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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe needed to address those students on probation in the fall who struggle a lot the next semester,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we wanted to find a way to best focus our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of PASS, students meet with a tutor for two hours a week at the Center for Academic Support, attend a time management workshop, study three hours per week in the library (they slide their ID card to log their hours), and meet with their peer mentor in Student Success and a counselor in the Counseling Center. They are also assigned a staff guide to help them access campus resources.<\/p>\n
The program offers opportunities for struggling students to meet with several staff members and fellow students, Bryant says, which gives them a chance to make connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they just need one person who cares. The big thing is getting them connected with others and with resources to help them succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its inaugural semester, 59 students were given the opportunity to participate. Of that number, 33 students, or 61%, earned a higher GPA in the spring compared to their fall GPA. Fifty-two of the students logged 1,052 hours in the library, 38 visited the Center for Academic Support for 223 hours, 47 met with their peer mentor and 40 met with their staff guide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pilot program was deemed a success,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cAnd we have some ideas for changes for next year.\u201d She noted that the staff guides and peer mentors will definitely be a part of next spring\u2019s program since both ranked highly on student evaluations.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents told us, \u2018this saved me,\u2019\u201d Bryant said of PASS.<\/p>\n
Several people worked on PASS for more than a year before it was rolled out, and Bryant gave credit to Susan Garrison, director of the Center of Academic Support, for her work on it.<\/p>\n
Another initiative involved creating a larger role for student mentors. This fall, they were introduced to students in the University 101 classes, a three-credit seminar class for freshmen. The mentors are meeting one on one with each student in the class over the course of the semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a freshman is having a problem with a teacher, sometimes they will tell a fellow student rather than talk to the teacher,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cSo we want to give them that opportunity with the mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also this fall, a Focus Area program for newly enrolled freshmen began. Focus areas are a cluster grouping of majors that have related courses and careers, and seven were developed to help students who are undecided about a major make a decision sooner and get connected to an academic department.<\/p>\n
Freshmen enrolled in the University 101 classes were placed into a specific section based on their interest in a focus area.\u00a0The seven areas include business and entrepreneurship; education; health sciences and health careers; humanities; social and behavioral science; science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and visual and performing arts.<\/p>\n
With the University 101 sections divided by focus areas, it gives undecided students an opportunity to connect with like-minded students and also learn about choices for majors in the particular focus area, Bryant said, which hopefully will lead to choosing a major sooner. Students are also encouraged to meet with an advisor to discuss the focus areas that pique their interest so they can learn about degree requirements in a particular major.<\/p>\n
She noted that if a student selects a major early in their college career and stays with it, they have a better chance of graduating in four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all our programs, we try to be proactive, not reactive,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cThere are so many wonderful people on campus who want to help students succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Elaine Bryant, director of ATLAS (Advising, Tutoring, Learning and Academic Support, says she and her staff are here to make sure students have a successful college experience and persist to earn a degree, and office personnel recently began some new initiatives toward that end. One was a pilot program that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69,18,70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4333,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions\/4333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}