First generation students find success
Photos by Lee Ferris
Nursing major and first-generation college student Patricia Sanchez says that the Mount has opened up possibilities that she once believed she might never have.
There are the traditional benefits a college degree brings of course, but the Mount is something more, she said.
“I always thought I would leave from college with just a degree,” explained Sanchez. “But being at the Mount, honestly, I’ve got a family here, with faculty, staff, and other students. I never thought I’d be able to have that, especially as a person of color.”
The Dominican Sisters of Hope, who established the Mount in 1959, did so with an emphasis on helping deserving students achieve their dream of a college education. For example, Sanchez is one of several recipients of the Mount’s Anne F. Bourne Memorial Scholarship, established by the Anne F. Bourne Memorial Fund Community Foundation to support students in the college’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). About 90 percent of Mount students receive financial aid through scholarships and grants, with the college awarding more than $20 million in scholarships and other aid every year.
“Being able to take time off of having to work so I can focus on my studies, especially as a nursing major, has made a huge impact on my life,” said Sanchez. “I can hopefully come back one day and be able to be a [scholarship] donor as well.”
Like Sanchez, approximately one third of current Mount students are first generation college students. There’s a lot riding on their shoulders, she said.
“It’s a mixture – it can be overwhelming, but I’m also very proud,” Sanchez noted. “I get to make that difference in my family’s life. I have younger siblings, so I hope to be their role model.”
That’s already starting to happen: Sanchez’s younger sister began the Mount’s Nursing program earlier this year.
While her family is more than happy to help where they can, they have no generational knowledge of the college experience. Things like filling out a FAFSA, navigating college meal plans, and creating class schedules are just as new to Sanchez as they are to her mother and siblings. With that in mind, she thanked departments on campus like Financial Aid and the Office of Student Success – along with her professors – for aiding her whenever she has questions.
“They’ve made a huge difference helping me deal with that,” said Sanchez. “It’s just a blessing.”
Students tell Brianne Thompson, director of Student Advising and the First Year Experience program in the Mount’s Office of Student Success, that it’s worth overcoming the challenges associated with being the first in one’s family to attend college.
“First generation students are serving as pioneers for their family and are paving the way to academic success for not only themselves, but also the generations that will come after them,” Thompson said. “There are going to be challenges, but the rewards are worth it.”
Sanchez echoed Thompson’s sentiment: “I want everyone to know that at the end of the day, hard work will pay off,” she said. “It will always pay off.”
Ashley Leonor, an Interdisciplinary General Science major from New Windsor, N.Y., knows this firsthand. Like Sanchez, she is also a first-generation college student at the Mount. She’s the recipient of the Mount’s Lighting the Way Endowed Scholarship, established to benefit the student graduates of Nora Cronin Presentation Academy and San Miguel Academy. Both are K-8 schools in Newburgh that serve primarily Latino and African American students.
“This scholarship has helped open so many doors for me,” said Leonor. “Coming from a Hispanic household, I see my parents go hours working and come home late at night. This is something I can do for them. This help I received is help I can give to them, so they don’t have to worry and struggle for money to keep me in college.”
Leonor’s advice to potential college students is simple but poignant: “Don’t give up. Keep going. You have support. People are counting on you and are willing to help you to continue with your academics.”
Those potential students include her own brother, Leonor explained. She hopes that people in her family see her accomplishments and say, “If she can do it, I can do it. I have a younger sibling – he’s only six years old – and I tell him that college is going to be important when you reach my age. It’s going to be something we’ll tell our kids about when we’re parents.”
According to data the college routinely collects, a Mount education is valuable, and after graduation, Mount alumni find success. For example, nine out of ten graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation. The average salary of the Class of 2023 was $80,000, and a Georgetown study found that Mount grads were in the top 10 percent in the nation for return on investment at 30 years and beyond.
In U.S. News and World Report’s comprehensive lists of top-tier regional universities for 2024-2025, the Mount was ranked in the top 70 colleges in the category of Social Mobility: Regional Universities North. This category measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants. Students receiving these grants typically come from economically disadvantaged households.
For all those reasons – and with her own personal experiences to boot – Leonor says she picked the right college to help her start her career.
“My time here at the Mount has been amazing. I’ve met great friends and I have great mentors,” she said. “There are so many people at this college that I want to say ‘thank you’ to. They’re people you could go to for help or advice anytime, and I’m very thankful for that.”
