Welcoming First-Generation College Students:
AU Counselor Presents Workshop At National Conference

AURORA, Ill.--Marcia Hanlon, director of counseling services at Aurora University,  presented a workshop at the American College Counseling Association (ACCA) annual conference Feb. 6-9 in Savannah, Ga.

Hanlon, a Batavia resident, presented “Expectations and Frustrations: Considering the Psychosocial-Cultural Experience of the First-Generation College Student.”

The audience included Richard Kadison, MD, of Harvard Mental Health Services and author of "College of the Overwhelmed." He referenced Hanlon’s workshop in his  keynote address at an ACCA luncheon. 

Hanlon's presentation explored a unique perspective of first-generation college students—students whose parents did not graduate from college—that they may experience a foreign culture in new surroundings.

Her workshop included an opportunity for self-reflection and a discussion forum in which counselors considered unique and varied needs of their own campuses. Also, workshop participants brainstormed alternative, or expanded, counseling approaches, and targeted services to support first-generation students.

Hanlon moderates the 600-member ACCA listserv. In addition to ACCA, she is a member of the Higher Education Consultants Association.

A licensed clinical social worker, Hanlon earned a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, and a certificate from UCLA.

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