First to Go

Author Jeff Hobbs, Robert’s roommate for four years, tells a heartfelt and riveting biography of a talented young African-American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to succumb to the dangers of the streets when he returns home. Through an honest rendering of Robert Peace’s relationships, the book encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America and highlights the tragically short life of one singularly brilliant young man.

A compilation of articles and dialogue by esteemed and educated women such as Kate Ellis, Lillian S. Robinson, Bell Hooks and Rose Zimbardo. The book focuses on these women’s stories in coming from working-class backgrounds and rising to promote feminism, women in the workforce and other issues in cultural politics.

Jesmyn's memoir focuses on the community she comes from, in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi. In her hometown and in just four years, she lost five young men dear to her, lost to drugs, accidents, murder, and suicide. Their deaths were seemingly unrelated, yet their lives had somehow been connected, and as Jesmyn dealt with these losses, she realized truth- these young men died because of the place they were from and because certain disadvantages breed a certain kind of bad luck. All the men lived with a history of racism and economic struggle. This horrible reality commanded Jesmyn to write their real stories as well as her own.

Each contributor to this book addresses how class has shaped her or his experience in academia. Major themes include a critique of meritocracy and also the persistence of racism and sexism within higher education.

This is a collection of essays written by scholars and administrators from working-class backgrounds who also identify as queer. The writers address their struggles, marginalization and triumphs within higher education.

Autobiography of authors difficult childhood growing up in a religiously split, working-class family in Detroit. Piercy examines her past friendships and relationships, including two painful early marriages, and discusses their effects on her creativity and career. More than a reminiscence of things past, however the book is a celebration of the present and the future, as Piercy shares her views on aging, creativity, and finding a lasting and improbable love with a man much younger than her.

From firsthand experience of growing up poor and being labeled as such, author Mike Rose takes readers into classrooms and communities to reveal what really lies behind our educational institutions. Rose offers innovative methods to initiate “problem” students into the world of language, literature, and written expression. This book challenges educators, policymakers, and parents to re-examine their assumptions about the capacities of a wide range of students.

Despite low performing grades in high school, three teenage friends from New Jersey make a pact to enroll in Seton Hall University’s pre-medical program and eventually become doctors.

This is a collection of essays written by women who changed their lives through the pathway of higher education. The book is divided into three sections and, notably, part two includes first person narratives of students whose lives are shaped by their roles as poor mothers, guardian siblings, and daughters, as well as the ways that race interacts with their poverty.

Wise Latinas is a collection of personal essays addressing the varied landscape of the Latina experience in higher education. These experiences range from undergraduate education through the professoriate, and also span a variety of ethnicities. The title is inspired by a quote from U.S. Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor.

Story of a Filipino-African-American who is caught between the death of her parents and the desperate need to redefine herself. Janet, now a teacher and married, tells her story- from her childhood home being burned to the ground, to the joys and conflicts with her Filipino family, to seeking a connection to her African-American heritage, and then to the beautiful moment of her marriage. It is an inspiring story of faith, love and hope.

A coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendship, and the resiliency required to transcend poverty. Also about differentiating identities- what it means to steal an identity, what it means to have a public identity, what it means to inherit an identity from parents. Four girls, their families, and the critics who object to their presence allow the reader to watch one of the most complicated social issues of our times unfurl in a major American city.

An autobiography detailing the life of an American of Puerto Rican’s transition from his childhood in New York City to an academic position at a university. Victor Villanueva grapples with his life story and how academics transformed his outlook on life.

This collection examines the relationship between daughters with academic degrees and their working-class parents. Each contributor, many of them first-generation college, explores the influence that higher education has had on her relationship with her parent(s), as well as their influence on her academic work.

Mar writes about her experience emigrating from Hong Kong to Denver, CO where she experiences racism and ostracism from peers. Eventually, she enrolls at Harvard University.

A memoir of a young Chicano boy's maturing into a self-accepting gay adult is a beautifully executed portrait of the experience of being gay, Chicano and poor in the United States. The author describes growing up in an extended migrant-worker family, his youth in Bakersfield, California, and his departure for college. This book is an affective narrative in which class and ethnic identities are intermingled with the joy of accepting self-identity.

Although written in the third person, this is the personal memoir of Jade Snow Wong, a Chinese American who was born and raised in San Francisco during WWII. Wong did not have her family's blessing to attend college, so she paid her way through junior college. Eventually, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Mills College and went on to become a pottery maker. Wong's pursuit of higher education often put her at odds with her family and high school peers.

Most of this autobiography chronicles Carson’s experience as a neurosurgeon, but there are pages devoted to his experience at Yale University. Initially, Carson experienced culture shock at New Haven but eventually he went on to medical school and is known around the world for his work.

Although not technically a first-generation college student (her mother is a licensed teacher), Walls still experiences many of the same challenges of first-gen students. For instance, the author perceived going to college in New York as a means to escape her harsh living conditions, although her high school guidance counselor thought it would be “disloyal” to leave her family in West Virginia.

Journalist Ron Suskind recounts the experience of Cedric Lavar Jennings, a Washington, DC native, who attends Brown University in the 1990s. The events in the book focus on Cedric’s senior year in high school and freshman year in college. Cedric struggles with culture shock as he finds a place for himself at school and negotiates a new relationship with his single mother.

The story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in California, knowing just 50 words of English. This narrative shows an incredible journey of a “minority student” who pays the cost of his academic success with a hurtful alienation; and thus describes the high price of “making it” in middle-class America.

Carissa Phelps was a runner. By the time she was twelve, she had run away from home, dropped out of school, and fled blindly into the arms of a brutal pimp. Even in escaping from him she could not escape her mental anguish, and lost at all hope for a life. But then her life was transformed through the unexpected kindness of a teacher. Miraculously Carissa accomplished the unimaginable, graduating from UCLA with both a law degree and an MBA. After her studies she found herself back on the streets, this time working to help homeless and at-risk youth discover their own paths to a better life

In this text, college professors from working-class backgrounds write about their upward mobility in the academy and their experiences with impostor syndrome, internalized class conflict and dual living.

A student publication highlighting the growing movement around access to higher education for undocumented students. This book offers eight moving stories of undocumented immigrant students from UCLA and their trials and tribulations of achieving a college education.

This collection of essays focuses specifically on the experiences of working-class women. Some of the pieces address first-generation college identity, as well.

Sandra Adell offers an intimate look into compulsive casino gambling and the impact the casino industry has on vulnerable communities. It is a narrative of Adells addiction to gambling as an unwed and uneducated teen mother from Detroit who beat the odds stacked against her and went on to earn a Ph.D. Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen is a story of redemption as well as a critical examination of the casino gambling industry and the potential dangers of this new and high-tech form of entertainment.

Reared in Alabama during the 1960s, Wills became the first person in her family to go to college when she enrolled at Cornell University. During her junior year, she traveled to Nepal where she had a transformative experience with Tibetan Buddhism. Now a professor, Wills is among the first American practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

Chief Justice Sonia Sotomayor chronicles her experience growing up in the Bronx, to Princeton University and eventually to Yale Law School.

This book is the sequel to Breaking Through (2001) and focuses on the author’s experience as an undergraduate student at Santa Clara University in the 1960s.

Story of author Sherman Alexie's buildingsroman, coming of age story. Alexie tells his personal story of "Junior", a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled high school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot and where he has the opportunity to learn, grow and change his seemingly pre-destined life on the reservation.