Geoffrey Maruyama, chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, describes how community and academic partnerships provide necessary support for first-generation students in an article published by Academic Impressions.
“It’s critical that first-generation students and their families see the connection between their learning and their community. Often, these students arrive at college with idealism: they are going to get an education and then solve the world’s problems. But they don’t see immediate connection between the classes they’re taking and world problems…or their community’s problems,” says Maruyama.
In the article Maruyama shares how, through a $2.8 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota is working with five other research universities to develop educational programming and curriculum to better serve under-represented students.
