Two years after its establishment, Carolina Firsts is expanding its reach in guiding students toward becoming the first in their families to graduate from college.
Carolina Firsts launched a Web site Thursday to encourage first-generation college students — who account for 20 percent of UNC’s undergraduate population — to take advantage of University resources such as academic advising and the learning center.
First-generation students are students who would be the first in their families to graduate from college.
Junior Kelsey Thomas, a first-generation student and president of Carolina Firsts, said her biggest problem as an underclassman was not seeking additional academic help.
“I realized people were probably struggling with the same thing I was,” Thomas said.
Not thinking they needed help and being afraid to seek assistance was the biggest thing keeping first-generation students from graduating, she said.
According to a 2004 report by UNC’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, 77.9 percent of students whose parents attended some college were able to graduate, while 72.9 percent of students whose parents never attended college graduated.
Students whose parents received an undergraduate degree graduated at a rate of 84.7 percent, according to the report.
At Thursday’s Web site launch celebration, Chancellor Holden Thorp said he took pride in the University’s first-generation students.
