hart, Jane Sherron
Paper Book
The first full life--private, public, legal, philosophical--of the 107th Supreme Court Justice, one of the most profound and profoundly transformative legal minds of our time; a book fifteen years in work, written with the cooperation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself and based on many interviews...
March. Book three
Lewis, John
Paper Book
Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new...
The Latino generation : voices of the new America
García, Mario T.
Paper Book
Latinos are already the largest minority group in the United States, and experts estimate that by 2050, one out of three Americans will identify as Latino. Though their population and influence are steadily rising, stereotypes and misconceptions about Latinos remain, from the assumption that they...
Thirteen ways of looking at a Black man
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Paper Book
"This is a book of stories," writes Henry Louis Gates, "and all might be described as 'narratives of ascent.'" As some remarkable men talk about their lives, many perspectives on race and gender emerge. For the notion of the unitary black man, Gates argues, is as imaginary as the creature that the...
Paying the price : college costs, financial aid, and the betrayal of the American dream
Goldrick-Rab, Sara
Paper Book
If you are a young person, and you work hard enough, you can get a college degree and set yourself on the path to a good life, right?   Not necessarily, says Sara Goldrick-Rab, and with Paying the Price, she shows in damning detail exactly why. Quite simply...
The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory
Greene, B.
Paper Book
Now with a new preface (not in any other edition) that will review the enormous public reception of the relatively obscure string theory—made possible by this book and an increased number of adherents amongst physicists—The Elegant Universe "sets a standard that will be hard to beat"...
Tom : the unknown Tennessee Williams
Leverich, Lyle.
Paper Book
Emerging at last from six years of legal entanglements involving the Tennesee Williams estate, this intimate and important portrait of Tennesee Williams, written with all the colorful detail and personal insight of a well-crafted novel, spans the unknown years of the playwright's life, as he...
March. Book one
Lewis, John
Paper Book
#1New York TimesBestseller Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to...
March. Book two
Lewis, John
Paper Book
Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues his award-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, inspired by a 1950s comic book that helped prepare his own generation to join the struggle. Now,...
Rising class : how three first-generation college students conquered their first year
Miller, Jennifer
Paper Book
This eye-opening YA narrative nonfiction follows three first-generation college students as they navigate their first year--and ultimately a global pandemic. Making it through the first year of college is tough. What makes it even tougher is being the first in your family to...
Einstein : a biography
Neffe, Jürgen
Paper Book
Albert Einstein is an icon of the twentieth century. Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879, he is most famous for his theory of relativity. He also made enormous contributions to quantum mechanics and cosmology, and for his work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. A self-pronounced pacifist,...
The sympathizer
Nguyen, Viet Thanh
Paper Book
Now an HBO Limited Series from Executive Producers Park Chan-wook and Robert Downey Jr., Streaming Exclusively on Max Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for...
33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-By-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students
Nunn, Lisa M.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Scholarly Contributions to Teaching and Learning Award from the American Sociological Association Many students struggle with the transition from high school to university life. This is especially true of first-generation college students, who are often...
My American journey
Powell, Colin L.
Paper Book
"A GREAT AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY . . . AN ENDEARING AND WELL-WRITTEN BOOK." --The New York Times Book Review Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average...
Know that you are worthy : experiences from first-generation college graduates
Rodriguez, Adam J.
Paper Book
Thirty-one alumni who were the first in their family to obtain a college degree share their experiences as first-generation students in this noteworthy new text. Their stories illuminate how the struggles of first-generation students are primarily due to a combination of multiple social...
Pour your heart into it : how Starbucks built a company one cup at a time
Schultz, Howard.
Paper Book
The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most amazing business stories in decades. What started as a single store on Seattles waterfront has grown into a company with over sixteen hundred stores worldwide and a new one opening every single business day. Just as remarkable as this...
Economic inequality, neoliberalism, and the American community college
Sullivan, Patrick
Paper Book
This book aims to deepen public understanding of the community college and to challenge our longstanding reliance on a deficit model for defining this important, powerful, and transformative institution. Featuring a unique combination of data and research, Sullivan seeks to help redefine,...
Crack the Code: A Guide to College Success for First Gens
Lieberman, Susan
Paper Book
Start college with your own wise mentor-in-a-book. Be prepared for challenges and opportunities by learning from the experiences of dozens of First Generation students who speak to you in this Guide about what they wished they had known and now, want you to know.

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