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.

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A first-generation student speaking at a 1vyG conference at Princeton — From the archive1vyG at Princeton University

First Lady Michelle Obama and 1vyG co-founder Manuel Contreras in conversation at the White House — The White House · Beating the Odds Summit

A national moment

From a Brown dorm room to a national moment.

Soon after the inaugural 1vyG summit, co-founder Manuel Contreras joined First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to speak plainly about what it takes not only to enter college, but to find your footing there.

Explore the national moment 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