A gift to first-gen students
Written by Rachel Farrell | Published March 2025
When first-generation student Herani Hiruy (CGS’24, CAS’26) began her first year at BU, she underestimated the volume of “hidden curriculum” she needed to know as a college student, she says. While other students seemed to know the ins and outs of networking, on-campus resources, and faculty office hours, Hiruy had to learn how to navigate them—all while juggling a full courseload, work responsibilities, and extracurricular activities.
It became overwhelming—until, years later, Hiruy took a job at the Newbury Center. There, she found a “support network eager to propel my success and safeguard my well-being,” she says. “I realized I was entitled to the Newbury Center’s resources and could use them unabashedly to be successful at BU.” Since then, Hiruy says, both her confidence and her GPA have gone up.
Ceremonial ribbon cutting on October 26, 2020 for BU’s Newbury Center for first generation students. Photo by Cydney Scott
Founded in 2021, the Newbury Center provides first-generation students with programs, services, and supports that position them for success at BU and beyond. It offers a wide range of events and workshops, such as résumé workshops, etiquette dinners, and community breakfasts. The center also manages key partnerships across campus with the offices of Financial Assistance, Study Abroad, the Center for Career Development, and more, all so undergraduate, graduate, and professional students can access practical resources and find a sense of belonging at BU. The center’s six staff members work one-on-one with students to help them overcome challenges unique to the first-gen experience.
“The Newbury Center is like a sword and shield for students,” explains Anthony Abraham Jack, inaugural faculty director of the center. “We help with the unplanned and unplannable moments that disproportionately undercut first-gen students. That means connecting them with mental health services, for example, or explaining how to ask financial aid questions. We help students with the everyday victories.”
“For some of our first-gen students, life is not very constant; there’s a lot of chaos,” adds Maria Dykema Erb, executive director of the center. “But in the center, there is a full-time staff they can rely on. They don’t have to do this by themselves.”
The importance of donor support
The Newbury Center was established through a generous endowment from Newbury College, a liberal arts institution that closed in 2019. But because the endowment only covers the center’s operating costs, donor gifts are essential to addressing student needs that fall outside this scope.
That’s why every year on Giving Day, the BU community comes together to provide critical support for the Newbury Center and initiatives like it. Those who donate on Giving Day can help the cause of their choice earn additional funds through matching gifts, hourly challenges, and by serving as Advocates who will spread the word and amplify that support.
Every donation, no matter the size, received by the Newbury Center goes into the Newbury Center Fund, a gift fund that benefits first-gen students directly. For example, the fund provides summer housing stipends to first-gen students who have unpaid or low-paying internships. To date, it has supported 15 students completing a summer internship and 34 students participating in BU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program over the summer. The fund also provides financial assistance to students who need help accessing BU’s Professional Clothing Closet, which loans professional clothes to students on a month-to-month basis.
This year’s Giving Day is April 9, 2025. Sign up to be an Advocate and make your gift today.
“The gift fund allows the center to be as flexible as a first-gen student’s life is unpredictable,” explains Jack. “Their time in college cannot be scripted. Anybody who is first-gen or low-income understands what that means to their core.”
Looking ahead, the directors hope to grow the fund so they can pursue goals on their wish list, which include hosting a conference for first-gen leaders, creating an award for first-gen mentors, establishing a first-gen postdoc, and taking students who can’t afford to study abroad on an educational trip overseas.
Jack is also interested in building out a research arm that informs policies and best practices for supporting first-gen students. “The goal is to begin working with colleagues here at BU and universities across the nation to remove the invisible hurdles first-gen students face,” he says.
“It’s not that we are here to do everything for them,” adds Erb. “Rather, it’s to teach them and walk beside them so they feel more confident when they go out into the world.”