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
News

President Emerita Shares Videos on Teaching First-Generation Students

April 28, 2014
Kathleen A. Ross
Kathleen A. RossHeritage U.

When Kathleen A. Ross stepped down from her 28-year presidency at Heritage University in 2010, she knew she wanted to focus on improving the graduation rates of first-generation students. Through a series of videos describing classroom strategies, Ms. Ross, 72, is helping professors and administrators develop skills that foster degree completion among such students. This is her story, as told to Mark Keierleber.

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

When Kathleen A. Ross stepped down from her 28-year presidency at Heritage University in 2010, she knew she wanted to focus on improving the graduation rates of first-generation students. Through a series of videos describing classroom strategies, Ms. Ross, 72, is helping professors and administrators develop skills that foster degree completion among such students. This is her story, as told to Mark Keierleber.

I have seen, both at Heritage and at other institutions dealing with a larger population of first-generation students, that more of them did not graduate compared to other students who came from college-going families. We need to figure out a way to get them into the academic culture so they will be able to perform at the level that their intelligence and creativity deserve.

The thing that was missing was a focus on how faculty could adapt what they’re doing to be more effective with these students. Most faculty are from families where someone was college-going, so no wonder they wouldn’t have a sense of what kinds of things they might need to adapt. That’s what turned me on to doing something for and with faculty, and our “Breakthrough Strategies” videos on YouTube came out of that.

I oversee the content and production of these videos in my role as director of the university’s Institute for Student Identity and Success, and we have linked to them from the institute’s webpage.

By interviewing a large number of students, we identified faculty whom the students saw as making a difference for them. Next we went to learn about the strategies from those faculty members, interviewed them, and refined a description of their ideas.

All faculty depend upon research to back up how and what they’re teaching students, so if we’re suggesting a particular strategy to use with first-generation students in the videos, then we want faculty to know we’ve identified some research to back up what we’re suggesting.

One video in our series talks about ways to be effective in giving feedback to students, particularly on a written assignment. Another one is on building confidence. The video advises faculty to share their own experience, or the experience of a family member, of a time when they didn’t have confidence in some setting, and explain what they had to do to be more confident. Another idea is to be available in places like the cafeteria or the student union so students can informally approach the professor in a setting where they would have a little more confidence than during class.

We’ve got eight of these videos available right now, and it would be wonderful to have 30, or 40, or 50 with different ideas, from different kinds of colleges and universities that are all experiencing this larger influx of first-generation students.

We posted the first videos in mid-September and early October. Right now we’re working with Yakima Valley Community College, the closest institution to us, to identify several of the strategies used there that we hope to have in future videos.

And we planned to reach out to other institutions at the Yes We Must conference in Chicago in April to see if they would like to have a couple of their faculty members represented in these videos, too.

There is, in fact, a different culture regarding communication styles, interpersonal expectations, confidence, independence versus interdependence, that kind of thing, between middle-class and working-class people that we don’t often recognize. That is really part of what we’re trying to bridge here.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
The Workplace First-Generation Students
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

University of California, Berkeley chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons, testifies at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 15, 2025. It is the latest in a series of House hearings on antisemitism at the university level, one that critics claim is a convenient way for Republicans to punish universities they consider too liberal or progressive, thereby undermining responses to hate speech and hate crimes. (Photo by Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP)
Another Congressional Hearing
3 College Presidents Went to Congress. Here’s What They Talked About.
Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested by immigration agents while walking along a street in a Boston suburb, talks to reporters on arriving back in Boston, Saturday, May 10, 2025, a day after she was released from a Louisiana immigration detention center on the orders of a federal judge. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
Law & Policy
Homeland Security Agents Detail Run-Up to High-Profile Arrests of Pro-Palestinian Scholars
Photo illustration of a donation jar turned on it's side, with coins spilling out.
Financial aid
The End of Unlimited Grad-School Loans Could Leave Some Colleges and Students in the Lurch
Brad Wolverton
Newsroom leadership
The Chronicle of Higher Education Names Brad Wolverton as Editor

From The Review

Illustration of an ocean tide shaped like Donald Trump about to wash away sandcastles shaped like a college campus.
The Review | Essay
Why Universities Are So Powerless in Their Fight Against Trump
By Jason Owen-Smith
Photo-based illustration of a closeup of a pencil meshed with a circuit bosrd
The Review | Essay
How Are Students Really Using AI?
By Derek O'Connell
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

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