Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
Paving the Way

At Hamilton College, Top Administrators Were Themselves First-Generation Students

By Ben Gose May 18, 2015
Nancy Thompson (right), dean of students, with a colleague, Allen Harrison (second from left), and three Hamilton students. All were or are the first in their families to attend college.
Nancy Thompson (right), dean of students, with a colleague, Allen Harrison (second from left), and three Hamilton students. All were or are the first in their families to attend college.Heather Ainsworth

Eudocia Montiel didn’t tell her parents she was applying to Hamilton College. After she got in, she snuck off to a program for admitted students by fibbing that she was staying at a friend’s house.

Ms. Montiel knew that her parents, who had immigrated from Mexico and settled in the South Bronx, wouldn’t approve of her attending the small liberal-arts college in upstate New York — or any college. As they saw it, their daughter could speak English well and was set to graduate from high school. Why would she want to risk college when so many other local students had left community colleges with nothing more than debt?

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Eudocia Montiel didn’t tell her parents she was applying to Hamilton College. After she got in, she snuck off to a program for admitted students by fibbing that she was staying at a friend’s house.

Ms. Montiel knew that her parents, who had immigrated from Mexico and settled in the South Bronx, wouldn’t approve of her attending the small liberal-arts college in upstate New York — or any college. As they saw it, their daughter could speak English well and was set to graduate from high school. Why would she want to risk college when so many other local students had left community colleges with nothing more than debt?

“I ‘came out’ to them only after I got my financial-aid package, which provided a full ride for the first year,” Ms. Montiel says.

  • Diversity in Academe: First-Generation Students

    Check out the rest of our special report on efforts to help this growing group of students succeed.

It’s hard for anyone to earn a college degree without some support, but that’s especially true for students like Ms. Montiel, who are the first in their families to pursue one. Now a junior at Hamilton, Ms. Montiel was fortunate to find the right college. Several top administrators at Hamilton, including the vice presidents for admissions and development, and the president, Joan Hinde Stewart, the daughter of a Brooklyn steamfitter, were first-generation college students. They know firsthand that the 14 percent of Hamilton’s students who are first generation (meaning their parents did not complete a bachelor’s degree) must be enterprising to get to college, and just as intrepid to stay and graduate.

Such students get special consideration in Hamilton’s admissions process, says Monica Inzer, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid. “The kids our faculty love most aren’t the ones with the highest SATs,” she says. “They want more of the kids who are grateful and work hard — often those are ones who are first in their families to go to college.”

In 2010, Hamilton provided a boost to first-generation students by joining the relatively small number of selective private colleges that promise to be both need-blind in admission and to meet the full financial need of all students who enroll.

Hamilton’s website lists the large number of administrators and professors who were first-generation students, and the college invites current students to connect with them. “At a place like Hamilton, you can look around and feel like, ‘I’m the only one who doesn’t get this,’” says Nancy Thompson, Hamilton’s dean of students, who was a first-generation student herself. “That’s just not true — a lot of us have learned that ‘language’ and come to understand it.”

Students who break family barriers by pursuing a higher education get special consideration.

Even after one of Ms. Montiel’s high-school teachers visited her home to plead with her parents to allow her to go to Hamilton, they still weren’t sure — they feared she would become addicted to drugs or alcohol, or end up in debt despite her generous aid package. In an interview, with his daughter acting as translator, Manuel Montiel says he only came around to the idea after Eudocia returned home from Hamilton and proved to be more independent and helpful at home than before. A cook until he lost his job, Mr. Montiel now does maintenance work at the apartment building where his family lives. He hopes other immigrant parents can overcome the fears he had. “Children are here to progress in this country,” he says. “The only way to progress is to gain even more levels of education.”

Ms. Montiel planned to return home after her freshman year to help pay for college by working at McDonald’s or a clothing store. But a Hamilton program called First Year Forward, one of several efforts to help first-generation students succeed, provides career counseling and a $2,000 stipend for summer internships. Ms. Montiel used the stipend to work as a counselor at a public high school’s summer band camp.

Hamilton has known for years that incoming freshmen who bond with other students during preorientation wilderness or service-learning trips are more likely to persist and graduate. But only about half of incoming students typically sign up for such a trip — with many first-generation students opting out, in part because of the additional cost. Starting this fall, all students will be required to take a trip, with financial aid covering the expense for students from low-income families. For first-generation students, the policy change “will provide a social foundation that will serve them well as they get launched at Hamilton,” Ms. Thompson says.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hamilton started the Student Emergency Aid Society four years ago to provide funds to cover special requests from Hamilton’s neediest students. Bennett Hambrook, a first-generation student from British Columbia whose father is a concrete worker, mentioned to an administrator that he couldn’t afford to return home for spring break or to replace his dying computer. The committee that oversees the fund approved a check worth about $1,000 to cover those expenses.

“It’s not just about access,” says Vige Barrie, a Hamilton spokeswoman. “It’s about equalizing the experience once students get to campus.”

Read other items in Diversity in Academe: First-Generation Students.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion First-Generation Students
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Gose_Ben.jpg
About the Author
Ben Gose
Ben Gose is freelance journalist and a regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education. He was a senior editor at The Chronicle from 1994-2002.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Vector illustration of large open scissors  with several workers in seats dangling by white lines
Iced Out
Duke Administrators Accused of Bypassing Shared-Governance Process in Offering Buyouts
Illustration showing money being funnelled into the top of a microscope.
'A New Era'
Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding
Illustration showing classical columns of various heights, each turning into a stack of coins
Endowment funds
The Nation’s Wealthiest Small Colleges Just Won a Big Tax Exemption
WASHINGTON, DISTICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES - 2025/04/14: A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator holding a sign with Release Mahmud Khalil written on it, stands in front of the ICE building while joining in a protest. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the ICE building, demanding freedom for Mahmoud Khalil and all those targeted for speaking out against genocide in Palestine. Protesters demand an end to U.S. complicity and solidarity with the resistance in Gaza. (Photo by Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Campus Activism
An Anonymous Group’s List of Purported Critics of Israel Helped Steer a U.S. Crackdown on Student Activists

From The Review

John T. Scopes as he stood before the judges stand and was sentenced, July 2025.
The Review | Essay
100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom
By John K. Wilson
Vector illustration of a suited man with a pair of scissors for a tie and an American flag button on his lapel.
The Review | Opinion
A Damaging Endowment Tax Crosses the Finish Line
By Phillip Levine
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin