Spread Your Wings and FLI: How to Effectively Navigate College as a First-Generation, Low-Income Student

Spread Your Wings and FLI: How to Effectively Navigate College as a First-Generation, Low-Income Student

Are you a first-generation low-income student? Do you know an FLI student who is college bound or currently in college? Are you in a role to support FLI students, such as an advisor, dean, or professor? As universities focus on increasing diversity on campus, they miss the mark on actually providing first-generation, low-income, and other minority students with the tools that they need to succeed in college. Spread Your Wings and FLI: How to Effectively Navigate College as a First-Generation, Low-Income Student is chock full of inspiration and actionable resources FLI students need to be successful in college and prepare for life after their undergraduate experience. Inside this book you will learn: What faculty/advisors/professors today can do to further support the development of FLI students. - How FLI allies can help advocate for the resources FLI students need. - How FLI identity intersects with other marginalized identity types. - Who are successful FLI students? Michelle Obama, Ana McCullough, Patrick Jamal Elliott, Nathalie Molina Niño, and Jeffrey Garcia, to name a few. As an FLI student, you'll come away from Spread Your Wings and FLI empowered with the tools, resources, community, and confidence to successfully navigate your undergraduate experience and thrive. "Both practical and personal, Spread Your Wings and FLI contains the kind of authentic advice and questions that so many FLI students wish they would have known when they started out." -Devon Moore, Founding Director of the Center for College Student Success at the University of Chicago and Co-Founder of the FGLI Consortium "While there may be a number of studies about FLI students in higher education literature aimed at helping administrators and faculty, what is most unique about this effort, is the combination of personal experience with solid research resulting in invaluable practical tips for students." -Dr. Milvia Rodriguez, Program Administrator of the Public Policy Studies Major at The University of Chicago and The Harris School of Public Policy "Reading Spread Your Wings and FLI brought tears to my eyes, as I absolutely would have benefited from the advice in this book. I'm am excited to share this with my students and am grateful for the ideas about how to make explicit some of the unspoken rules of undergraduate education." -Sorcha A. Brophy, PhD, Assistant Instructional Professor at The University of Chicago "The boldness found in Mora's story will inspire you, and hopefully, it will inspire institutions to better welcome first generation, low income students. This book is perfect for students to understand that they are not alone, that their feelings are normal, and that they deserve the dream of a college degree." -Nate Pietrini, Executive Director of High Jump "Underrepresented groups have struggled to find college resources that did not view them as a monolith - the recognition of individuality ensures that every student who reads this book will have a different takeaway. As the world relies more on digital/in-person hybrid environments, Spread Your Wings & FLI is a trailblazer in the pursuit of collegiate equity." -Patrick Jamal Elliott, Global Diversity & Inclusion Leader "Spread Your Wings and FLI is more than a book. It's a reminder to all first-generation, low-income students that they are not alone. Mora provides step-by-step resources, tips, and advice that can be applied the moment you step foot on campus, empowering readers to be in the driver's seat of their college experience." -Anabel Mendoza, First-Generation Graduate from Northwestern University "What makes this book stand out the most is both the immense value in strategies for first generations students on thriving in their education and Jessica Mora's ability to drive that value through an in-depth human connection in her storytelling. Having Jessica share her personal stories and the stories of other FLI students in a thread so consciously intertwined with the reader makes Jessica Mora a necessary author in today's world." -Eli Vazquez, Executive Producer and Entrepreneur