From Nov. 3-7, the Office for Student Enrichment hosted FLI Week on campus, a chance to celebrate students who are the first in their families to attend college or come from low-income households.
OSE hopes to empower first-generation students during FLI Week, acknowledging the adversity they face. “We found that a lot of times around the country, and maybe even at Notre Dame, people tell others who haven’t gone to college, like their families, ‘your family doesn’t do this,’ ‘you can't do it.’ But these people are living proof, no matter where you come from, you can,” OSE director Fr. Matthew Kuczora said.
Kuczora believes that OSE’s mission for FLI Week reflects the University’s mission as a whole.
“Notre Dame, since its earliest days, set out to educate people who didn’t have maybe other opportunities to go to school. That’s why Fr. Sorin came here from his home to come to a different country to do that. And ever since then, we’ve been doing that. Since 1972, we’ve been doing that with women as well ... to give those opportunities. So this is who Notre Dame is, not just for first-generation students, but to make sure that everybody knows they can have these opportunities,” Kuczora said.
OSE senior fellow Kim Huynh believes FLI Week is “super important because it creates a space for first-time low-income households.”
To kickoff the week, OSE staff were stationed at Fieldhouse Mall and the north side of DeBartolo Hall from noon to 2 p.m., distributing cupcakes and buttons saying: “We are the Golden Generation 2025.”
Also on Monday, OSE held a volleyball tournament in Rockne Memorial.
One of the week’s marquee events was a first-gen banner signing on Tuesday on the second floor of LaFortune Student Center.
The banner showed the Golden Dome with the saying, “Golden Generation, First Under the Dome.” Students responded to the prompt, “Being first-gen means … ”, and signed their names with their answers.
For OSE senior fellow Grecia Alcantar, being first-gen means “realizing the wildest dreams” of her parents and ancestors. “It is a reminder that their sacrifices were not in vain and I have a responsibility to use my education to advance and uplift the Latino community that raised me,” she said.
The banner can be seen in the OSE office on the second floor of LaFortune.
On Wednesday, OSE hosted the “Golden Generation Dinner” in the Legends Clubhouse to support and foster dialogue among first-gen and low-income students while they navigate academic life in Notre Dame.
To conclude FLI Week, OSE held a first-gen faculty panel and networking session on Thursday.
“[This event] is important because we have five faculty members who are going to tell their stories and give their witness at a panel. We have another ten who are here who volunteer just to gather and speak to students informally. All of them are first-generation,” Kuczora said.
The final event of FLI Week is a first-gen open house and breakfast on Friday, Nov. 7 at the Sister Thea Bowman Center from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
