The You First Project

Graduation Initiatives
for First-Generation College Students

(A Title III/FUTURE Act Initiative) 

We are honored that you decided to visit our website. Welcome!

We gladly invite you to browse our website to learn more about our services. If you are a first-generation college student, then please know that we welcome and value you. Our first and foremost goal is to make sure that you have all the support, skills, and confidence you need to become a better version of yourself when you leave Tennessee State University. Know that there are many parts to The You First Project and the links to the left contain more detailed information on our activities. Happy browsing and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Who is a first-generation student?

We define first-generation students as students whose biological parents or legal guardians do not yet have a four-year college degree. You are a First-Generation student even if your siblings, aunts/uncles, and grandparents graduated from college.

HAVE QUESTIONS?
If you are a parent, guardian, faculty member, staff, or otherwise and have questions about The You First Project, then please note our office hours. We are always open to questions and conversations.

While our team members have offices in various locations, our administrative offices are located on the first floor of the Harold M. Love Sr. Student Success Center, just past The Office of First-Year Students.

What is The You First Project?

The You First Project is a success care network for all of TSU’s first-generation students. We seek to support our students as they discover and define what matters to them and determine their life purposes. Consequently, we believe this guidance will lead to improved graduation rates and career readiness for first-generation students, a belief backed by evidence-based practices and sound research. 

There are four distinct programs within The You First Project (we call these programs “Activities”). They are as follow:

  • The Journey to 120 Hours – Improving enrollment in and graduation from Health and S.T.E.M. degree programs; preparing first-years and sophomores for careers in Health and S.T.E.M. fields.
  • Facilitating Access to Careers in which Blacks are Underrepresented – Improving enrollment in and graduation from degree programs leading to careers in which Blacks are underrepresented according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; preparing first-years and sophomores for careers in Business, Education, Liberal Arts, and Public Service.
  • Enhancing the Library’s Holdings – Supporting access to informational and instructional resources for all students and faculty for university-wide academic success.

Again, we invite you to learn more about these activities or any other topic by following the appropriate links on the left side of the webpage. We want you to have the utmost confidence in our integrity and capability!

HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions not answered by those resources, please contact us or follow us on social media, where we post frequently: