First-generation college students don't graduate.

About 90 percent of first-generation college students who enroll in university don't graduate within six years. These students are the ones who've already showed the tenacity and intellect necessary to apply to, get accepted into, and enroll in a four year university, even with the extra hurdles of being first generation and often under-resourced. They are not dumber or lazier than their middle-class brethren, who graduate from four year programs at a rate closer to 60 percent nationally. Money, of course, is an important differentiator and cause for the graduation rate difference. But social capital and a network who understands the value of college is also insanely important. 

Before I started college I'd already attended two academic summer camps at the same university and lived in a college dorm for a month each time. My family understood the value of college and actively encouraged me to apply to the best schools, no matter how many miles away they were or how much their sticker price was. When I started sifting through brochures with lists of majors, imaging my future as a linguist or statistician or account or whatever crazy ambition I had, my family and friends were able to engage me in substantive conversations about academic study. Of course many first-generation college students have families who understand the value of university and actively encourage their students to aim as high as they can. But others may not see the added value of a four-year university three states away over the community college next door. 

All of which is why I'm insanely excited about starting my role as a volunteer mentor to an under-resourced student from Chicago who'll be attending college (an east coast Ivy League) this autumn. There is an insane amount of low-hanging potential that America is ignoring. Students who have already managed to achieve so much and enroll in university are already most of the way to becoming college graduates, higher earners, role models to their communities, and model citizens in the greater United States. As deep as these students may put their nose in their books, there are still unwritten rules of college engagement they won't know and support they can't get from traditional sources. Mentoring can give students the emotional support they need to know that college is a worthwhile investment. At the price of free labor from volunteer mentors and a small paid organizing staff, it'd be crazy not to give it a try.