Breaking the Cycle

She persisted. Murray graduated from Taft High School, a Cincinnati public school, and was accepted to the University of Cincinnati just as a new program dedicated to first-generation students like her was underway.

Founded in response to alarming statistics — the national six-year graduation rate for first-generation, Pell-eligible students was 11 percent in 2008 — UC created the Gen-1 program in 2008. With a focus on successful transition to the university, first-to-second year retention and degree completion, a hallmark aspect of the program was the Gen-1 Theme House, which The New York Times has recognized as the nation’s first living-learning community to focus on first-generation college students. Murray was the program’s first student.

Fourteen others soon joined her in the house that year, living together on one floor of a building in Stratford Heights, a residential property adjacent to UC’s campus.

The rules were tough: Students couldn’t go home overnight or have visitors after curfew the entire first month. They had GPAs to maintain. But it was all meant to help keep the students focused, and they all were in it together.

Program coordinator Judy Mause served as something of a house mother, building relationships with the students and their families to keep them on track for success. Now, years after her official retirement, Gen-1 is still Mause’s passion project.