First Generation Students

First-generation, low-income students take a moment to pose for the camera and share a few words about what their Ivy experience means to them, and the Penn community.

Kerry O’Neil knew that the University of Pennsylvania was the right place for her, despite its location 3,300 miles from her home in Glasgow, Scotland.

Growing up in the small town of Soledad, Calif., college seemed like a far-off idea for Candy Alfaro.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Now a junior, she credits her parents, Mexican-born farm workers, for her determination to be the first in her family to go to college.​​​​​​​

If Dave Joseph becomes prime minister of his native Jamaica one day, he will have achieved a long-time goal despite experiencing tragedy there. He says the island is a vital part of who he is and that it drives him to succeed.

As a freshman identifying as a first-generation, low-income student, Sebastián González searched for a space at the University of Pennsylvania where he felt at home. After seeing a Facebook post advertising the Penn First Summit, a town hall for FGLI students on campus last year, his world changed.

Looking back at her undergraduate days, University of Pennsylvania alumna Leanne Pyott Huebner, who represents the first generation in her family to attend college, remembers feeling “differently prepared” than her peers.