The nurturance and development of the whole person should be fundamental to the institutional and educational goals of colleges and universities across the United States. However, for reasons that continue to elude many institutions, freshmen continue to struggle with successful transition to the world of academia otherwise known as the "college experience." This is especially true for first-year freshmen from disadvantaged backgrounds who have been shown to often face additional barriers and challenges to college life compared to their peers from non-disadvantaged backgrounds. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify the perceived barriers for first-year freshmen from disadvantaged backgrounds to campus involvement leading to student leadership opportunities and to determine the support systems needed to increase their participation in those existing opportunities at a university within the University of Louisiana System (ULS). Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants to engage in focus groups and a total of 23 participants completed a Demographic Questionnaire and a Focus Group Questionnaire. Thematic analyses were conducted to examine the data. The sample consisted of 20 (87%) women and three (13%) men. Several themes emerged regarding barriers to campus involvement leading to student leadership opportunities including connection, emotion, and time management. In the examination of support systems needed to increase participation, communication, financial, connection, and events all emerged as themes. The findings may assist university administrators in making key changes to their freshman programming or in the development of new initiatives aimed at removing the stigmas and challenges attached to first-year freshmen from disadvantaged backgrounds. [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://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]