That pantry is now our Basic Needs Center and when COVID hit, it became a lifeline for students and their families. The students who helped build it didn't just solve a problem; they led us to a solution. One of them was featured in Hungry to Learn (Gandbhir, 2019), a documentary produced by Soledad O'Brien about college food insecurity, and went on to present at a national conference on the subject. Another student leader told me she felt personally responsible for 14,000 students.
After more than a decade working in Student Life at Lehman, a Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Bronx, I’ve seen stories like these again and again and was compelled to examine why first-generation student leaders get involved on campus for my dissertation. What I learned confirmed what I’d witnessed for years: involvement isn't just an extracurricular activity. For many students, it's where leadership begins.
That's why it worries me how often student affairs is the first thing cut when a college's budget gets tight. Clubs, leadership programs, the staff who support them get filed under "nice to have” rather than essential. At a time of real financial and political pressure, that instinct may be understandable, but it's also shortsighted.
The students I interviewed weren't leading in spite of being first-generation, low-income, or juggling jobs and family obligations. They were leading through those experiences, using skills and resilience they already possessed. One student told me running his own club taught him more about management than his coursework did. Another who told me she used to be too shy to talk to strangers, helped organize a busload of students to advocate before state legislators in Albany.
None of that shows up on a transcript. Yet those experiences help students develop confidence, build networks, and discover their ability to make a difference. That's the kind of growth that often determines whether a student leaves college with just a degree with the capacity to lead.
This matters especially at commuter campuses and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, where students often lack the built-in social networks that come with residential college life. If colleges don’t intentionally create spaces for connection, responsibility and leadership, those opportunities may never materialize.
Colleges are increasingly asked to justify their value through graduation rates, job placement, and return on investment. Those numbers matter. But higher education isn't only about earning credentials. It’s also about developing leaders people who can organize, solve problems, advocate for others, and strengthen their communities. Those skills are rarely developed in the classroom alone.
If we're serious about first-generation student success, we need stop treating student involvement as optional. We should fund it, staff it, and protect it as carefully as any other essential part of the college experience.
Ten years ago, a handful of students built a food pantry. What they were really building was their own capacity to lead. They didn't just create a resource for their peers, they became leaders. Colleges can't afford to lose the places where that transformation happens.
Suzette Ramsundar is Director of Campus Life at Lehman College, CUNY, and an adjunct faculty member in the college's graduate programs in school counseling and organizational leadership.
