Amplifying the First-Generation Skillset

For most of my nearly 30-year career in communications, I too often felt that I was playing catch-up. I am a first-generation college graduate, and while I had the talent and the work ethic to compete, like most first-generation college graduates, I lacked the things others around me seemed to take for granted: a network, an understanding of career paths, and the economic dynamics that shape a career. It took me the better part of a decade to learn what some peers seemed to understand day one.

After building for more than two years, my wife and I recently launched Future Voices Collective, a nonprofit fiscally sponsored by Social Good Fund that provides a two-year fellowship for first-generation college students pursuing careers in public relations and communications. The inaugural cohort is 23 rising juniors from six universities – the University of Illinois Chicago, DePaul University, Elon University, Suffolk University, the University of Alabama, and American University with curriculum endorsed by the Institute for Public Relations.

The premise is simple: first-generation students already bring the perspective, resilience and adaptability our industry needs. What they too often lack is access. Our work is to close that gap. This is the reason Future Voices Collective exists.

The Skillset Is Already There

It would be an inaccurate to frame first-generation students as a group that needs fixing. They don’t. They arrive with diverse problem-solving instincts, a strong work ethic, and life experiences that sharpen how they build a career. They have navigated unfamiliar systems without guidance. All skills that are in demand.

Our industry is rich with economically viable pathways, and it sits at the center of nearly every shift in how organizations engage their audiences. The case for first-generation talent is not only about equity; it is about quality. Diverse, inclusive decision-making teams are projected to outperform their financial targets, and demand for communications roles continues to grow. The pipeline our industry says it wants is already here. The question is whether the ecosystem is built to activate it.

The Obstacles Are Real

The data tells a consistent story about where first-generation students get stuck – and it is rarely about ability. Only about a quarter participate in internships. Roughly a third report having a professional network when they begin their careers. And an estimated 70 percent of jobs are never publicly advertised, which favors those already inside established networks.

Layer on the less visible obstacles – imposter syndrome, questions of belonging, class bias, financial pressure, and family support that is loving but unfamiliar with the path — and the picture sharpens. These are not character flaws. They are structural gaps, and structural gaps can be closed by intention and design.

A Curriculum Built Around the Whole Person

Future Voices Collective delivers training built to address the whole person:

• Skill – career mechanics: strategic thinking, business acumen, negotiation, and managing job offers.
• Self – the inner work, from building an authentic and professional self to communicating with impact.
• Social – the capital that opens doors: building, nurturing and navigating networks.
• Society – recognizing that these students are role models whose stories carry real influence in the field.

The fellowship pairs this with industry immersion, career strategy and placement support for paid internships. It is designed as a supplement to a student’s major curriculum – a complement to the real-world readiness classroom learning alone can’t fully provide.

Why Our Ecosystem Should Care

No single institution closes these gaps alone. Future Voices Collective is built on the belief that the broad PR and communications ecosystem – universities, agencies, corporations, industry organizations, and the professionals within them – can collaborate to amplify the skillsets and remove obstacles for these students. 

That collaborative model is where I see a natural alignment with the Page community. Page members spend their careers thinking about how organizations build trust and create value across stakeholders. Investing in first-generation talent is, at its core, the same work – applied to the future of our own profession.

Importantly, the collaboration has already begun. Future Voices Collective would not be a reality without our university partners, our industry and academic advisory council, and the many professionals who believed in the idea before it was anything more than a conversation. 

We started Future Voices Collective to turn “why hasn’t this happened” into “it’s happening.” The students are here. The skillset is here. Our job, collectively, is to make sure the path is, too.