Recognizing First-Generation College Celebration Day 2025

At School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), we celebrate our first-generation students every day—but we like to take an extra moment on First-Generation College Celebration Day every November. Here, four first-gen SAIC community members share their stories and advice. 

Image

Student Nick Williams
Nick Williams is a senior focusing on collage, printmaking, and fiber arts.  A first-generation college student, Williams also works as a peer mentor for other first-gen students during their freshman years.

Why is attending college important to you?
My father and grandmother have made and will continue to make sacrifices to ensure my happiness and success as an artist and constructive member of a community. I'm incredibly thankful to have family in my life who will go to great lengths to give me opportunities they weren't afforded in adulthood. I believe I owe it to both my family and myself to finish school. My family is very understanding of my desire to pursue art at the collegiate level, and I like to make sure that I take my degree as seriously as they take my interests.

What made you want to attend college?
I've always considered myself an academic, and as I grew into creating art for recreational purposes I realized that there could be a great benefit in engaging with art with a more academic methodology. Art college feels like it meets those needs, considering that I am working, conversing, and creating alongside other artists with diverse sociocultural backgrounds. The learning environment that we exist within at this school is a demonstration of art as a catalyst for advocacy and healthy conversation, which is exactly what I was hoping to find in attending college.

How have you felt supported by SAIC?
Being a student worker in the Office of Student Affairs and a peer mentor for First-Generation Fellows, the people who I work alongside serve as a great interconnected support system. As mentors, we direct students to curated resources to help them navigate college, but we also receive that same mirrored support through our coworkers and peers. I also think that our affinity groups and programming are great tools that bring together intersectional communities of people on campus. There are lots of opportunities for empathy-building and connections throughout the campus.

Image

Alum Christine Abigaíl Meinders
Christine Abigaíl Meinders (BFA 2025) is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Chicago working primarily in ceramics and fiber art. She is invested in autobiographical and emotional research, commonly using familial archives in her work through the use of fiber, print, ceramics, and archival imagery. Meinders currently teaches a creative arts class designed for preschoolers at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance. She is devoted to community building and early childhood development through art and creative outlets

Why was graduating from a four-year college important to you?
Graduating college was important to me because I wanted to make my younger self proud and set an example for the younger generations in my family. Higher education not only inspired me to push myself, but it also inspired my nephews and niece to further their education. I am happy that I can be the role model I never had.

How did college help your career?
College helped my career by providing a rigorous and freeing environment that encouraged me to make connections and network with as many folks as I could. College gave me courage to put myself out there and welcome challenges. The connections I made with peers, professors, and faculty have opened so many doors for me in the Chicago art world and beyond.

What advice would you give to current first-generation college students?
Allow yourself to take breaks and give yourself grace. Being first-gen is not easy. Some days will feel impossible to get through. But remember that you are not alone. Don’t be afraid to reach out to faculty, they are there for you. There is community all around you ready to support you in all of your endeavors!
 

Image

Lecturer Alex Bradley Cohen
Alex Bradley Cohen utilizes painting to visualize the push and pulls of political life. Working with acrylic paint on canvas, he depicts friends, family members, and himself in scenes that foreground everyday moments. Materializing from personal photographs and memories rather than direct observation, each painting serves as an exercise in imaginative world building.

Why was graduating from college important to you?
It gave me a sense of accomplishment and served as a rite of passage into early adulthood as well as a pathway into a world of ideas.

How did college help your career and creative practice?
It gave me access to a history of art and artists as well as the social context and historical process that birthed these ideas and shaped these artists. It also gave me permission to experiment, fail, take risks, and push boundaries as well as being in an institution of accountability.

What advice would you give to current first-generation college students?
Take risks and be as open as you possibly can. But you also must remain true and honest to the places and spaces that have shaped you. You might at times feel that you are out of place, but you must find ways to embrace this discomfort. This discomfort might be your best opportunity to introduce your whole self into the equation while expanding each and every conversation that you find yourself in.

Image

First-Gen Fellows Academic & Career Coach Alberto Ponce
Alberto Ponce works as the Academic and Career Coach for the First-Generation Fellows program. Ponce was born and raised in Guatemala, but grew up in central California. Ponce has worked in Student Affairs and student support-related roles throughout their undergraduate, graduate, and professional years of experience. With over six years at SAIC, they strive to be a resource and support person for the First-Gen Fellows, helping them have a positive transition into college life at SAIC, as well as looking forward to meeting other first-gen students, staff, and faculty. 

Why was graduating from college important to you?
College helped my career in more than just earning my degree. Being the first in my family to go to college meant exposure to an entirely different world and vast amounts of culture and identities I had no idea about, with knowledge and experience I would not have gotten if I didn't get to leave home. It also helped me find lifelong friends who shared similar life experiences as me, and an opportunity to become my true self through being on my own for the first time. It's a time of self-exploration and understanding in which you build your network of connection and support. 

How did college help your career and creative practice?
I think something unique to our first-gen experience is the initial need to figure things out on your own with no context to inform you, and the ongoing feeling that you "don't belong." These feelings can be so overwhelming to navigate but knowing there are others here—students, staff, and faculty alike—that have either been in the same position, or still currently deal with these feelings. It can be reassuring to know you're not alone and to build community with each other. I think it is helpful to be around people who share and understand your experience. 

What advice would you give to current first-generation college students?
My advice to first-gen college students is to not forget to enjoy where you are in life now, especially now that you are here. It's so easy to give in to the imposter syndrome and feel like you're "not good enough"—you are! That's why you're here! Don't let anyone steal that light and your accomplishments, and have fun! You're the first in your family to set the trail ablaze, and no one can put that out! Never be afraid to ask for help either. There is an entire community and immense support from staff here, and we are here to help. Don't let the fear of asking for help along the way keep you from seeking it. You are the first, but you don't have to do it alone.