The Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year is a national, collaborative project funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Foundations project is designed to provide a model for institutions to evaluate and improve students’ first year of college.

Missouri Western is one of the founding institutions working closely with the Policy Center on the First Year of College to both develop Foundational Dimensions—the general guidelines for an intentional model of the first year—and to assess the progress in reaching those dimensions.

The ultimate goals of the Foundations project are (a) to develop a research-based, comprehensive model of the first college year that is attainable and immediately usable by institutions to increase student learning, success, and retention; and (b) to develop a method for campuses to evaluate and certify their level of achievement.¹

The result of this project will be a systematic assessment model to help institutions confirm what they are doing well and to recognize areas that need improvement regarding students’ first year of college.

¹Information obtained from Foundations of Excellence in the First Year of College website at http://www.fyfoundations.org/.