When freshmen arrive at UMD...
The Freshman Success Project/Fresh Ideas
Spanish Professor John Twomey has long been concerned about the way in which students adjust to college and how well they do in their college career.
Students who are engaged in university life, and develop “a sense of personal empowerment…seem to have a higher likelihood of success in college.”
Helping students succeed matters to Twomey and many of his faculty colleagues, as evidenced by their participation in the “Freshman Success Project.”
The project—a collaboration of College Now and the Center for Educational Advancement—offers programs to assist professors develop techniques and initiatives that will raise success levels among freshmen. In addition to workshops and seminars, the project includes “Fresh Ideas,” through which individual faculty experiment with innovative, challenging strategies—in and out of the classroom—that will benefit freshmen academically and otherwise.
“Faculty have been excited about this,” says College Now Counselor Anne Boisvert, who played a major role in developing Freshman Success. “This has given them a new opportunity to connect with freshmen, and to do so in different ways.”
Each year, 10 to 12 professors who propose a new strategy for their courses receive stipends to cover costs. The strategies are discussed in depth at a seminar to which all faculties are invited.
The participants in Fresh Ideas over its three-year life have come up with creative, resourceful ideas. Some professors design exercises to be done solely in the classroom or lab; others send their students farther afield. While the venues may vary, the goals are the same: help students with their analytical skills, challenge them to examine and explore, convince them of their ability to do college-level work, and help them feel they’re in the right place at UMD.
Twomey wanted to “jump start” the process of students becoming involved in university life. He set up his Spanish 101 course to insure a mix of freshman and upper-level students, and spent class time “discussing the value of…extra-curricular activities, of engaging with students from different backgrounds, disciplines and age groups, and of doing something good for the world.” He arranged small study groups that, again, mixed the freshman with the older student; he also invited a nursing major to “visit the class and share her experience of moving from a disgruntled first-year student to an active, engaged senior, president of her class and student senator. She encouraged the students to become active and activists on campus.”
The result? An increase in communication among all of his students, as well as more interest among freshmen in campus activities—five students joined social action groups and another became a volleyball player.
Diane H. Hartnett
Alumni Magazine, Spring 2004, Pages 17-19
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Last Updated On: 11/2/06
