"Firsts Abroad: Underrepresented Students Journeys Outward and Upward explores the stories of nineteen US first-generation college students, or those without a parent who earned a bachelors degree, who studied abroad in a variety of world regions for up to five months. It argues that because of their multicultural, multilingual backgrounds, non-traditional paths to and through college, and hard-won life experiences, first-generation college students possess abilities, skills, and knowledge that help them take advantage of their overseas opportunities. In addition, through study abroad, these students experience important personal transformations and access international education and career opportunities that may facilitate their upward social mobility. Without these study abroad experiences, it is doubtful that such possibilities would be imaginable-much less attainable-for these students. Firsts Abroad breaks new ground in the study of both international student mobility and underrepresented students in higher education. It argues against entrenched deficit narratives regarding first-generation student, and in doing so, it contributes not only to nascent research on first-generation students in study abroad but also to the wider literature on underrepresented students, higher education, and international student mobility"-- Provided by publisher.