First-generation community · Economic mobility

Opportunity moves through people.

EdMobilizer brings first-generation students, professionals, and allies together to build relationships, share hard-won knowledge, and make opportunity easier to navigate—in college, careers, and beyond.

Explore our work Read our story

Students arriving together through open campus doors — Community in motion

First Lady Michelle Obama in conversation at the White House’s Beating the Odds Summit — The White House · Beating the Odds Summit

A national movement

From a Brown dorm room to a national movement.

What began with students naming the unwritten rules of college grew into a national movement—bringing first-generation experience into public view and, in conversation with First Lady Michelle Obama, expanding the dialogue from admission to belonging, agency, and opportunity.

Explore the movement Watch the defining exchange

01 — Why this matters

Talent is widely distributed. Access is not.

Tuition and admission matter. So do the unwritten rules: whom to ask, how to find a mentor, which opportunities to pursue, and what to do when the path is unclear.

For students whose families have not already mapped the terrain, every missing introduction or unwritten rule adds friction. EdMobilizer brings that knowledge into the open—and puts relationships around it.

02 — How we work

Community shares knowledge. Access creates options. Mobility expands choice.

Community

Create places where people across the first-generation community can exchange hard-won knowledge and build relationships across stages of life.

Access

Make the people, information, and opportunities that shape college and careers easier to find—and easier to reach.

Mobility

Turn stronger relationships and clearer pathways into greater agency over what comes next—on campus, at work, and beyond.

03 — A decade in motion

A student-built network with national reach.

Across ten summits and dozens of affiliated groups, students shared practical knowledge, connected campus leaders, and built relationships across institutions.

national and regional 1vyG gatherings

Explore the 1vyG timeline

3,000+

students engaged through EdMobilizer initiatives

Follow EdMobilizer’s history

40+

affiliated first-generation student groups

Explore the 1vyG network

30+

colleges and universities in the 1vyG network

See the host campuses

Panelists sharing a light moment on stage during 1vyG at Princeton — Princeton University

04 — Featured work

The conference that connected a national network

1vyG

1vyG gave first-generation students a national room of their own—one designed for candor, practical exchange, and action back on campus.

What it built

A forum where students could compare lived experience and campus practice.

How it traveled

Each host campus inherited the model, reshaped the program, and passed it forward.

Why it matters

The relationships outlasted any one weekend, connecting student leaders across institutions.

Explore 1vyG

05 — The host network

Each campus made 1vyG its own.

Students founded the idea. Hosts remade it. Speakers, advisors, and partners added reach and expertise. EdMobilizer grew through that accumulation—people choosing to make what they knew useful to someone else.

Meet the people