Despite efforts to improve retention and degree completion rates, American higher education suffers from a persistent social-class achievement gap (Stephens, Hamedani, and Destin, 2014). This gap is often explored quantitatively through the examination of academic outcomes of first-generation college students (i.e. students who parents have not completed a college degree) in comparison to their continuing-generation peers. This approach has resulted in a deficit approach to first-generation college students, focusing on ways in which they need to be remediated, rather than an interrogation of the ways in which academic, disciplinary, and institutional cultures may present barriers to success for this student population. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological (van Manen, 1990, 2014) study was to explore the ways in which first-generation students navigate collegiate academic culture through the lens of a specific and ubiquitous academic experience--the research assignment. Thirty first-generation students, who were in at least their third year of study at two regional campuses of a large research university, were selected to participate in semi-structured interviews using maximum variation sampling (Patton, 1990). A unique combination of the community of practice concept (Lave & Wenger, 1991), social capital (Bourdieu, 1986), academic literacy, and information literacy formed the study's conceptual framework. Four key themes emerged from the data. First, students perceived their initial positionality within the community differently based on their success in applying the skills and strategies they had developed in high school to their new college environment. Second, students' perceptions of their initial positionality within the community were related to the nature and frequency of early interactions with faculty and the development of an academic support network. Third, when given the opportunity to do so, students used their prior knowledge, lived experiences, interests, and identities to select topics for their research assignments. Finally, many students seemed to employ the same checklist approach to evaluating and using information in research assignments they learned in high school throughout their college career, rather than demonstrating the development of critical thinking related to information use. [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.]