This research is born out of that unspoken but deeply felt need. It comes from the experience of walking into a room and realizing everyone is speaking a language you were never taught.
It’s about the feeling that first-generation, low-income students get when they step onto Amherst’s manicured campus and suddenly realize just how much they don’t know—not because they aren’t capable, but because no one ever showed them how.
Inspired by the mission of the Meiklejohn Fellows Program—to increase experiential learning opportunities for FGLI students by helping them secure internships and providing funding to relieve financial burden with the goal of improving future employment outcomes—this vision of career development is one I believe in, both personally and professionally.
Through this work, I aim to show that expanding the Meiklejohn Fellows Program to include tailored workshops, peer mentorship opportunities, and a cohort-based model co-led by a student advisory board could have a significant impact. These additions could help close the resource gap between underserved students and their more privileged peers by demystifying the often-inaccessible language of professionalism, opportunity, and success—so that FGLI students no longer feel like outsiders in spaces where they belong.
