b'FIRST GENERATION LEARNERSTHE FIRST-GEN JOURNEYDuring this academic year, the campus celebratedour students and helping them navigate through the experiences of, and the broad range of successthe maze of campus life and education. Teaching by its first-generation students, faculty and staffProfessor, Marco Pantoja offers his personal insights as part of the National First-Generation Collegeas follows: Celebration Week. A first-generation (First-Gen) college student is astudent whose parents orAs a personal financeProfessor for a Day: mentor with the Mizzou guardians did not complete a four-year collegeTRiOprogram,IseeCLINT MATTHEWS:degree. Continuing-generation college students aremany of the struggles students who have at least one parent with someFGLstudentsface. form of postsecondary education experience.Typically, these studentsATHLETE TO ENTREPRENEURNationally, an average of 33% of students arrivingare fresh out of high to college campuses are First-Gen. For MU, theschool, forging a path proportion is 25% according to recent data. Thethrough a wilderness of Mizzou campus welcomes up to 5500 first timeacademic bureaucracy college students and transfer students every year.Marco Pantoja with expensive pitfalls. First-gen students often experience additionalHowever, its not just aTuesday October 19 Trulaske hosted ex-Mizzou Tiger(at right in photo below) while working on his MBA burdens beyond those of most first-year collegematter of financial resources, which certainly playplayer Clint Matthews as Professor for a Day. at the Trulaske College of Business.students experience. Besides a lack of financialno small part, but also alienation from the higher resources, there is a need for academic, profes- education culture, community, and bureaucraticAs the co-founder of Start Right Foods, formerRood, who had planned to work on startup medical sional, and emotional support and know-how forknow-how. These levers shape the contours of aMissouri Tigers football player Clint Matthewsdevices his entire career, initially thought that his navigating college life in general. There are alsostudents journey. believes the grit, discipline and persistence neededbusiness partners idea was ridiculous, but he told cultural and ethnic differences among first-genon the football field has proven to be invaluable forhimself that he owed Matthews 15 minutes to state A recent example is a student who attended mysuccess in his entrepreneurial business ventures. his case about the project that would turn into Start office hours to discuss the possibility of dropping Nationally, an average of 33% out because she owed $1,800. This university debtRight Foods. Eventually, Roodwho describes himself as pretty of students arriving to collegelocked her out of registration, and she didnt knowDont be what to do. She didnt have the benefit of beingrisk aversetried the waffles that Matthews made campuses are First-Gen. Forusing a recipe he received from a group of MUafraid to take able to ask her parents for the funds or advice. SheMU, the proportion is 25%was ashamed to discuss her issues with her friendsresearchers. I tried them. They were pretty good,a risk because Rood said.according to recent data. and other TRiO mentors. Her part-time job wouldntit could be provide enough to pay it off before the semestersA few months later, Matthews, who had been a long-end, and she didnt know how to navigate thetime customer at the Bank of Missouri, and Rood hadthe best thing students. According to the Center for First Genera-tion Student Success, the median parental incomepayment systems. Feeling stressed and stuck, shebeen given the green light to hand out samples toyouve ever for first-generation students is $41,000, far belowtook steps she assumed were in the right directionbank patrons in the lobby. The response was over- done.the median combined income of $90,000 forbut ended up at a dead end. whelmingly positiveincluding a thumbs up from parents of continuing-generation students. ThroughPreviously, she visited financial aid and asked howCoach Pinkel, who had just happened to be runningClint Matthews its federally-funded TRIO Programs, the campusshe could get more scholarships, a seeminglyClint and his business partner, Kyle Rood, a fellowsome errands that day.offers a broad range of services to support first-gen,self-evident solution. Their response, rationally,former Mizzou student-athlete, have watched theirWe wanted to give this one more go. Neither one of low-income, and disabled students continue onwas go look online. Unfortunately, searching forcompany grow from a couple of waffle irons andus had a part time job. We went all in, Matthews said. toward graduating with a degree. This matters, inscholarships online is generally frustrating anda rent-a-kitchen in Columbia to its current facilityKyle and I were literally flipping waffles by hand with part, because of the higher drop-rate of first-gendisappointing. Consequently, our meeting focusedin St. Louis. It is there where they mass producethree irons, and delivering them into stores in my students when compared to second and third gener- on asking the right questions, directing them tohigh-protein waffle sliders to consumers throughoutpickup truck. And through a lot of effort, toil, and ation college students, whose graduation rate is fourthe right parties, and becoming aware of Mizzousthe Midwest and beyond in a growing market spacegood and bad decisions, weve progressed to today.times higher. Closer to home, nineteen percent ofresources to support students facing similar prob- of frozen healthy breakfast options. Dont be afraid to take a risk, said Matthews, when (over 4000) Trulaske business students identifylems. Our parting discussion revolved around plansBefore launching Start Right in 2015, Matthewsgiving advice to current Tigers with entrepreneurial as First Generation Learners. Our faculty and stafffor what happens if things dont work out. Fortu- (left in above photo) had been part of two otherdreams, because it could be the best thing youve are deeply and proudly committed to serving all ofnately for her, this was her first semester. entrepreneurial ventures in the biomedical deviceever done. You just dont know. Its a little scary, spaceboth of which sprung from a biodesignso people dont want to do it, but take that leap, collaborative class he was in at Mizzou with Roodbecause you never know where itll go.6 MANAGEMENT MATTERSMANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT 2022 ANNUAL REPORT 7'