Featured COIL project
First-Gen Go Global: Writing Across Los Angeles, Toronto, and Durham
Students across three universities used writing, editing, digital authoring, and public publishing to explore what it means to be a first-generation college student in different national and educational contexts.
Project snapshot
An international first-generation writing community
Cal State LA faculty
Danelle Dyckhoff Stelzriede
Department of English
International partner
Rich Shivener
York University, Toronto
Additional partner
Durham University
Durham, England
2025–2026
62 student participants across two connected phases
The collaboration
Students did more than exchange writing
The project connected Cal State LA, York University, and Durham University through a larger ecosystem of writing, peer response, editing, digital authoring, publication, and public communication.
Students wrote about first-generation university experiences, responded to work from international peers, participated in synchronous conversations, helped edit and publish writing, and developed digital campaigns that carried the work beyond the classroom.
An interconnected project
The collaboration moved across three learning spaces
Rather than treating COIL as a single assignment, the project connected curricular and co-curricular work so that student writing could move from conversation to publication and public engagement.
ENGL 4540
Writing the International First-Generation College Experience connects academic study of first-generation writing with international collaboration and preparation for study abroad in Durham.
Text & Type
The student-edited CSU Open Journal provides a public home for writing produced through the international first-generation writing community.
#FirstGenGoGlobal
Students from Cal State LA and York University developed digital campaigns to share published student work and extend the conversation through social media.
Global and intercultural learning
First-generation identity looks different depending on where you stand
Students explored both common experiences and important differences in how access, belonging, family expectations, and educational opportunity are understood across the United States, Canada, and England.
Listen across differences
Students responded to personal narratives written within educational and cultural contexts different from their own.
Write for real audiences
Student writing moved beyond a private classroom assignment through editorial review, Open Access publication, and public promotion.
See experience as knowledge
First-generation students were invited to understand their own experiences as meaningful sources of knowledge within a wider international conversation.
Two connected phases
One collaboration created the foundation for the next
Fall 2025
Digital authoring and publication
- 42 students across Cal State LA, York University, and Durham University
- Three synchronous Zoom meetings
- International collaboration among writers, editors, and digital-authoring students
- Digital campaign for #FirstGenGoGlobal
- Promotion of student writing published in Text & Type
Spring 2026
International writing workshop
- 20 students across the three institutions
- Two-week online writing workshop
- Personal narratives focused on first-generation university experiences
- International peer exchange and feedback
- Cal State LA English M.A. students serving as workshop co-facilitators
- Writing prepared for publication in the Fall 2026 issue of Text & Type
See the student work
The collaboration has a public life beyond the course
Danelle does not yet have formal student testimonials or survey findings specific to the COIL experience, but the work itself provides a visible record of the collaboration.
Text & Type: “Stories in Motion”
The Fall 2025 issue includes student writing connected to the international first-generation writing community and the editorial work that became part of the COIL collaboration.
#FirstGenGoGlobal
The Instagram initiative extends the project into digital public communication, sharing student-authored work and highlighting first-generation global education.
What the faculty learned
Direct conversation made the project feel genuinely shared
Danelle identified the synchronous Zoom meetings as especially valuable because students could speak directly with collaborators at the other institutions rather than experience the project only through asynchronous work.
Coordinating three institutions, academic calendars, and time zones was one of the major challenges. Establishing the shared meeting schedule early became an important lesson for future iterations.
The larger surprise was how easily the collaboration began creating connections beyond the original course. What started as an online exchange developed into a pathway linking writing, editing, digital publishing, international collaboration, and future study abroad.
What comes next
From online collaboration to a sustained global learning pathway
The partnership among Cal State LA, York University, and Durham University is continuing. Student work from the Spring 2026 workshop is moving toward publication, and the collaborators are planning to connect the online writing community with an expanded in-person study abroad experience involving Cal State LA, Durham, and York students in Summer 2027.
The longer-term goal is to sustain the connections among international online collaboration, digital authoring, Open Access publishing, and first-generation global education.