Struggling With Perceived Isolation, Many First-Gen College Students Face Mental Health Problems – wgbh.org

This story is part three of our four-part series, "Stressed And Depressed On Campus." Read part one here, part two here and part four here.

Growing up poor outside Detroit in Dearborn Heights, Tanner Bonner worked at a sandwich shop part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer to help support his family.

His mom is unemployed, while his dad has been on disability since hurting his back cleaning carpets.

His senior year of high school, Bonner earned a perfect score on the ACT and won a national scholarship for students whose families earn, on average, less than $13,000 each year. He was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and started classes there last fall.

Not many people knew what MIT was in his hometown, Bonner said between classes, winding through the Infinite Corridor that snakes through the heart of campus and under the Great Dome. Some people thought it was the Michigan Institute of Technology. I didn't even know what it was until I was 17 years old."

About 20 percent of MIT students are from low-income families, according to federal data. Bonner, the first in his family to go to college, says he often feels socially isolated even though the 19-year-old sophomore is surrounded by peers his age.

He's not alone. Low-income, first-generation college students often find themselves socially isolated a situation that can erode their mental health.

"These are remarkable kids, but we also have to realize that they are under stress, too," said Raynard Kington, president of Grinnell College, a small private school in rural Iowa. As at MIT, one in five students at Grinnell are low-income; 14 percent are first-generation.

Bonner suffers from anxiety and at times feels hopeless, struggling to maintain his mental health because he feels so apart from other students.

The primary way is the fact that I'm not the Average Joe here at MIT," he said.

"I think about it every day, Bonner added. It's also something that's invisible, so you can't see that 20 percent all the time. So when you're walking down the hallways, tags of class like seeing a really expensive backpack or an expensive sweater reinforces that isolation quite a bit."

Kington, trained as a public health physician, defines students like Bonner from disadvantaged backgrounds who nevertheless make it to selective colleges as "levitators."

"For them to actually get into those institutions, it's like defying gravity, Kington said. It's that big of a deal."

Kington says these "levitators" require different mental health interventions.

"We try to have a diverse staff, Kington said. We have a group of first-generation faculty, for example, who self-identify in that way and make themselves available in various settings for students. So I think we're becoming better at it, but it's a challenge."

MIT, where a number of suicides have been reported in the past, also says its getting better.

In a statement to WGBH News, David Randall, senior associate dean for student support and wellbeing at MIT, said the school places priority on providing a strong, accessible student support network and encouraging help-seeking.

While MIT meets the full financial need of all our students including a $2,000 grant to low-income first year students to help with supplies they may need in making the transition to MIT we recognize that unexpected financial challenges can negatively impact our students' intellectual, physical and personal development, Randall said. When we learn of students in such need, we have emergency funds that we can use to help support them.

MIT has opened an at-cost grocery store and launched a meal swipe donation program for students who have trouble affording food. The university also has a program designed to build a sense of community among first-generation students, faculty and alumni.

But Bonner says he still struggles to feel at home, increasing his anxiety.

Bonner spoke to WGBH News during family weekend at MIT in late October. His parents could not afford to make the trip from Michigan.

"For your family to be able to come here and find a place to stay while they're here is an advantage, he said. I've been trying to brainstorm some ways that I can save up money to get my family out here."

Many low-income, first-generation students at MIT never see their families on campus, Bonner said.

"We've kept those two worlds separate, he said. We've never really seen them intertwine in such a way that can make us feel more comfortable."

In addition to being a low-income, first-generation student, Bonner is gay. His anxiety is heightened by what's happening politically and socially beyond Cambridge.

Bonner sees flashes of intolerance back at home, online and in Washington, and said he often worries that President Donald Trump adding two conservative justices to the Supreme Court will undermine gay rights.

"It feels like the whole world is against you, especially in the current administration that we have, and the larger-scale issues going on regarding, you know, are we accepted in the legal sphere as equal people?" he said.

A growing sense of hopelessness has been found among many of the country's young people by researchers like Vikram Patel, a psychologist who teaches public health at Harvard Medial School.

Patel said the current political and social climate contributes to learning environments being stressful for college students.

Kirk Carapezza/WGBH News

"For them, the sense of uncertainty, insecurity and fear about what the future holds for them a future in which the world is increasingly polarized, driven by hate, and, of course, climate change added to that isn't a very optimistic one," said Patel, who recommends colleges work to restore a sense of purpose for an entire generation.

I think colleges are the central platform for giving a sense of purpose for young people, he added. Colleges cannot only be places where we churn out doctors, engineers, lawyers to then look for jobs in the future economy of this planet, but actually young people who can be agents of change to address the pressing social problems that affect us."

On campus at MIT, to manage his anxiety, Bonner has been seeing a psychiatrist and this semester started additional therapy through student services.

"Not only does seeking out help make you feel better, but it makes you a more efficient worker, he said. When I'm anxious, sometimes, I have to go a couple of hours where I'm not able to get anything done."

After he graduates, Bonner hopes to use his degree in urban planning and computer and data science to inform policymakers and improve the lives of other young people in metro Detroit.

"I love math. I love numbers. I love computer science in general, but that's not what I want to do solely, he said. It would be great to be able to go back home one day and to be working on these problems."

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or use the Crisis Text Line by texting Home to 741741. More resources are available at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Tanner Bonner won a national scholarship for students whose families earn less than $13,000 each year. The scholarship is for students whose families earn, on average, $13,000 each year.

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Struggling With Perceived Isolation, Many First-Gen College Students Face Mental Health Problems - wgbh.org