This digest discusses the challenges facing first-generation students, and offers strategies for helping them to transfer to four-year institutions. A first-generation community college student attends a community college, and his or her parents have not obtained a college degree. Large waves of immigration have affected community colleges; many of these incoming students who enter the higher education system experience difficult cultural transitions. Upward mobility is the primary goal of most of these full-time first-generation college students. Academic and social challenges are often compounded for first-generation students because of family resistance to cultural and academic acclimation, which alienates these students from family support and financial resources. The struggle for first-generation students to transfer is intensified by the prevalence of poor academic preparation and low socioeconomic levels. First-generation students are often placed in vocational, technical, and/or remedial programs that impede their progress toward transfer. To increase the overall rate of transfer, enhanced counseling and advising services, as well as faculty advising, have been effective. At one college, enrollment of first generation students in Coordinated Studies Programs is also helpful in facilitating transfer. Clarification of current articulation agreements can ease the movement from two- to four-year colleges. As high-risk students, first-generation community college students require special attention, with strategies to work with that will facilitate transfer. Contains 15 references. (AS)