The University of Texas at San Antonio will celebrate its first-generation students at the ninth annual First-Gen Fest, Nov. 3-7.
The full week of programming, hosted by the First-Generation and Transfer Student Programs office, is designed to recognize students whose parents have not completed a four-year bachelor’s degree.
First-generation students have long been a priority at UT San Antonio, where they make up 44% of the student population at the academic campus.
“We are very excited for a full lineup of events and programming aimed at celebrating all of our First-Gen students, faculty, staff and alumni,” said Laura Cortez, program manager of the First-Generation and Transfer Student Programs office. “We hope, through our highlights and events to further strengthen the community of First Gen students at UT San Antonio, further emphasizing the resilience and grit of so many of our Roadrunners.”
First-Gen Fest kicks off on Tuesday with a T-shirt giveaway from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the breezeway between the Student Union and McKinney Humanities Building.
On Wednesday, Nov. 5, from 2 to 4 p.m., the main celebration will be held on the Central Plaza Lawn at the Main Campus. This event includes a resource fair, activity booths, lawn games and free food.
Throughout the week there will be a variety of events and programming hosted by partners across the university, including the Office of Academic Opportunity and Educational Excellence and the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine from the health campus and many of the College Student Success Centers at the academic campus.
UT San Antonio joins universities across the nation in celebrating first-generation students during the first week of November. The celebrations are held annually to commemorate the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965 by former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
University programs like First to Go & Graduate Program (F2G&G) and the First-Generation Living & Learning Community promote academic success.
In 2019, the Center for First-Generation Student Success, an initiative of the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), named UT San Antonio a top university in its programming efforts to create a supportive and empowering campus for first-generation students.
In 2024 the university was awarded $7.2 million in federal funding from the Department of Education’s Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program to advance a four-year project to improve equitability and student outcomes among first-generation and transfer students from lower-income backgrounds.
