Chris Gray, Ph.D.
Founding President, Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania
Community colleges serve everyone. We really do. Walk into a classroom at any community college, and you'll see more than just students. You'll see parents balancing work and family, veterans restarting their lives, retirees learning for the joy of it, first-generation students trying to navigate an entirely new world, and everything in between.
The average age of a community college student hovers around thirty, and most are working at least part-time. Often, they work full-time or more than full-time. Some are picking up new skills to change careers, and some are coming back after years away. A surprising 8% of community college enrollees across the country already have a four-year degree but have returned to learn something new, whether to scale up their careers or return to a dream they've long wished to pursue.
Their reasons for coming to us are as varied as they are, but one statistic always stands out to me: how many community college students are the first in their families to attend college.
First-generation, or first-gen, students are remarkable. These students come from families where "how to college" isn't common knowledge. They likely do not have someone at home who can explain financial aid forms or the difference between a major and a minor. And yet, they persist. They ask questions, seek out mentors, and figure it out step by step. That kind of determination inspires every one of us who works in higher education.
In fact, I often see more resilience and determination in our first-gen students. They juggle responsibilities that most traditional college students never imagine: working extra shifts, caring for family members, figuring out financial aid, and translating college emails into plain English for themselves or their parents. While their peers may have grown up hearing stories about dorm life or graduation, many first-generation students are hearing those stories for the first time because they are the ones creating them. They are the pioneers of their families' educational journeys, and that's no small thing.
Still, being first-gen also means they're stepping into a system that wasn't designed with them in mind. They didn't grow up hearing words like "syllabus" or "credit hour." They didn't have dinner-table conversations about college majors or internships. Many come from families where education wasn't actively discouraged; it just wasn't a known path. When no one in your immediate circle has "done college," every form, deadline, system, and unwritten rule feels like a test you didn't know was coming. Every day, first-gen students weather this storm, figuring it out as they do it, learning "how to college" day by day.
Many first-generation students also come from families or cultures that emphasize community and collective well-being over individual success. Helping out at home or supporting siblings isn't just expected; rather, it's part of who they are. That sense of connection is a gift, but it can make the individual demands of college especially difficult. So when college starts demanding more of their time and energy, they often feel pulled between two worlds: one of family loyalty and one of personal growth. That tension can be exhausting, but it also reveals something powerful about their values. Somehow, these first-gen students manage to do it all.
That's what I love most about community colleges: we understand that education doesn't happen in a vacuum. Our students aren't just learning algebra or essay structure. I mean, yes, they are learning that, but they're also learning all kinds of extras: they're learning how to navigate complex financial and degree systems, how to advocate for themselves using a language that is at best unfamiliar, and they are learning how to balance their own ambition with self-compassion as they push on through. Our students, and first-gen students in particular, arrive at our doors each day and rewrite what the college experience looks like. They remind us that education isn't just for the privileged few: it's for everyone who's willing to show up and try, even when the odds aren't in their favor.
So yes, community colleges do serve everyone. We serve those beginning, those continuing, those returning, and those starting over. We serve those who come to us unsure of where to start and those who simply need a chance to begin again. We open doors that might otherwise stay closed. We give second chances and new beginnings. And for our first-gen students, we help them do something even more extraordinary: we help them to change the story for every generation that comes after.
Our community: your college.
