First-generation college students
50 percent of students have parents who did not complete post-secondary education.
82 percent of high school students whose parents completed college also went to college.
54 percent of those whose parents completed high school attended college.
36 percent of those whose parents did not complete high school attended college.
60 percent of jobs in Georgia will require some sort of college degree by 2020.
42 percent of Georgia's young adults have a degree today.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, 2010 study; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2001 study; University System of Georgia says.
Instead of hanging with friends, Nashaia Beasley spent a recent Friday night at home with her computer, refreshing constantly to see whether she would attend the University of Georgia in the fall.
Beasley, 18 and a senior at DeKalb's McNair High School, already has received a handful of acceptance letters to other schools. UGA, though, is her first choice. In the fall, she'll be the first from her family ever to attend college.
It’s the time of year where high school seniors await the arrival of letters from the prospective colleges they feel could potentially make or break their futures. It’s a rite of passage of sorts in which the whole family is invested.
The achievement is especially sweet for Beasley and families of first -generation college students. When she goes to college in the fall, she feels she’ll be handed the opportunity to choose her own path in life, something she said many relatives were not afforded.
“It’s a breaking point in my family to continue on with education to get a career instead of a dead-end job,” she said. “I don’t want to do that. I want to have a variety of options.”
Many Georgians haven’t had such options. Increasing the number of well-educated people is key to fueling economic development, as the job market for workers without degrees is limited. As Georgia’s unemployment rate remains higher than the nation’s, the state is trying to make degrees accessible to more people by steps including expanding the availability of the HOPE scholarship.
The University System of Georgia says 60 percent of jobs in Georgia will require some sort of college degree by 2020, and only about 42 percent of the state’s young adults have one today.
An estimated 1.2 million adults in Georgia lack even a high school diploma. In 27 counties, the number without a diploma is at least 30 percent of the population.
According to a 2010 study by the U.S. Department of Education, about 50 percent of college students are first-generation, meaning their parents did not complete post-secondary education.
A 2001 study by the National Center for Educational Statistics shows 82 percent of high school students whose parents completed college also went to college, while only 54 percent of those whose parents completed high school and 36 percent of those whose parents did not complete high school attended college.
That Friday night at home paid off for Beasley, who found out she had been accepted to UGA.
She’s not sure what she’ll take when she moves to Athens in the summer. She said she’s been putting money aside to help when she gets to campus. She said she hopes to become a veterinarian and open her own animal clinic some day.
At McNair, where 88 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunch and the graduation rate is 54.2 percent, principal Loukisha Walker said she's worked with faculty and staff to encourage students to get through high school and further their education in some way, whether it's through college or another avenue they find interesting.
“There’s a huge support system” at the school, Walker said. “I knew some of the needs and challenges of the students, and the community when I arrived here. We wanted to make sure what we put in place was meaningful, and not just something great to do … to make the students want to accomplish something greater and bigger than McNair.”
Students at McNair participate in extracurricular activities that help them determine where their adult lives will take them. Among the programs is Upward Bound, a federal program that helps students prepare for college, even giving some six weeks during the summer on college campuses.
It was the Upward Bound trip that further cemented in Michael Spencer’s mind the idea that he could survive the college process. Spencer, 18, a senior at McNair High, is the youngest of Beverly and Joshua Spencer’s six children, but will be the first to attend college in the fall.
Though he’s waiting to hear from the University of West Georgia, the reaction to his first acceptance letter — from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. — is one he won’t soon forget.
“I was like ‘wow, I got accepted into a college?’ ” Spencer said. “It blew my mind. I was just really, so happy. I didn’t know what really to do.
“That was my first time seeing an acceptance letter.”
Beverly Spencer, Michael Spencer’s mother, said she’ll never forget running to him after seeing the letter from South Carolina State, either.
“It was like Christmas morning.” said Beverly Spencer, 55, who works in Environmental Services at Emory University. “I hugged him. I think I was more excited than he was. It was a great feeling.”
Beverly Spencer said she can’t point to anything specific about why her other five children didn’t attend college. She hoped her youngest would want to do so.
“I stay on him about school all the time, about how important it is to get an education,” she said.
Michael Spencer said he hopes to become an electrician and start a business with one of his older brothers.
Beverly Spencer said she’s been stockpiling while they wait to hear from West Georgia, putting aside some cash and buying toiletries.
“I know him,” she said. “And I know he’s going to forget this kind of stuff.”
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