Genia M. Bettencourt's research focuses largely on working-class students rather than first-generation or low-income designations. Having come from a working class background herself, Bettencourt believes that single variables do not capture the full picture of social class. As a child, her social class did not derive merely from the fact that her dad did not have a college degree. Instead, by not having a college degree he was effectively barred from accessing jobs the provided greater autonomy and financial stability. As he worked night shifts on a dairy farm to financially support the family, Bettencourt grew up in a culture that centered work ethic, resourcefulness, and frugality. In her research, she draws upon work of Allison Hurst to define working-class background through parental education and occupation. Specifically, one's parent(s)/guardian(s) obtained less than a bachelor's degree and worked blue-collar jobs (defined through criteria such as manual labor, unsalaried work, and relationship to other workers). This definition positions social class within as a system of labor that distributes power to individuals and contains unique elements of culture. A decade after her undergraduate graduation, she began work on a dissertation that explored the experiences of working-class students at public research institutions. In three empirical articles, she explored different facets of working-class students' experiences on campus, specifically how students made meaning of their social class identity, what they viewed as allyship related to social class, and how they described their sense of belonging. Across her research, three key emphases came up repeatedly about how working-class participants viewed the impact of their social class backgrounds in higher education. Bettencourt maintains that if colleges are to be ready for working-class students, stakeholders across practitioners, administrators, and faculty need to better understand the diversity of social class backgrounds on their campuses and shape environments that can fully support students' lived experiences. In this article, Bettencourt shares three participant narratives to illuminate recommendations to facilitate working-class students' success.