Charlotte’s newest residential learning community prepares first-generation college students for academic and social success

Fall 2025 marked the beginning of a new learning community at Charlotte dedicated to first-generation students. As the University’s fifth residential learning community, 49er First serves as a blueprint for first-gen students to thrive academically and socially. 

“UNC Charlotte is a First-Gen Forward institution and supporting first-generation students is something that’s important to us,” said Chris Walls, learning community coordinator.

Eighteen North Carolina natives and one from Indiana compose the inaugural cohort of first-gen, first-year students. They live together in Wilson Hall and take a seminar taught by Walls. The course is an introduction to college tailored to first-generation students. 

“The main goal is to foster connections,” Walls said. “We’re doing a lot of community building and assessing how their strengths apply to college, and after they graduate.”

Finding Community

Katherin Cid-Hernandez is a member of the 49er First learning community and studying pre-business. Hernandez grew up in Henderson, North Carolina. Born to immigrant parents, Cid-Hernandez and her sister both achieved the family dream of attending a four-year university. When looking at housing options at Charlotte, she wanted to be surrounded by people who could relate to her experiences, and she found that in Wilson Hall.

“The first two girls I met in my hall — when I walked into their dorm it reminded me so much of home — from the things they brought to the way it smelled,” Cid-Hernandez said. “It was so inviting and made me feel like there was a little piece of home within this learning community.”

Aj Stevens, a first-year student from Newburgh, Indiana, studying mechanical engineering, was inspired to join the cohort to make friends who knew what it was like to be a first-generation college student. 

Maritza Del Valle-Prudente, a nursing major from Raleigh, North Carolina, said joining the cohort relieves many stressors first-generation students face when transitioning to college. 

“I would 100% recommend this learning community to an incoming freshman,” she said. “You won’t have to worry about housing, and you are surrounded by peers who are also navigating college as first-gen students.”

On Track for Academic Success

The University has programs in place to support first-gen students’ transition to college, such as Forty-Niner First-Gen Support and summer bridge programs. 49er First supports this mission in the residence halls and in the classroom.

In the learning community seminar, led by Walls, cohort members are connected  to campus resources through guest speakers — including the Career Center, Office of Education Abroad, Niner Finances and Leadership and Community Engagement.

A first-generation student, Walls stresses he did not have such support. “We weren’t a population of students that people really focused on. I feel more grateful than anything. I get to tell them my story and have them learn from my experience.”

This semester’s seminar culminates in a vision workshop, which challenges the students to explore where they see themselves later in life. Next semester, the cohort will take an introductory research course to learn how to consume scholarly information. The group will visit a corporate campus to gain experience with networking.

“This learning community has allowed me to see the importance of soft skills such as leadership, communication and problem-solving,” said Christian Vasquez, a Durham, North Carolina, native studying electrical engineering.

The inaugural 49er First Learning Community is off to a strong start, and Walls is looking forward to the next group of prospective students. He hopes the students from this cohort will be prepared to excel academically, earning a place in Charlotte’s various honors-based communities. He also hopes some will volunteer as peer mentors for the next class of learners. 

“This is the first new learning community in a few years, so I just wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of their engagement, participation and excitement,” Walls said. “It’s really going much better than I could have expected.”