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Abstract
This study explored the experiences of grieving first-year college students. Previous research has suggested that grieving students may make up between 37% and 44% of college students (Cousins et al., 2017). Previous research has also documented that grieving college students may experience higher levels of anxiety, psychosocial distress, and loneliness when compared to non-grieving peers. At the same time, many of these studies have taken a quantitative approach. This study adds to the literature by using a qualitative narrative approach to understand first-year grieving students' experiences. This study honored the unique experiences of nine individuals who experienced grief during their first year in college through narrative inquiry. Participants were recruited nationally through snowball sampling, and data was collected in February and March of 2021. Data was constructed from personal stories of grieving students. These stories are presented as stand-alone findings and interim texts that allowed for the development of themes. The findings from this study emphasize the uniqueness of grief for everyone. The findings of this study also highlighted the challenges that grieving first-year students may face. Finally, the findings reveal common themes of grief experiences and resiliency. In practice, these findings support the development of strong social networks for grieving first-year students. For scholarship, this study reframes grieving students away from a deficit and quantitative approach towards an asset-based qualitative approach.