Nichole Ballard was a first-generation college student who felt like the "black sheep" of her family. She faced many challenges in pursuing her degree that others in her family did not, such as a lack of financial resources or understanding of the college process from her parents. After years of balancing work and school, she graduated with religious studies degree but had accrued $36,000 in debt. While the process was lonely and difficult, Ballard now has a job she enjoys and has bought a house, showing that obtaining a college degree can help first-generation students break out of the cycle set by their parents.

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N
ichole Ballard calls herself a “black sheep,” and
her family agrees.
“One of my sisters posted something a
while back comparing us to characters on The Breakfast
Club, so I was the weird chick that ate cereal,” she says,
laughing. “So yeah, they think that I’m kind of strange.”
Ballard always knew that she wasn’t going to be
like her parents. Her mother, who had her at 17, stayed
at home and raised five girls. Her stepfather worked in
fiberglass boat repair. Neither graduated high school.
An environment like Ballard’s early years can
too often dissuade students like Nichole from being
the first in their family to attend college. Like her,
first-generation students are often the ones in the
family who love learning and being creative, yet are
encouraged to get a job immediately after high school.
Researchers, educational coaches and school
counselors are investigating
and implementing new
ways to help these students.
Organizations such as I’m First
and InsideTrack work with
first-generation students and
educators year-round to help
them find the right college and
develop a way to pay for it.
In many situations, first-
generation students have it
harder in nearly every aspect of
the college process. For Ballard,
there was the stress of having
no idea what any of this would
be like, heavy financial burdens and feelings of isolation
and loneliness as she left for a new town.
As a kid, Ballard wanted to be an archaeologist or
a marine biologist. Most of the time, you could find
her indoors with her nose in a book. For six years,
Ballard took classes at Southwestern Illinois College,
a community college in her hometown of Belleville,
Illinois. Luckily, a few of these credits applied when she
transferred to MU.
The three and a half years she spent at MU
were lonely. Although she was ready for a new, more
academic-focused environment, she missed having a
social network. But none of her friends had taken her
path; they had chosen to work instead of attending
college, just like their parents. At 26, she was several
years older than most undergraduate students, and she
laments never having had a “classic college experience.”
Instead she lived off campus and worked at Chipotle
20 to 30 hours a week as she completed her degree in
religious studies.
After years of balancing work and study, she
graduated from MU in 2012. She now works at Missouri
Life Media in Boonville as the custom projects editor
for its three magazines.
One common characteristic of the first-generation
identity, which can
sometimes be a detriment
to success, is a fierce
sense of independence.
After having come this far
without the help of family,
asking for support can feel
like admitting defeat.
“We’re going against
the grain that we’ve been
taught,” Ballard says. “We
have to be independent;
we’re breaking a cycle.
That takes a lot of
determination. It’s just so
easy to follow in our parents’ footsteps.”
But Dave Jarrat, vice president of marketing at
InsideTrack, an organization in San Francisco that
provides coaching for first-generation students, says the
students who don’t seek out help are usually the ones
who need it most.
“Think about the greatest sports stars you’ve
ever thought of — Michael Phelps in swimming and
Michael Jordan in basketball. Do they say, ‘I’m so great
I don’t need coaching?’ No one coaches themselves to
Olympic levels of greatness,” he says.
But part of the problem could be linked to a
student or family’s lack of awareness of the resources
on campus. Casandra Harper, associate professor of
higher education at MU’s Department of Educational
Leadership and Policy Analysis, is studying how parents
of students of color, low income or first-generation
status are involved in the university experience.
Although the study is young, Harper has made several
observations about these groups and how schools can
better serve them.
Many parents are happy and willing to listen and
offer emotional support, but it becomes tricky when
action needs to be taken, she says. Solving financial
issues could be burdensome if a parent doesn’t know
that the university has a financial aid office. Harper says
colleges need to do more to communicate with parents
about their options and resources.
Stephanie Gockley is a guidance counselor at
Proviso Mathematics & Science Academy in Forest
Park, Illinois. She says there is a lot of fear, intimidation
and lack of understanding of the college admissions
process for first generation families, especially
concerning finances.
“When you’re poor, it’s very hard to envision not
living that way,” she says. “So it’s hard to understand
the concept of saving money or what it means to invest
money into an education that will eventually equal itself
out on top of more money in the future. They don’t
understand the investment.”
For Ballard, the return on her investment is
forthcoming. Thirteen years after starting her journey
to a college degree, she is chained to $36,000 of debt.
Now gainfully employed, she and her boyfriend have
bought a house in Columbia, and Ballard has her sights
set on a master’s degree, law school, possibly, or perhaps
religious studies. With a world of experience now
behind her, the future doesn’t seem so daunting.
Most independent
Familial tension and debt await many first-generation students
BY ALEX STEWART PHOTOS BY TIM NWACHUKWU
MU alum Nichole Ballard prepares to move into
the house she just bought with her boyfriend.
“We have to be
independent; we’re
breaking a cycle.
That takes a lot of
determination. It’s just
so easy to follow in our
parents’ footsteps.”
— Nicole Ballard