New initiative helps to retain 1st-generation students at PennWest, Slippery Rock, IUP
The Posner Foundation is funding an effort to help students stay on to the crucial second year of college.
By KELLEN STEPLER
TribLive
A program to be piloted at Western Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities aims to help first-generation and low-income students persist from the first to second year of college — the point where they’re most likely to drop out.
Six universities, including Slippery Rock, Indiana and Pennsylvania Western, are starting the Mastering Academic and Professional Systems program this spring, said Kalani Palmer, an IUP education professor leading the statewide program.
It is funded by a $250,000, two-year grant from the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh. Ultimately, the program wants to help students understand the “unspoken expectations” of college life, Palmer said.
“On the faculty side, we expect them to know what a syllabus is, and how to use it; or what office hours are and how to use them,” Palmer said. “Or they’ll get an issue with billing, and they don’t know what the bursar’s office is. They come into an environment with terms that don’t exist anywhere else, and we don’t communicate with them. We just assume they know.”
Each university will enroll 12 students into a structured, yearlong program of meetings, mentoring, financial coaching and other activities to connect students to campus resources, Palmer said. Students must be either first-generation or Pell Grant-eligible to participate.
“They’ll have a series of intentional learning experiences focused on navigating college and what that looks like,” said Tricia Shelton, a Slippery Rock education professor who helped write the grant. “There’s a real emphasis on social capital — it emphasizes building relationships with staff and peers … and it’s helping students gain the skills so they can be proactive so that when they encounter difficulty, they know what to do.”
The program will go a step beyond the information shared during freshman orientation. Palmer noted that some campus resources, like career or tutoring centers, aren’t always used by a student until they get closer to graduation or their classes get more difficult.
“They throw a lot of information at you at orientation, and it’s overwhelming, and you only remember the things you use immediately,” Palmer said. “There’s a lot of people reaching out, and you’re kind of on your own after that. The thought is, we’re giving you the support and you get it, but if you’re coming in and this isn’t the environment you’re used to, and the support declines, you can start to see the drop off from the first year to the second year.”
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education reports that nearly 80% of system students return for their second year. The pilot program aims to strengthen student retention by providing additional support to first-year and low-income students and develop strategies that could be implemented systemwide.
“Every student who stays enrolled and earns a degree is a nurse, an engineer, a teacher or an entrepreneur that Pennsylvania’s economy needs. The first year is where we lose too many of them,” said PASSHE Foundation CEO Shelley Scherer in a statement. “MAPS keeps first-generation and low-income students on track to finish — and when they finish, they stay, work and build careers in the communities and industries that depend on them.”
