Sponsored in part by Radius. The First Gen Summit serves as a site for the meeting of the minds. First-gen students and their allies come together to identify problems, discuss grassroots solutions, and share what’s working on their campuses. First and foremost, we want to find solutions identified by students who can work with their staff, administrator, and faculty allies to create change. Class Action offers spaces where students can both identify these problems and build grassroots solutions to them.

The First Gen Summit was envisioned by Adj Marshall in the fall of 2012 as a place for first-generation college students to come together to define and design new ways of viewing the First Gen label in contrast to the generally applied deficit lens. The very first Summit was held in the Spring of 2013 with just 40 attendees. Today the First Gen Summit brings together between 200-300 students and allies each year.

Since 2004, Class Action has worked with first-generation students to ease their transition to college. Through consultations and workshops on and within many campuses throughout the country Class Action has offered First Gen students access to the materials, tools, and networking opportunities necessary to thrive in a college environment. Class Action also works with campus administrations to identify obstacles to First Gen and low-income students.