LIFT program
For first-generation students
College is different than high school. It’s more rigorous and the language is different (what is the registrar’s office and what do they do?) If your parents can’t help—if they never went to college themselves—who can help you learn this new world?
You can actually find your answers at Lilly Library. Librarians are an excellent source of knowledge at Earlham College (and everywhere!) And, luckily for you, if you’re a first-generation student, you’ve been automatically added to a program that pairs you with one of these knowledgeable librarians.
What is the LIFT program?
As a first-generation student at Earlham College, you’re a part of the LIFT Program. This program matches small groups of first-generation students with a personal research librarian during ten weeks of fall semester. By meeting for 75 minutes for one session per week with their librarian, LIFT students undertake a one-credit tutorial in information literacy.
The experience includes readings, research, and discussion. You’ll engage with other students about current events while exploring media like The New York Times, TED Talks, and National Public Radio. You’ll learn key tools like JSTOR and Zotero to support your research and academic work at Earlham. You’ll also build digital storytelling skills by learning audio/video editing software. Students will acquire research and digital competencies while building personal connections with an Earlham administrative faculty member and a few of their classmates in a small-group setting.
Fully funded off-campus term
LIFT-off with us to another country! As an incoming LIFT student, you are eligible to apply for an all-expenses-paid immersive term at the end of your first year. The 2024 cohort went to England and Scotland. In the past, LIFT cohorts have gone to Montréal (2017), Hawai’i (2018), Italy (2019), and Germany/The Netherlands (2023).
Student goals
As a LIFT student, you will:
- Develop community with a group of peers from similar and diverse backgrounds through intentional dialogue and reflection.
- Read, evaluate and interpret media coverage of trending issues and current events.
- Practice and engage with ideas of ethical behavior while finding, using and sharing information.
- Identify library resources and campus services to support your curricular and co-curricular lives.
- Create a media reflection project that demonstrates digital storytelling skills.
Paving the way
These students have been there, done that! They’re LIFT students who did outstanding things while at Earlham College—and beyond. Learn more about our proud LIFT alumni.
Marisol Cora-Cruz ’23
LIFT Student Awarded Prestigious Scholarship
Congratulations! Marisol Cora-Cruz was selected for the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, one of the nation’s top undergraduate awards given in the natural sciences, engineering or mathematics.
She’s interested in the medical field—interning with a public health school where they focus on researching substance abuse, violence, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and COVID-19 for the city’s Hispanic population.
She was also a LIFT student, proving that students who participate in the LIFT program go on to break boundaries and change the world.
Kendra Parker ’21
LIFT Student Establishes MAPS
Making space for underrepresented students! Kendra Parker worked with a classmate back in 2019 to establish Earlham College’s chapter of MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-medical Students). At the time of founding, Kendra said she wanted to play a role in promoting better diversity in medicine.
Kendra is now in the medical field herself. She is currently a grad student working in a neuroscience research lab. She is studying episodic fear memory, due to a belief that incorrect storage of this information leads to PTSD, Depression, and other mental illness.
But she started as a LIFT student at Earlham College. And the program helped support her as a first-generation student, teaching her skills that would help her throughout her academic career.
“I didn’t come from an academic home that could help me with this,” she says. “These people showed me the ropes—they were always available for me to call and I feel like I would not be successful without them.”
Megan Bennett ’20
LIFT Student Becomes Watson Fellow
Outstanding! Megan Bennett was a first-generation student who came to Earlham already familiar with the college (as her family resided in our own backyard in Richmond, Indiana). But it was with the LIFT Program that she found her sense of belonging.
“I wanted to join the LIFT program because sometimes I felt doubtful or lost, so I wanted a community of other first-generation students,” she says.
And between the LIFT-off term she took in Montréal, Canada (pictured) and the support system she found in her cohort, Megan flourished on campus. She was even selected for the prestigious Watson Fellowship.
[The Montréal LIFT immersive term], when I look back years from now, will always be the starting point into my ‘fire.’ I know I can go out and wander a city now, I know I can make new friends, even if we don’t click exactly. Montréal is the beginning of my path to change the world and hit the ground running, and I’ve done a surprising amount of running here, alongside those new friends.”
Testimonial from Montréal Immersive Term 2017