“My hope is that I can inspire other faculty to engage students in projects that...empower the next generation of scholars.”
RIC Associate Professor of Psychology Melissa Marcotte (pictured above) believes in the importance of engaging first-gen students in research that empowers them as scholars. A first gen herself, she speaks from experience.
Marcotte transferred to RIC from a community college in Florida, with the goal of getting into a Ph.D. program in psychology. But she wasn’t sure she’d get the research experience she needed at RIC.
Not only did Marcotte find psych professors engaged in research, she was able to gain real-world experience in a research lab for two years. Marcotte says, “That experience was essential for me to get into a Ph.D. program.”
Marcotte earned her Ph.D. in behavioral science at the University of Rhode Island in 2017, after graduating from RIC with a B.A. in psychology and a B.S. in chemical dependency in 2012. Upon earning her Ph.D., she joined RIC’s faculty in the Department of Psychology, teaching courses in research methods.
Outside of teaching, Marcotte mentors first-gen students in RIC’s McNair Scholars Program. Approximately 51 percent of all RIC students are first generation college students. Designed for first gens and those from groups traditionally underrepresented in graduate education, the McNair program pairs faculty with student researchers to support them and prepare them for graduate and doctoral studies.
Marcotte believes that “research is an opportunity for first gens to push themselves, test themselves and prove to themselves that if this is what I want to do, I’m just as capable of doing it as anyone else.”
First gen Ariana Botelho is one of many students whose academic trajectory took off with the support of Marcotte. Botelho earned her B.A. and M.A. in psychology at RIC in 2022 and 2025 respectively. She is now pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Rhode Island.
Botelho first met Marcotte during her freshmen year in Marcotte’s research methods course. Marcotte encouraged Botelho to turn a class paper into a departmental honors research project. Subsequently, Marcotte became her honors advisor, her master’s thesis advisor and will soon serve as an outside member of the committee for her Ph.D. Botelho considers Marcotte to be one of her greatest mentors.
One of the reasons why first gens like Botelho blossom in Marcotte’s research methods courses is because the courses are so hands-on. Students are actively involved in every phase of the research process, from gathering participants, to collecting their own data, to writing papers, presenting their work at conferences and even publishing their research in journals.
In addition, Marcotte makes sure that student research takes place during class time. She understands that many first gens have to work while going to school.
“Fifty percent of all RIC students are Pell-eligible,” she says, “meaning they’re coming from working class households. What I try to do is give my students the opportunity to have research experiences during class so I’m not asking extra time of them after class, taking away from their work or family obligations.”
The benefits of research are immense, she says. It not only builds confidence, it gives first gens a sense of belonging in a foreign landscape like a college campus.
Former student Kathryn Faria, who is now Marcotte’s graduate assistant, was part of a student-led research study on the experiences of first-gen students at RIC. Three hundred RIC students were surveyed in this study, half of which were first gen. Though not among that demographic, Faria says Marcotte’s course also changed the trajectory of her life.
“I was a data science major in my senior year. I had no intentions of going into psych,” she says. “Through her class, I realized that this is really what I want to be doing, intersecting psychology with data analysis.”
Faria completed a double major in data science and psychology in 2024 and is now completing her master’s degree in psych at RIC. She intends to go on to earn her Ph.D. in the same field.
Marcotte notes that the findings from Faria and her classmates’ research on first-gen students at RIC challenged the “deficit” narrative often given to first gens by other researchers
In a summary paper, Marcotte writes, “We believe this may be due to the strong institutional support and the large [first gen] population at our college, which provides a sense of belonging that is often missing at more elite universities.”
Marcotte’s wish is that all students participate in research. “I don’t want first-gen status to be a barrier to research. I don’t want socio-economic status to be a barrier. Our institution is able to give all students those experiences and advance them in life.”
For the full research summary, see “Engaging and Empowering First-Generation Students in Research,” by Melissa Marcotte, submitted to the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in 2024.
Learn more about RIC’s Department of Psychology.