One of the most crucial factors to students experiencing success in their first year of college is finding their people as quickly as possible. While first-year seminar (FYS) courses based on long-term goals and career preparedness have value, first-year students’ immediate needs include connecting to like-minded peers, gaining a sense of belonging, and achieving early success (Williams & Roberts, 2023). In contrast to long-term success–based courses, the priority of our college’s FYS course is to create a learning community (LC) that provides a platform for immediate success. This platform includes a purposeful, cohort-based approach that focuses on peer-to-peer connections between students with similar career paths, increased interactions with caring and compassionate faculty, and discussion-based presentations with university staff who oversee resources that empower students to succeed early in their first semester.
Connections Are Everything: Putting Relationships at the Heart of Higher Ed
As academic leaders, we are under so much pressure to deliver—enrollment targets, strategic plans, graduation rates, AI policies, and on and on—that we can lose sight of what our students
Isis Artze-Vega, Leo M. Lambert, and Peter Felten
March 4, 2024
