UMass Lowell has a rich tradition of welcoming and supporting first-generation college students (someone for whom neither a parent or guardian completed a four-year college degree). A number of faculty and staff on campus were first-generation college students, and advocate for their success.

Faculty and Staff: Were you a First Generation College Student?

If you were a first-generation college student, or would like to be acknowledged as an advocate for first-gen students, fill out the First-Gen Faculty / Staff online Form to be included in our First Gen Supporters list.

Michael Belcher: Director of International, Multicultural and Regional Admissions

Michael Belcher

Michael Belcher is the Director of International, Multicultural and Regional Admissions at UMass Lowell. His education began at University of Connecticut where after he worked in the Admissions office at Tufts University. Belcher talks about how resourcefulness and common sense were integral to his first-generation experience. Going to college was always an expectation from his parents and even though his parents didn’t know the steps they were always encouraging to him. Belcher’s older sister led the family into college and gave him guidance through all the pre-college and during college processes. “It really helped having someone who was on campus with me to relate to and talk through what needed to be done.” He joined the gospel choir and hosted a gospel radio show with his sister. It was the first of its kind at his college radio station and helped him stay connected when he went home on the weekends to perform with his choir at church.

Falling in love with a creative writing class during freshman year, Belcher graduated with a BA in English. After his freshman year, Belcher applied to be a Resident Advisor (RA) to pay for his room and board. It was common sense to apply because it would defray costs and it gave him leadership skills. It was his first experience working in higher education leading to his career. Working in the Admissions office was a great opportunity for learning the whole process from researching programs he was interested in, knowing the application process, and connecting with colleagues to answer questions. When he was considering applying, Belcher reached out to the faculty to learn more about the program before deciding that it was a good fit for himself.

“My biggest piece of advice for first-generation students is to use your resources and network. A sibling or close friend who made it to college before you are often an overlooked wealth of knowledge when it comes to learning about university processes.” Belcher also emphasizes that you should work hard and try.

Read Michael Belcher's UMass Lowell Bio.

Robert (Bob) Gamache, Professor Emeritus: Environmental Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) and Climate Change Initiative

Robert Gamache

Bob Gamache is currently a professor emeritus of the Environmental Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Initiative department. He has held many positions at UMass Lowell and mentored many students during his tenure. What drives him to continue, despite officially retiring in 2016, is that he’s still having fun. When he was in high school, h s guidance counselor told him that he had too many interests and that he shouldn’t go to college. He grew up in a large family and started working as a woodworker for his uncle at age 12. He worked 30 hours a week through high school and his family assumed that is what he would do when he graduated high school. His family didn’t understand why he would want to go to college and his mother told him she wasn’t able to support him. Luckily, he had a scholarship and college was not as expensive as it is now, so he managed.

He credits his math, biology, and chemistry teachers in high school for getting him interested in science and he found being on campus for college to be exciting. The preparation going from high school to college is like that of “drinking water from a fire hydrant.” Gamache describes himself as a lazy student because he didn’t care. It wasn’t until there was an exam that his professor told him he needed to work harder because despite scoring the highest in the class, he wasn’t putting his best foot forward. From then on “I did every problem in the book and would look for more.” Going into his senior year of college, Gamache expected to be a bench chemist after graduation. However, after 6 weeks in the lab, he knew he couldn’t live without research and his wife was supportive. As a result of this late opportunity, he applied late to graduate school but ended up at UMass Amherst.

Life was hard, he had to provide for his wife and daughter, but he knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that he was setting himself up for a career. For high schoolers, don’t let anyone tell you what you should be and take what the guidance counselors say with a grain of salt. Bob wants all students, including first generation students, to know that support exists and tob)o seek them out. “My door is always open for first-genners to come talk.”

Read Robert Gamache's UMass Lowell Bio.

Bertie Greer: Rist Family Endowed Dean, Manning School of Business

Manning School of Business Dean Bertie Green

When I was growing up, I lost my mother when I was 8 and I stayed with my aunt who had 10 children. I was a different child because I was academically inclined so everyone just assumed that I would go to college, and I was in a college prep class. I was also an athlete, basketball, running track, but I had no real parent to help guide me, especially leaving high school because I had no idea what to do. During high school, they suggested that I would go towards engineering. There was an after-school program that talked about college and overnight visits to tour colleges. College recruiters would take me out of class to get me to go to their school. I had to navigate this process on my own. My aunt pulled me aside and said she could not support me, and she would not fill out any FAFSA, so I did not go to college. Instead, I was hired by a local company right out of high school in the mechanical engineering department and I was able to co-op in mechanical engineering and go to the local college when one of my supervisors told me that I “didn’t belong there” just working, I belonged in school. You do what they tell you to do. You do not know about careers; when you graduate, you do not know when you get a job, how to get one.

Engineering co-ops pay well, so I could afford to pay for school and to live. I only knew class and work. Personally, did not receive the support I needed to thrive. One thing I learned from this experience was to build that network even with the challenge of navigating it all by yourself. Advocate for yourself! The co-op helped me. I was nerdy enough to get along well with my professors who helped me navigate college life until I made friends. When I was in college, my professors liked me and mentored me.

I was probably late, but a faculty member who helped me call companies and reached out to employers really helped me get my first job out of college. If I was more proactive about my future, it would have made my journey smoother. If I had been wiser or had someone before me, it would have been easier.

While I’m working, they saw something in me, they wanted to put me on a fast track. From my self-assessment, I needed more training opportunities in business. The company paid for 1 year of school and I split my time between 2 faculty members. One of them said I should be a faculty member not in corporate America. After switching jobs and as things that are changing in the industry and enough was changing, I decided to get my PhD in business to research and solve business problems with statistical analysis.

It was the faculty who gave me support and encouraged me to work hard and strive for greatness. They were the ones who assessed/evaluated me better than I could assess myself.

You must realize that this dream is for you. You must decide for yourself “How bad do I want this?”. You cannot live your life for others. Chase your own dreams.

Read Bertie Greer's UMass Lowell Bio.

Jen Keene-Crouse: Assistant Director for College Based Advising

Jennifer Keene-Crouse

Jen Keene-Crouse is the Assistant Director for College Based Advising at UMass Lowell. She primarily works with health science majors. Growing up in Wisconsin, her parents did not have a lot of formal education and wanted her to be better off than they were. While she enjoyed school, Keene-Crouse didn’t really know what she wanted to do after her graduation. One of her friends, who was a year ahead of her, suggested that she go to college. Keene-Crouse remembers a job fair at her high school where local companies would hire the soon-to-be graduates and she didn’t really connect with any of these sorts of jobs, but she knew if any of them had hired her, her parents would have been proud. She decided to go to the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and when she got there, she didn’t know what she wanted to do but her friend was really involved in a lot of extra curriculars, so she tried those and made friends there.

Keene-Crouse talked about how most of her friends were a little bit older than her, so she had a welcoming experience going into college but by her junior year, her friends were graduating and moving on she felt lost again. It felt like starting over in some ways.

After completing her undergraduate degree in Communications with a focus on Organizational Behavior, she moved to a paid graduate program in New Hampshire. It ended up not being the right fit, so she pursued her Masters in Higher Education in Student Affairs from Salem State University.

Keene-Crouse has been working with RHSA since the inception of the program and reflecting on her first-generation identity almost daily. “For me, I hope that our first-generation students can tap into their inner strength and resilience, allowing them to present their best selves as they move forward in various roles—as a friend, a child, a partner, a colleague, and beyond. There's a profound sense of liberation in charting your own path when your family background is far removed from the college experience. It's not a simple journey, but the freedom to do so brings immense rewards. I believe that embracing this journey of self-discovery and growth will ultimately prove to be immensely worthwhile for each individual, enabling them to thrive in all aspects of their lives.”

Read Jen Keene-Crouse's UMass Lowell Bio.

Rocío Rosales: Associate Professor, Program Coordinator Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism Studies, Psychology

Rocio Rosales.

Rocio Rosales is a first-generation student who navigated her way through the education system and found her passion for behavioral analysis where she now holds the position of Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowel. Rosales’ parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico, her father worked hard to provide for his family, even as a child, and was only able to some formal education through some elementary school and her mother was unable to complete secondary education due to lack of gender inequality. That did not stop Rocio’s mother from instilling in them that education can be transformative for a better life. She always encouraged Rocio and her siblings to work hard in school, even if it was in an abstract way instead of a direct guidance towards more education or help with schoolwork. During her freshman year of high school, her older brother advised her to ask the guidance counselor to be put into honors courses since she was doing well, and it would give her more options later in high school. When she approached her guidance counselor, she was discouraged from trying because, “everyone would like to be [in this program], that doesn’t mean you deserve [to be in honors].” Luckily, she was enrolled in honors and AP courses, and she gained exposure to students on the college-trajectory, but she still lacked any direct support from a mentor, guidance counselor, or anyone in her family. By Rocio’s senior year of high school, she did not know what to do but she happened to see colleges tabling at her high school and applied.

She’s grateful that her older brother had gone through the college process ahead of her but even with this support, he was still 9 hours away and she needed to navigate the Pell grant and financial aid process largely on her own. She did work-study, took out loans, and worked as a bank teller on top of a full-time course load. It was overwhelming to say the least. “My undergrad was a blur. Connecting with professors, extra-curriculars, I didn’t know that I needed grad school. Much less what I should be doing to prepare myself for the grad school application process!” It felt like “I was going through the motions” but she enjoyed the academic environment since that was well-established in her up-bringing, which isn’t always the case with first-generation students.

During her junior year of college, Rosales took an off-campus course embedded into a learning course, observing people with disabilities and helping perform behavioral services to a student. It connected her classroom studies with the real-world, and it was “almost by accident that I found my passion.” When she graduated, her father passed away and she moved home while staying connected to the field through applied and research experiences at a local university and through an organization that provided behavioral services to children in their home. Rosales took non-degree seeking graduate courses while working, and her professor was “instrumental because he was a behavioral psychologist” and Rosales was able to gain valuable experience which ultimately led to him writing her a strong letter of recommendation. “I chose to attend the master’s degree program because it offered a full tuition scholarship and paid stipend; but still needed to take out loans for housing and because I was still not well versed in the financial aid process took out more loans than I actually needed.” It made it possible to continue her education. After this program she applied for a PhD program because her primary advisor and mentor encouraged her telling her that she would be a good candidate. Rosales admits that she did not know her own value yet so “having people around you to help should you and encourage you” is important.

Rosales doesn’t feel like she overcame challenges but instead feels like “it’s more navigating. First-generation is part of your identity. And you carry it with you because you’ll always be navigating new situations where you or other people can’t relate. I’m grateful I can talk about it here at UMass Lowell because I used to hide it. I didn’t want to be looked at differently. I think about my first-gen identity every day. I worked very hard, but I acknowledge that there are so many people who helped me be successful.”

Read Rocío Rosales' UMass Lowell Bio.

Satyak Som: Program Coordinator, Asian American Center for Excellence and Engagement (AACEE)

Satyak Som is the Student Advancement Specialist at the Asian American Center for Excellence & Engagement at UMass Lowell.

Education was the great equalizer and a big expectation of my family. My parents were refugees from Cambodia where my mother’s side was very educated and she would always tell me stories about my uncle who was an attorney or that aunt who was a teacher. Since his mom was the youngest child so she was able to survive. When my father came here, he was interested in universities and politics and he loved education so much. During K-12, I was just trying to pass and get good grades because those were the expectations of my household. My mother would tell me to focus on school and grades and not to worry about working because she wanted me to get into a good college. The downside to that was I was very burnt out when i got to high school. During my junior year of high school, when I began prepping for college, I was just taking whatever information I could get without necessarily grasping the big picture of what they were telling me. By the time I was graduating, I really didn’t want to go to college. My first year of college was tough but I eventually found my community and became more interested. The Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving-Institution (AANAPISI) program, which offers grants to eligible higher education institutions (IHEs) to help them improve academic quality, increase self-sufficiency, and contribute to the success of Asian-American Native American Pacific Islander students, helped me connect with college better. I don’t know what I would have done without the AANAPISI grant, I don’t know if I would have graduated college. My mom was with me through the whole journey pre-college through graduation. It was a tall mountain to climb, and I really treated my first year at college like I was still in public school, doing the bare minimum. I don’t feel like I learned that much or made that much progress during my first year but once I was introduced to the AANAPISI office on campus, I realized I was an adult who could join these communities and grow as a person.

Now, I work on Cooperate Grant from Boston, an AANAPISI grant, I am working to grow an Asian American Leadership Cohort which aims to helps students at UMass Boston and UMass Lowell build leadership skills, identity, and take the best parts of UMass Boston and UMass Lowell to create a more holistic experience for both universities' students. I try to hear them out so I can hear them out and give them someone who really hears them, give them access to resources. It’s important to give them the support they need and may not know that they need. I feel connected to my work because I was in their shoes once. I also do a lot of work with high school recruitment including tours with students from high schools with large Asian-American students. I also work with faculty to find paid research opportunities for students. I keep organized and pace myself to stay on top of my work. My first-generation identity influences a lot of my work and I see a lot of myself in the students. These people are going through it, and I can help them connect to campus, complete their degrees, and gain valuable experiences to get a career they want.

Read Satyak Som's UMass Lowell Bio.