First-Gen College Student Hats

About a third of US undergraduates are first-generation students, by NCES data from 2011-12, and the label is worn with pride. The National First-Generation College Celebration falls on November 8 each year, the anniversary of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and colleges hand out First Gen Proud shirts and sashes. Graduation caps carry the same message, like the FIU graduate who told her family that everything she does every day is for them. The jokes come from the actual experience. Students describe teaching themselves and their parents the FAFSA, convincing a parent to co-sign a loan, and learning terms like office hours from the syllabus. Another says she did not know how to scan into a dining hall. These first-gen college student hats take those moments and give them to the wearer to carry: FIRST GEN and FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENT as the badges people search for, then FAFSA done alone, how-college-works Googled, WHAT'S A PROVOST, a degree with a co-signer, and a graduation where the whole family is coming. FIRST GEN, NO BLUEPRINT is a phrase already selling on Etsy, and it gets a second colorway here along with I AM MY ANCESTORS' WILDEST DREAMS. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to move-in day, to the Nov 8 celebration, or to commencement, or give one to the first in the family to make it there.