CSU to host inaugural First-Generation Summit to promote student success

Media contact:
Jennifer Dimas
(970) 988-4265
[email protected]

Colorado State University is hosting the first statewide summit to unite higher-education leaders in coordinated support for Colorado’s first-generation students – those who are the first in their families to pursue bachelor’s degrees.

The First-Generation Summit will be at CSU Nov. 2-3. It comes as the university marks enrollment of the highest number of first-generation students in campus history.

Summit invitees will include top academic, student affairs and student success officers at colleges and universities across Colorado. They will work to raise awareness and support for the state’s first-generation students and will promote collaboration to help boost student success, which typically lags behind that of continuing-generation students.

Keynote speaker will be Angie Paccione, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and a first-generation student herself. Paccione earned a doctorate in education and human resource studies at CSU in 1998 and worked for a decade as a teacher educator in the university’s School of Education.

Along with CSU, co-sponsors of the summit are the Colorado Department of Higher Education, the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities and FirstGen Forward, a national advocacy organization.

First-generation students have a special place at CSU, said Ryan Barone, the university’s assistant vice president for student success. That’s because CSU is the state’s land-grant university, founded in 1870 to educate the children of working-class families as a path to improved quality of life and economic vibrancy. Today, these academic pioneers are known as first-generation students.

“Working to ensure educational access and success for first-generation students represents the very best of our land-grant mission,” Barone said. “Our institutional mission and role in the state, country and world compel us to provide the best educational experience for first-generation students. They are trailblazers who will impact many subsequent generations.”

At CSU, first-generation students make up 25% of the undergraduate student body and number 6,572 in Fall 2025. That is the highest number of first-gen students attending CSU in university history. First-gen students represent 27% of CSU’s newest class of first-year students.

In 1984, CSU was the first university in the nation to offer scholarships for first-generation students. The award program became a nationwide model and has blossomed into a campus initiative aimed at boosting academic success among first-gen students.

The university recently launched a documentary film series called First Degree, which celebrates the achievements of first-generation students and alumni at CSU System campuses. The docuseries demonstrates that first-gen students succeed through talent, tenacity and support.

Find the summit agenda here.

First-generation students will be featured during a summit panel discussion starting at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 3. To speak with other CSU first-generation students, contact Jennifer Dimas, [email protected].