UC Davis Undergraduate Education recently named Associate Professor of Teaching Jeanette B. Ruiz to lead its First-Generation Initiative into its next phase that expands program support to include first-generation faculty.

From a first-generation college student to a doctoral candidate and Fulbright Graduate Scholar, Christina Dawa Kutsmana Thomas has become a role model for other "little rez kids." She's working to save her Indigenous language as well as pass on her family's culture to younger generations.

Many students, especially those who identify as first-generation and/or underrepresented minority (URM) students, struggle with imposter syndrome and feel like outsiders to the academic spaces that they inhabit. Desirée Martín, associate professor of English, makes a case for building bridges between academic and home spaces for students, especially those who identify as first-generation and/or URM students.

A program that gets students into labs as early as their first year at UC Davis transforms lives — leading many to pursue careers in research. Accelerating Success by Providing Intensive Research Experience, or ASPIRE, has begun reaching out to a wider pool of students. “We wanted to find the students who, given this opportunity, would go the farthest relative to where they started,” says co-founder Steve Luck, Distinguished Professor of Psychology.