The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe how social integration in the form of building relationships with faculty and peers influenced the academic persistence of first-generation students who graduated from a large university in the Midwest. Data were collected from the Institutional Integration Scale and 20 semi-structured interviews with first-generation students who had successfully graduated from college. All 20 interview participants also fully completed the Institutional Integration Scale in addition to open-ended questions written by the researcher. The theoretical framework for the study included Tinto's (1975, 1993) student integration model and the concept of academic persistence. MAXQDA 2022 was used to analyze the open-ended questionnaire questions and the interview transcripts. Eight themes emerged from the analysis: external factors supporting persistence, internal factors supporting persistence, social support in the classroom, social support outside the classroom, factors influencing lack of interaction or communication with peers, barriers to persistence, factors that influence persistence, and faculty support of student success. The study findings may be leveraged to pursue academic persistence trends among first-generation college students and graduates in both public and private institutions of higher learning across geographic regions and encourage future research among a more diverse sample to generally progress the Student Integration Model. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]