Bardians Bridge the Gap for Low-Income and First-Generation Students on Campus

By Lauren Rodgers ’27

The SCALE project is a student-run program on campus that seeks to support first-generation, low-income students in any way possible. They’ve instituted some essential financial aid programs on campus, such as the Language Learning Book Fund and a Pell-eligible parking waiver. To learn more about SCALE’s work and ways to get involved, read the interview with Estefany Lara ’26 and McKenna Reeves ’26 below.

Listen to CCE's What's Your Why podcast with McKenna Reeves ’26

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting with McKenna Reeves ’26 and Estefany Lara ’26, two of three leaders of Bard’s SCALE Project. Reeves and Lara, along with their coworker Jaime Blois ’25/’26, are doing important work in bridging the gaps of economic disparity between Bard students. Together, Reeves, Lara, and Blois are consistently working to make college more accessible for these students by listening to their needs, working with administration, and implementing aid programs. This year, the SCALE Project is hoping to broaden their reach and further connect low income and first-generation Bard students.
 
AA: Tell us a little about yourselves.

Lara: I'm a junior, and an economics and philosophy dual major. I was born in El Salvador, but I moved to the US when I was 11. I am a first-generation college and high school student, and am a low income student as well. I also work for the Community Club at the Office of Equity and Inclusion, am president of the economics club, and do marketing for the DEI office.

Reeves: I’m a junior, and a biology major. I’m on the soccer team, the debate team, and I work for SCALE. I’m from central Pennsylvania.

AA: What is the SCALE Project?

Reeves: The SCALE Project is the first-gen, low income program on campus. It's entirely student run. We do both institutional advocacy as well as providing direct resources to low income and first-generation students on campus. We do a lot of major events, such as the resource fairs, the book program, and we’ve done summer storage for the last three summers. We've also done smaller things, like first-gen celebration week, and first-gen graduation in collaboration with other offices.
 
Lara: We do multiple programs and multiple collaborations across campus, with the mission of providing services to first-gen and low income students.

 

AA: What is the history of the SCALE Project?

Reeves: Sophie Logan founded the SCALE Project in 2017. Sophie still does a lot with SCALE, like being on the SEIA board (SCALE Internship Equity Award). We’re still connected with her in a lot of ways.

There's been three main iterations of leaders, or clubheads, of the SCALE Project at this point. There was Sophie Logan, then Emily Joachim and Sarah Seager took over once she graduated. They were the leaders of it from their freshman year to their senior year, and they just graduated. Then, Jaime, Estafany and I are the third generation. We’re going off of a lot of what Emily and Sarah built. Sarah and Emily are the reason why the SCALE Project became so well known.

A lot of faculty don't know that we were started in 2017, and believe it was started much later, because Sarah and Emily really brought it to the forefront by working with the institution to make specific institutional changes. One of those institutional changes was the waiving of the studio arts fee. Additionally, in the last year we've made it so that Pell-eligible students no longer have to pay for parking on campus. We also created the language learning textbook fund, so if you're taking a 100 or 200 level course, you can get your textbook paid for by the school.

Lara: Sarah and Emily have grounded the foundation of SCALE, and we are able to build on that foundation further, but they are the heart of what SCALE is and has become in the past few years.

AA: How did you get involved with the SCALE Project?

Lara: I got involved with the SCALE project last fall, and officially started my position in December 2023. It was my first semester at Bard. I already knew Emliy, who was the clubhead. I came to the resource fairs, because I’m a low-income and first-generation student. When they started hiring, I realized that this is something I really care about, and it relates to my own identity. Having the opportunity to be involved in the process of supporting other students like myself, or who have similar experiences made me excited. I realized that this was a place for me to make the change in the ways that I hoped to and wanted to. I really fell in love with it.

Reeves: I found out about SCALE through a job posting on Handshake. Jaime and I got hired together in the spring of 2023, my freshman year and Jaime’s sophomore year. I’ve been here now for almost two years. I actually didn’t know what SCALE was until I applied for the job position. I had only been here for a semester, so I wasn’t super involved in campus yet, because I was still trying to figure things out. As a first-generation and low income student, learning what SCALE was and becoming a part of it has been one of the best parts of being at Bard for me.I worked with Sarah and Emily for a year and a half, and they created such a sense of community that was really important for me.

AA: Why do you think the SCALE project is so important to the Bard community?

Reeves: For one, we provide a necessity. We provide necessary resources, and I think that's really important. At a place like Bard, where there is such a variance of income and income discrepancy among students, I think it's really important that low income students know that they're not being overlooked, and they know that there's someone here for them. It's important that student voices be heard. We meet a lot with administration to make sure that student voices are being heard. For example, we present at the new faculty orientation every year, so that the new faculty puts this resource in their syllabus, and also to show them some things that they should consider about low income students that they might not have considered before. Part of our role on campus is providing necessary resources, but also providing a voice for a student body that doesn't really get to be heard as much. 

Lara: I agree with that. It's also really helpful that we’re students, and a lot of us align with first-gen and low income identities. This job also requires a lot of care, and we care about this mission. Because of this, we are able to talk to faculty on behalf of first-gen and low income students to be able to make a change that we see is needed. That change doesn’t solely come from our perspective, because we do SCALE surveys that go out every year, which allows us to understand students' needs.

AA: What is the most important event that SCALE hosts?

Reeves: In terms of low income students, I would say the resource fair is the most important. However, I will say that our summer storage is really coming up. It’s utilized a lot; we have 150 people who use our storage. It's hard to rank our events, because everything has its own purpose and its own needs. In terms of first-gen, our big programming is first-gen celebration week. We’re currently in the process of planning the next one, because it takes place every November. In terms of resource-based programming, I would say the resource fair or summer storage, because those are our most widely used programs and the most available to students. Summer storage can help offload another level of stress from low-income students. 

Lara: I agree. I think it's circumstantial. Whatever students need, they're going to turn to a specific program that will feed their needs at that particular time. For me, I would say summer storage, because it allows us to serve a variety of populations, like international students or out of state students. Through summer storage, we’re able to extend our resources, and I think that’s something really special about SCALE. We’re working towards having free services that a lot of colleges don’t have. It’s one of my favorite programs.

AA: Do you have any upcoming projects or events that you'd like to share?

Reeves: Our big upcoming thing is first-gen week, which starts November 4th. We're also going to be doing an open meeting on October 25th. One thing we’re really hoping to do this year is increase the amount of community and connection between first-gen and low income students. It will be a good opportunity to just come talk and express concerns.

The Annandale Advocate thanks Estefany Lara ’26 and McKenna Reeves ’26 for taking the time to discuss their project with us. For more information, visit the SCALE Project website and Instagram page.
 

Post Date: 10-04-2024