First Gen Promise
First Gen Promise Story
Kent State University is deeply committed to the success of first-generation college students and we stand ready to do all that we can to meet their needs.
To demonstrate this commitment, University College and the Wick Poetry Center partnered together in 2018 to identify two first-generation student poets interested in crafting the University’s First Gen Promise. Authored by Mariah Hicks, Alice Vermillion, and the Wick Poetry Staff, the promise describes what first-generation college students may feel, experience, and need while attending Kent State University. During the I AM FIRST Celebration each year, the promise is read aloud, signed by faculty and staff in attendance as a symbol of their commitment to first-generation students, and is then hung in gathering spaces across campus for the campus community to see.