This qualitative portraiture study examines current issues that surround the experience of third-year and beyond, first-generation college students. There is a need to understand the self-perceptions of first-generation college students. Very few studies follow the group into the third year of college. Most programs track the population for just one year beyond matriculation. Success for first-generation college students is vital, as the group has been identified as a growing population with low college completion rates. This study is presented at a critical time, when the President of the United States claims a college education is necessary to live above the poverty line and achieve middle-class status.

The United States government has based public policy and higher education funding upon both student need and institution completion rates. This study used arts-based research and literacy through photography techniques to explore the narrative experience of a small sample of first-generation college students while engaged in interpretative photography. The technique aimed to promote imagination, creativity, critical thinking, and personal reflection. The study engaged participants in literacy through photography and sought to synthesize data in the form of writing samples, interpretative photography, and transcribed interviews to uncover patterns that better explain the tenants of culture leading to academic discourse within a disadvantaged population. The portraiture method was used to provide rich and descriptive data by illuminating themes through participant-researcher collaboration with reflective and narrative components.

This dissertation submitted to the School of Education at Wilkes Universtity, August 6, 2015.

This intimate, photography-based study explores the experience of first-generation college students with efficacy, culture, literacy and media. It reveals intricate details about the effects relationships have on college persistence.