Photo courtesy of Dannye Carpenter ’21
The 2019 members of FLIP pose for a photo at a mixer. FLIP’s exhibition on Friday, Nov. 8 featured images and stories from FLIP members.
BY EMMA MARTIN ’20
“Today is National First-Generation Day,” Dannye Carpenter ’21 said, standing outside a First Generation and Low-Income Partnership exhibition on Nov. 8.
The exhibition, titled “Collective Dream: The Fearless First and Low Income Experience Through Art,” featured a projection of over 100 images submitted by FLIP members. Carpenter, who serves as FLIP’s event coordinator, is a first-generation student from Oklahoma.
Personal photographs of students and their homes, friends and families, artwork, poetry and a screenshot of a Google Maps route made up the exhibition.
“We have collected images, poetry, lots of photography that comes from our membership and from faculty and staff on campus to represent how they came to be here and what it means to receive a higher education or be involved in that process,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter described the organization’s mission this year as “provid[ing] resources and also community for people with the first generation or low income experience.”
The week leading up to National First-Generation College Celebration Day, FLIP held events to support its members, including a vision-board-making session, a slime-making, de-stressing event and a screening of “Good Will Hunting” followed by a discussion about stereotypes in media depictions of first- generation and low-income students. The “Collective Dream” exhibition was the first activity open to the rest of campus.
Identifying as a first-generation student means that Carpenter is the first of her family to attend college.
“My dad did not graduate from high school and so coming to Mount Holyoke has been a really radical experience for my family,” she said.
FLIP’s membership is diverse; “first-generation” includes domestic and international students of all incomes and “low-income” is broadly defined as a student whose household income is low relative to other households of the same size in their region.
“You don’t have to be first-gen to be a part of FLIP or you can be first-gen but not low income or both,” Carpenter explained. “So there’s a lot of diversity there. What low income is in one state may not be the same low income as somewhere else.”
A high school graduation cap decorated with the words, “My parents worked with their hands so I could work with my mind,” the text of poems by Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, images of Mount Holyoke’s campus throughout the seasons, the screenshot of a Google Maps route and grainy film photos of past generations were among the images displayed, representing diverse perspectives and interpretations of the prompt. FLIP members recognized various sources of inspiration, from uplifting quotes to a photo of first generation college graduate Michelle Obama at Princeton University, which received warm recognition from the audience.
Angela Kung ’22 is a FLIP board member and one of two Five College Summit liaisons. Several of her photographs were featured in the gallery, including an image of the frisbee team, (the first community Kung joined on campus) a family photo and a picture of Kung at her high school graduation with her favorite math teacher.
Carpenter also submitted several photographs to the project: pictures of her with her sister and her friends growing up as well as particularly meaningful photos of her grandparents.
“I feel like [my grandparents] been really an integral part in what helped me pursue a higher education,” Carpenter said.
FLIP meets in the Blanchard Unity Space on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 8 p.m. and hosts activities and events monthly.