We Know About First Generation College Students, But What About “Second Generation, Shaky”?

We’ve heard a lot about first generation college students, but what about the next generation? Much of what I read about addressing the challenges that Black, Brown, and poor families face with regard to college access assumes that if they just have the first college graduate, that from then on their family legacy will be forever changed. And while this can be somewhat true, the same way that going to a hospital does not make you a doctor, just going to college doesn’t make you able to replicate the experience, or to take advantage of it in ways that will produce more health, wealth, and safety for generations to come.

As a business owner whose mission is to help busy parents of college bound teens secure top-tier education without massive debt, I always hear two things when I tell people about the service I offer.

Number one, where were you when I was in college!?

Number two, “Oh you’re going to do so much good, because so many people need this information.” Inevitably the conversation moves toward first generation families and the lack of access to information about college, especially, paying for it.

While it is true that the first generation population needs and deserves our attention, I have to say that another population comes into my purview even more often than first generation families. I like to call them “Second Generation, Shaky.” Here’s some of the ways you know someone is a member of “Second Generation, Shaky.“

First they are not first-generation families. The parents have already been to college, but they went flying by the seat of their pants, and often taking on much more debt than they should have. They were a part of families that have never done this, and because of that often did it in the most expensive way possible.

Next, they often are parents who finished college through a circuitous route. I can’t tell you how many of my friends went to community college first and then spent some years working, or got into an industry where they reached the salary ceiling, and then went to college in order to progress further in their chosen field. In the Parent Academy I’ve created, it is not unusual that the parents are still in college themselves, while learning how to advise their high school teen on college matchmaking and financial aid.

In addition, members of “Second Generation, Shaky” are sometimes at the top level of expertise in a trade. Some of them are nurses, and some of them are high level administrative assistants, or they have risen to the level of foreman our manager in a manufacturing industry. They have invested hours in education with regard to their industry, even if it wasn’t a traditional “go- to-college-as-a-freshman-and-sleep-in-a-dorm” experience.

Finally, “Second Generation, Shaky” knows what they don’t know. As a member of “Second Generation, Shaky” myself, I understand that “how it starts is how it ends.“ To that end, I was very strategic about the schools I put my son in because I understood that his  K-12 curriculum would prepare him to be college ready.  “Second Generation, Shaky” has already been savvy enough to stand in lines in order to retrieve lottery spaces for magnet and charter schools. “Second Generation, Shaky” has moved into neighborhoods that stressed their budgets, to make sure their child was in a school system that had high graduation rates and high college admissions rates.

“Second Generation, Shaky” are also the ones who are active in K-12 parent communities, like PTOs and PTAs. I am proud to call them my people, and in the Get The Acceptance Letter Parent Academy they are learning how how to get their kid into a college that will match their gifts and goals, and without massive debt. I would encourage high school administrators, high school counselors, and college admissions professionals to think about ways to support this burgeoning and valuable population. Then maybe they can go from “Second Generation, Shaky” to third generation strong.