Carolina Firsts look to their next step

As more than 600 first-generation students prepare to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and celebrate years of hard work, they were urged to reach back to their communities and help the next generation achieve the same goal of earning a college degree.

“I stand before you the manifestation of two first-generation college students,” said Donovan Livingston, a 2009 Carolina graduate. “I knew this was a space I could be in and be successful in. I’m excited to know as you blaze this trail for your families or your communities for the first time, you’ll be a space where you can do that for somebody else too, so they feel like they belong here, even when the world tells them they don’t.”

Donovan’s challenge to the soon-to-be graduates was part of the Carolina Firsts’ Next Step Celebration on April 12 at the Blue Zone.

Graduating first-generation seniors, along with their faculty and staff advocates, attended the event to celebrate their upcoming graduation by looking forward to their careers and future contributions to the University’s mission of access to higher education.

“You are already really helping others and you’re going to be doing that your entire lives,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “We’re celebrating that today and celebrating what you’ve achieved, but we’re all celebrating what it takes to makes this even more fundamental to our institution.”

During the 90-minute event, Folt and Livingston shared advice for the students who will be the first in their families to earn college degrees next month. Folt encouraged them to enjoy the next three weeks leading up to commencement — it’s a time they won’t get but once, she said.

“This is your first graduation. You may have other graduations — I can bet on the fact that you will — but there will be no other one that is like this one,” she said.

Livingston received a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education last year. He was the speaker at that school’s graduation and his speech went viral online. At the Carolina Firsts ceremony, Livingston urged the graduates to take what they’ve learned at Carolina and solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

“You are well equipped to solve them and able to address them,” he said. “The best way to leave your heel print in this world is to think about how you, as a student and a graduate of this space can link your interests — the things you’ve done at Carolina, the community service you’ve done, your major, your first job  — to how does what you’ve done in this space connect to a larger social justice mission that makes your life feel like one of fulfillment.”

While their undergraduate careers are coming to a close, the upcoming commencement, Folt said, will just be a starting point for the students to begin making their mark.

“So it’s not the end of anything,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful exclamation point for work hard done, an accomplishment well deserved and a stepping stone — and maybe even a trampoline — to the next thing you’re going to do.”