2010 Cohort Award Recipients

Selected through a highly competitive application process, the second cohort of 15 institutions will begin their project work at the 2010 IHEP Summer Academy. Each of these institutions has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing its capacity to retain and graduate first-generation college students. Their projects will reflect a range of strategies to improve first-generation student success through faculty-driven, classroom-based initiatives.

Adams State College (Colo.): Adams State’s program, Emerging Scholars, draws on faculty across five academic departments (English, math, sociology, and developmental education) to lead staggered, interdisciplinary first-generation student (FGS) learning communities to support two sets of FGS, those prepared for college-level work and those needing remedial education. The program will include two cohorts of 25 students each who will begin the first semester in a learning community with linked courses and development of a two-day summer workshop for key faculty to develop an understanding of the challenges faced by FGS.
Bloomfield College (N.J.): Bloomfield’s math faculty and professionals from the Center for Academic Development will create a pilot developmental math program addressing the failure rate of first-generation students. Through this initiative, responsibility for developmental math will permanently shift to the institution’s math department and math faculty. The pilot will incorporate new curriculum, pedagogy, and support service components. Aspects of the program will include course and program development, professional development workshops for faculty, embedded tutoring, and collaboration with the registrar on revised course scheduling and sequencing.
Bowie State University (Md.): For their Walmart project, Bowie State will develop student scholars through strengthened pedagogical practices, a more engaged faculty, and the implementation of student self-directed learning practices. Program components include creating a Faculty Think Tank (FTT) comprised of a dozen faculty and staff members who address how professors can foster scholarly habits in FGS, developing a “scholars’ studio” where FTT faculty members create thematically linked learning communities for FGS, and creating campus-wide faculty learning communities to be guided by FTT faculty members.
Coppin State University (Md.): Coppin State will create the Center for Adult Learning (CAL) that will focus on the academic achievement of first-generation adult students (25 years and older) who have needs that are unique from traditional-aged students. Components of their project include a flexible course schedule that will offer classes in the evenings and weekends as well as online and hybrid courses, individualized student success plans designed by faculty advisors who will monitor and track students’ progress, specialized faculty advisement, and professional development for faculty members about the unique needs of adult learners.
Delaware State University: Delaware’s ADVANCE project will identify 100 first-generation under-prepared freshmen to participate in a structured pre-college bridge program, as well as themed learning communities that will be integrated into common first-year general education courses. Students will develop key intellectual and practical skills while receiving continuous feedback on themed projects. Project components include a two-week intensive bridge program, freshman learning communities, a faculty development program, supplemental instruction, and peer mentoring with upperclassmen and academic coaches.
El Camino College (Calif.): El Camino College’s program will engage 40 faculty (20 each year) who teach courses associated with five student support programs serving large numbers of first-generation college students, such as first-year experience and learning communities, in an effort to integrate non-academic skills into their academic courses. The impact will go beyond the 40 faculty who directly participate as they will train their department colleagues, develop a bank of materials, and continue to reach others via campus presentations and brown-bag faculty gatherings.
Fort Belknap College (Mont.): Fort Belknap’s project seeks to bring together institutional faculty, cultural history, and economic potential in order to change student perceptions of their academic and personal goals in order to improve FGS retention and graduation. Components of the program include developing a summer Jumpstart Academy taught by college faculty that will offer an academic immersion experience, enable faculty to assist students develop individual plans, create a cohort of 20 FGS who will receive mentoring from community leader/tribal elders, and peer mentoring.
Hampton University (Va.): Using faculty-driven communities of learning, Hampton University’s program will build FGS’ critical thinking, creative writing, and time management skills through classroom-based strategies. Program components include developing two linked courses, creating a faculty/peer mentorship network where faculty work as advisors and mentors, implementing a monthly “successful scholars” workshop series to develop college-going skills, establishing sophomore year co-curricular, initiating faculty-led activities to support ongoing success, and implementing a stipend program that includes textbook grants for students who qualify for financial aid.
Leech Lake Tribal College (Minn.): Leech Lake’s first-year experience program, led by arts and humanities department faculty members, will combine academic work, faculty and peer mentoring, and social/cultural activities to engage students and achieve retention goals. Program components include development of a faculty mentoring program, establishment of a three-credit college success course, development of a “coffee shop” presentation program open to the community, creation of a Wiki site for cohort students to exchange ideas and information, and development of arts and humanities cultural events to be held on and off campus.
New Jersey City University: NJCU’s project—The Language and Literacy Partnership—provides a focused approach to the facilitation of language and academic literacy skills acquisition by FGS through cross-department and faculty-driven enhancements to first-generation, ESL student intensive learning communities. Project components include establishment of a teaching community among ESL, English and literacy education departments, and the writing center, creation of faculty development activities to enhance learning communities, and establishment of a curricular development incentive grant for interdisciplinary learning community proposals that integrate reading and writing instruction in innovative ways.
United Tribes Technical College (N.D.): United Tribes’s faculty-driven initiative combines expedited matriculation, concentrated academic remediation, and culturally congruent faculty advising and mentorship. The program includes mid-semester start dates and admitting students in cohorts that function as learning communities. The program envisions functioning year round and includes developing preparatory coursework that will offer six opportunities for students to enroll full time during the academic year, hiring a faculty advisor for FGS taking preparatory coursework, and establishing peer mentoring and study groups.
University of Houston-Downtown: UHD’s program consists of two cohorts of 150 first-generation, first-time-in-college students who will participate in a comprehensive set of discipline-specific “high-impact” educational experiences that offer different types of support for students at various levels or preparation in the foundational skill areas of mathematics, reading, and writing. Program components include linked courses targeting developmental education, increased classroom-based academic support for reading-intensive college-level courses, structured student success mentoring program providing supplemental instruction, and enhanced faculty development and faculty-student interaction through the development of a first-generation student-faculty interaction group.
University of New Mexico: UNM’s project strives to improve the success of first-generation students in large enrollment, lower-division courses that currently serve as obstacles to FGS retention and graduation. The project will transform large lecture halls where students learn passively into active, collaborative, learning communities. Project components include developing a two-day, faculty-led workshop model to promote best practices of learner-centered teaching; establishing a peer-learning facilitator plan; and building learning community classroom models of active, collaborative learning.
Valencia Community College (Fla.): VCC’s “Go” project will launch a college-wide curriculum integration model to better align English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses with college-level general education courses for FGS. This will result in the development of a replicable curriculum model that helps cohorts of first-generation EAP college students develop the skills needed to transition more smoothly from initial EAP courses into more advanced degree coursework. Project components include development of an aligned EAP/general education curriculum, changes to faculty schedules, and engagement of targeted student cohorts in community-building curricular and co-curricular activities.
Winston-Salem State University (N.C.): WSSU’s project is designed to increase FGS success in the first years of college so that students are prepared to enter and succeed in any major, especially in health and allied sciences. Programs components include creating a curriculum model that engages students in service and experiential learning, learning communities and other high-impact learning practices, developing a series of freshman seminar courses focusing on broad and complex questions, revising prerequisite science courses for health science majors so they focus on specific knowledge and skills needed in upper-level courses, and tying existing academic support services more formally to courses in which students are required to participate.