Kennesaw State University's Thrive program emphasizes community-based learning that is making the transition to college living easier for qualified first-year students.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Thrive Program Making Positive Impact at KSU
The Dynamics of Thrive's Learning Communities
By: Chris Edwards
KENNESAW, Ga. -- Many students struggle to adapt to new responsibilities of college living, but at Kennesaw State University, qualified first-year students have access to assistance during their transition into college from high school.
By: Chris Edwards
KENNESAW, Ga. -- Many students struggle to adapt to new responsibilities of college living, but at Kennesaw State University, qualified first-year students have access to assistance during their transition into college from high school.
Thrive is a recently
developed first-year program at KSU that offers support to students as
they transition into college by offering the best of academic strategies with
innovative practices of student success.
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| Cathy Bradford, Thrive Co-Founder (Photo by Chris Edwards) |
Thrive
incorporates community-based curricular and co-curricular activities to help
students who are entering college, get engaged and succeed.
Thrive begins
the program by selecting 250 rising high school students who are HOPE
scholarship eligible. When selected, students have access to early registration
and pre-college workshops hosted prior to entering KSU in the Fall.
Learning Communities
When the fall semester
begins, students are required to join a learning community. In this learning
community, students of Thrive attend classes together in order to build
networking skills. Bradford says students who are engaged in learning
communities are better able to develop social connections.
Emmanuel Brown
is a fourth-year student at Kennesaw State University who was a member of a
Thrive business learning community during his first year. Brown says the
communities have helped him develop better communication skills.
“In your first year, it kind of helps when you know someone
in at least three of your classes so you have someone to depend on and talk
to,” said Brown
Service Leadership and Graduation Coaching
As the fall semester ends, Thrive students are expected to be involved with a service leadership activity of their choice. Options for service leadership activities include co-curricular leadership classes, student leadership, and the coordination of certain campus events.
Upon completion
of the service leadership activity, Thrive students receive a leadership
certificate. Brown received his last year after assisting with peer leadership
and recruiting. The service leadership activity is designed to help motivate
students to lead on their own.
Thrive students
are expected to meet with assigned graduation coaches twice during their
first-year. After the first year, students are no longer required to visit with
graduation coaches, but are encouraged to do so as needed.
Thrive students
are able to meet with these graduation coaches for academic advising or
personal help with problems faced during their college career.
Samantha Abney is a second-year student that meets with her
advisor weekly.
“You have somebody that you can go to if you are struggling
with signing up for classes or you don’t know what to take, or if you are just
struggling with classes in general,” says Abney.
Results of Thrive
Thrive aims to help underclass students maintain the HOPE
scholarship to stay in school and graduate. Many students drop out from college
if they lose the HOPE Scholarship to help financially.
According to a Thrive Program report, students who maintain
the HOPE scholarship graduate at a rate of 51 percent of the population, while
students who lose the scholarship after the first year graduate at a rate of 38
percent.
The impact that Thrive has had on graduation rates is
unknown yet as this year will be the first graduating class that has been
influenced by the program.
“What we do know is that more students who are in Thrive,
stay in school,” says Bradford.
Thus far, Thrive has positively impacted student retention
and HOPE scholarship eligibility after the first year. Thrive is anticipating positive results regarding graduation
rates that would lead to additional funding for the program.
Bradford says the additional funding would allow for the
program to grow, supporting additional first-year students. She thinks that
with proper funding, the Thrive program could support 1000 first-year students
in the future.
The Dynamics of Thrive's Learning Communities
By Chris Edwards
KENNESAW, Ga. -- In the first-year of college, making new connections can be tough while trying to adapt to the ‘norms’ of college living.
KENNESAW, Ga. -- In the first-year of college, making new connections can be tough while trying to adapt to the ‘norms’ of college living.
Kennesaw State University’s now presents first-year students
with an opportunity to make new connections early in their college careers
through the Thrive Program’s learning communities.
In the fall semester of the Thrive Program, students are
required to be a part of a learning community.
Thrive’s learning communities are composed of a leadership
focused seminar class that is linked to two or more general education classes
which relate to a student’s selected major.
Cathy Bradford, one of Thrive’s founders, explains that
learning communities help students make early social connections with other
classmates.
Students of a learning community go to class together and
are likely to be familiar with most of their classmates in the classes of the
community.
When a student is able to make connections with other
classmates, it helps when they have a problem in class or in life.
For example, Emmanuel Brown is a fourth-year student who was
a part of a business learning community during his first semester at KSU. Brown
says he knew most classmates in two or three of his first year classes.
“It is nice knowing that there are people with the same
interests as myself and people I can hang out with and kind of explore the
college life with,” said Brown.
Samantha Abney, a sophomore Thrive student says that because
of learning communities and Thrive, she is now less scared of entering a large
university such as KSU
Learning communities are one of many features of the Thrive
program that make the transition to college easier for first-year students.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
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Tuesday, November 4, 2014
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parentheses also (www.externallink.com).
Insert your
graphic (picture) where appropriate and don’t forget to say in the caption who
took the picture. If it’s not immediately clear or obvious what the picture is
or who the picture is of, put the person’s name or a brief description of the
scene in the caption as well. You could also post your graphic in a separate
post. If you do that, be sure to put a headline on the graphic post and link
that headline on the homepage. (see below)
 |
Carolyn S. Carlson, (Photo by Jake McNeill)
|
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
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