A $40 million gift will help 1st-generation students at the University of Michigan

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Fred Wilpon (shown here in 2019) flew on an airplane for the first time as a 17-year-old first-generation college student at the University of Michigan. The New York real estate developer and former owner of the New York Mets now helps fund a program to help other first-generation students at his alma mater.

John Raoux/AP

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John Raoux/AP

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Fitting In On Campus: Challenges For First-Generation Students

In order to combat the struggles low-income and first-generation college students can face — not feeling connected, unsure how to navigate financial aid or class systems and difficulty networking — Wilpon and his wife, Judy, created the Kessler Scholars Program in 2008. The program has awarded scholarships to more than 400 undergraduate students at the university, and Thursday the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation announced it is donating $40 million to fund the program in perpetuity.

The number of U.S. students who are the first in their families to attend college is growing

The number of students nationwide who identify as first generation is on the rise — one third of students at colleges and universities are first generation, according to a 2018 study from U.S. Department of Education, and less than 30% of first-generation students complete an undergraduate degree in four years.

Deana Waintraub Stafford, a director from the Center for First-Generation Student Success, said schools nationally have acted accordingly to the growing number of first-generation students and there have been several improvements in helping them succeed, but there’s still work to be done.

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«Institutions are really reflecting on why and how they can influence the experiences of first-gen students to yield greater completion,» Stafford said.

1st-generation students need more than money to succeed

Michigan sophomore Briarre Johnson said she’s received other scholarships as a first-generation student, but none have impacted her academic career quite like Kessler.

«I feel like their main thing is retention and they focus on retention and just being there for us and making sure we’re OK as people. Money isn’t everything,» Johnson said. «Kessler truly cares about what happens to students after they receive the money, after they graduate and I definitely feel like that makes a difference.»

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Briarre Johnson poses for a selfie at the University of Michigan Kinesiology Building in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Oct. 21. Johnson is a first-generation college student and beneficiary of the school’s Kessler Scholars Program.

Briarre Johnson/AP

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Briarre Johnson/AP

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«First-generation students bring enormous talent and unique perspectives to the University of Michigan — and they face challenges other students don’t,» Schlissel said. «U-M is fully committed to ensuring that students do more than arrive at Michigan; we want them to thrive here.»

With the most recent gift, the Wilpons will have donated more than $75 million to the university, $61 million of which will have gone to the Kessler program, according to the news release.

«It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I can tell you that it’s palpable to me,» Wilpon said, adding that he is proud that this program will now always be at the school and he hopes one day schools across the country will implement similar programs.