Inaugural Models of Excellence Honorees 3-Tiered Model of Advising Miami Dade College (Fla.) Miami Dade overhauled advising when focus groups revealed the one-size-fits-all system wasn’t meeting students’ academic needs. The new three-tiered model for first-time college students entering directly from high school reflected how circumstances and needs had changed. Tiers include pre-college advisors for high school students, first-year advisors who work with students until they have earned a quarter of their required credits, and mentors who cover career choices, internship opportunities and workforce readiness skills. Read the full story. Navigation Advising State Fair Community College (Mo.) Advising at State Fair Community College begins not just when students enroll, but before they even apply. The college sends staffers from its Navigation Advising program to high schools to discuss how to be a college student. These visits aren’t about recruitment, but a chance to explain the college application process, financial aid and advising, among other topics. Now in its second year, State Fair hopes the program will increase student retention and graduation rates in the years to come. Read the full story. Insight App University of San Diego (Calif.) Seeing an opportunity in the overwhelming prevalence of mobile devices on campus, the University of San Diego built Insight, an app that lets students organize coursework, extracurricular activities and personal tasks. Administrators use Google Analytics to collect data on usage and most popular features, and then correlate that data to academic performance. In the future, the university plans to add features to Insight and to create additional apps that improve academic performance. Read the full story. Academic Recovery Program Southeast Technical Institute (S.D.) Required for every student who has been placed on financial aid warning or academic probation for the first time, Southeast Technical Institute’s Academic Recovery Program consists of an hour of lecture and two hours of lab per week. Retention coordinators work with students on academic goals and financial aid. As a result, attrition rates have fallen by about 15 percent, and the number of students who have returned to good standing or remained on warning has risen by about 20 percent. Read the full story. Unconquered Scholars Program Florida State University (Fla.) In addition to offering a pathway to college, the Unconquered Scholars Program provides students at Florida State with guidance, mentoring, advocacy and a voice. Along with considerable academic support, the program also links students to life coaching, financial aid assistance, tutoring, technology, mental health counseling, academic workshops and volunteer opportunities. Since Unconquered Scholars was established, more than 91.1 percent of students in the program have been retained, with an average GPA of 3.01. Read the full story. Dual Degree Program Governors State University (Ill.) Research shows that students who earn associate’s degrees by attending two-year schools full-time earn their bachelor’s degrees at much higher rates. Full-time attendance is therefore a requirement of Governors State’s Dual Degree Program, a partnership with 17 community colleges. The program’s advisors help community college students plan to complete both degrees. Besides analyzing enrollment, retention and graduation data, Governors State conducts focus groups with its dual-degree students to solicit feedback on how to improve the program. Read the full story. 49er Finish UNC Charlotte (N.C.) Generating $400,000 in additional annual revenue, the 49er Finish Program at UNC Charlotte has brought back stopouts who left in their senior year without getting a degree. Survey research defining stopouts’ typical barriers to graduation has been translated into personalized marketing materials. The university has recruited 850 of the 3,000 students it has contacted during the past 10 years. Due to this success, UNC has created a readmission model for other schools in the University of North Carolina system. Read the full story. Exploration Plan Kent State University (Ohio) When a 2009 data review revealed that undecided students were less likely to graduate from Kent State University than were students entering with a declared major, leaders looked into why—and what they could do to improve retention. Along with instituting a six-point Exploration Plan, the university required all students to enroll in a degree-granting program by the time they had received 45 credit hours. As a result, the retention rate increased to 75 percent, and students declaring a major by the time they acquired 45 credit hours increased to 83 percent. Read the full story. Chart the Course Georgian Court University (N.J.) Earning 30 college credits in the first year is the best indicator of whether a student will earn a degree. So when administrators at Georgian Court University learned that only a third of first-time freshmen had earned that amount of credits, the institution began offering them a free three-credit course during the winter or summer break. The retention rate for the 43 students in the first-year trial program was 86 percent, which exceeds the overall university retention rate of 78 percent. With a clear impact on student success, the program has continued into this academic year. Read the full story. Internship Program Endicott College (Mass.) At Endicott College, students must complete three internships. The college supports the students before, during and after those internships with a number of initiatives designed to make the experience productive and rewarding for both the student and employer. This multi-disciplinary collaboration between coordinators, students, faculty and employers leads to outstanding post-graduation employment success. In 2014, the overall career outcome rate for Endicott’s May graduates was 99 percent, versus the national average of 80 percent. Read the full story. Peer Jacks Mentoring Program Northern Arizona University (Ariz.) To improve the chances that first-year students from out-of-state will return for a second year, officials at Northern Arizona created the Peer Jacks Mentoring program, named for the university’s Lumberjack mascot. Each year, approximately 700 students receive one-on-one mentoring from upperclassmen who participated in the program the prior year. For 2013-14, retention from the first to second year rose 5 percent and participants had an average GPA that was .09 points higher. Read the full story. Student Development Outcomes for Student Employees University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (Minn.) With more than 5,000 students working on campus, the University of Minnesota began offering them additional experiences to master during on-campus work assignments. Focusing on seven development outcomes, students learn how to work with others effectively and other skills that will translate to any type of career. A 2014 survey measured how student employees compared to the rest of the university: Student employees scored 15 percent to 26 percent higher on all seven of the outcomes. Read the full story. WellsLink Leadership Program Syracuse University (N.Y.) Students of color don’t always qualify for Syracuse’s many academic success programs. The WellsLink Leadership Program aims to connect these students with each other and to university resources through social, educational and motivational seminars and events. Since 2003, these students have been supported by peer leaders who are backed by academic consultants and university staff. Retention has increased and feedback from students helps adjust programs each year. Read the full story. Online Writing Lab (OWL) Excelsior College (N.Y.) An internal assessment of writing in 2012 found students at Excelsior College struggling—just like many of their peers across the nation. Recognizing the importance of writing to professional success, leaders at the college created The Online Writing Lab, which is available to students 24/7, at no cost. An independent study says students who used the lab scored an average 6.6 points higher on final grades. The lab has also replaced costly English 101 textbooks, saving students more than $150,000 a year. Read the full story. UMass Lowell 2020 University of Massachusetts Lowell (Mass.) When UMass Lowell found that retention and graduation rates for first-year undergraduate students were below national averages, university leaders created a 10-year strategic plan to dramatically improve student success. The university began creating living and learning communities for students with common interests and affiliations. Some living and learning communities were academic-focused while others were grouped by college or by discipline. Eighty-four percent of students in these communities returned for a second year and graduation rates are now up 11 percent. Read the full story. LIFE (Learning, Improvement, Fun and Empowerment) NorthWest Arkansas Community College (Ark.) Recognizing that a significant percentage of Hispanic students from outside the area had little experience with higher education, NorthWest Arkansas Community College developed a program to introduce high school students to the basics. The LIFE Program connects minority and underserved high school students with mentors from similar backgrounds. The high school students are then invited to a three-day program on campus during the summer. Out of the 125 students who participated in LIFE last summer, 123 indicated plans to enroll at NorthWest Arkansas. Read the full story. The College Experience St. Petersburg College (Fla.) Aiming to increase the percentage of students completing core courses, St. Petersburg College initiated The College Experience in 2012. Through the program, campus leaders identified five key areas known to impact success rates: out-of-class academic support, integrated career and academic advising, early alerts, a custom learning plan, and a new student orientation called Smart Start. At the end of each term, data from the program is summarized and posted online. In the first two years of the program, overall success rates rose more than 5 percent. Read the full story. This e-mail was sent to: [EMAIL]. One Click Unsubscribe | Manage My Subscriptions [COPYRIGHT] 35 Nutmeg Drive Suite 205, Trumbull, CT, 06611