Students carry the work forward, campus by campus.
EdMobilizer began when first-generation students at Brown spoke candidly about the gap between gaining admission and feeling equipped to navigate college. Their answer was 1vyG.
1vyG connects first-generation students across campuses. EdMobilizer builds on that community through admissions advocacy and professional networks.
The idea underneath the work
Students were never the deficit. The missing infrastructure was.
Admission opens the gate; it does not supply the map. The first organizers created a place where students could name the unwritten rules, trade practical knowledge, and decide what needed to change on their campuses.
A decade of student leadership
The work grew beyond the conference.
New hosts reshaped the conference for their own campuses. Student coalitions then organized around application fees, admissions transparency, and legacy preference. Next Frontier extended the network into professional life.
- 012014
The question takes shape at Brown
Jessica Brown, Manuel Contreras, and Stanley Stewart began comparing the unwritten rules they were navigating as first-generation students. A Brown Social Innovation Fellowship gave them the backing to launch 1vyG.
Brown University
- 022015
1vyG brings campuses together at Brown
Hundreds of students came to Brown for the inaugural summit to compare experience and set a practical agenda for higher education. Later that year, 1vyG joined First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House’s Beating the Odds Summit to discuss what students need after admission.
Brown University
- 032016
Harvard puts belonging on the institutional agenda
More than 350 students, administrators, and alumni met at Harvard to examine campus life, belonging, and the responsibilities of institutions.
The Harvard Crimson
- 042017
Yale sends ideas back to campus
Yale welcomed 340 students from 18 institutions and more than 50 speakers for workshops, panels, and career conversations. Later that year, 1vyG expanded into EdMobilizer and added policy advocacy.
Brown Daily Herald
- 052018
Penn links the summit to admissions advocacy
At Penn, participants from 22 institutions examined leadership, institutional change, and life after graduation. Later that year, Full Disclosure united student groups at 12 colleges around transparency in legacy admissions.
Penn Today - 062019
Princeton asks what comes after belonging
More than 300 students from 34 institutions explored how first-generation and lower-income experience could inform leadership and change beyond the conference. A Southern regional summit at Duke widened the network that same year.
Princeton University - 072020
Cornell gathers the network around “First, but never alone”
Cornell brought together more than 240 students and 50 administrators from 25 institutions around the theme “First, but never alone.” EdMobilizer also introduced Next Frontier, giving students and professionals a way to connect beyond college.
Cornell Chronicle
- 082021
Leave Your Legacy brings students and alumni into admissions reform
EdMobilizer and Education Reform Now launched Leave Your Legacy, a student and alumni campaign calling on colleges to end legacy preference in admissions.
Education Reform Now - 092023
Penn brings 1vyG back in person
More than 100 students and administrators from 32 schools returned to an in-person 1vyG at Penn, with a program that examined how campuses define—and sometimes constrain—the FGLI experience.
Penn Today
- 102024
The idea comes home to Brown
More than 150 students and administrators from 29 colleges returned to Brown, with a new generation of organizers setting the agenda.
Brown University
What remains true
What one generation learns the hard way should become a path the next can follow.Explore the work