When One Thrives, We All Thrive

Kennesaw State University's Thrive program emphasizes community-based learning that is making the transition to college living easier for qualified first-year students.

• Thrive Program Making Impact at KSU
• The Dynamics of Thrive's Learning Communities
• More Information on Thrive

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.

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.

Cathy Bradford, Thrive Co-Founder (Photo by Chris Edwards)

“One of the best things that Thrive does is that it introduces students to people that care about them,” said Cathy Bradford, the Director of Learning Communities and one of Thrive’s first graduation coaches.

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 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.