Working with students and parents to improve the freshman retention

Abstract -The transition from high school to college can be very difficult for many students. The authors believe that students can advocate on their own behalf by educating themselves on challenges they may potentially face, as well as establishing realistic educational and social goals. Concurrently, parents can assist their children by becoming more aware of the transition issues, and learning how to help anticipate transitions. This paper will acquaint the reader with three key transitional challenges new college students face, as well as offer an approach to productive interactions with both students and their parents. As evidenced in steadily improving persistence rates, the University of Pittsburgh has found by educating new students and parents in realistically anticipating first year challenges, students are able to productively work through their freshman year university experience

Designing Service Learning Projects for Freshman Engineering Students

Within the Department of Freshman Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, a study was conducted to assess the value of a service learning course for freshman honor’s engineering students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This venture was based on the success of using service learning as an educational tool for undergraduate engineering students at many universities world wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>At the University of Pittsburgh, all students entering the school of engineering are required to enroll in a two-semester course in introductory engineering analysis and programming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The student population chosen for the service learning course experience included the honors’ students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>A different freshman experience was created that included a fall course which covered the material contained in the traditional two-semester introductory course at an accelerated rate, and then a spring semester service learning course. This paper will focus on the challenges in developing a service learning specifically for freshman engineering students

Involving Parents at Step One in the Freshman Engineering Experience

The transition from high school to college can be very difficult for many students. The authors believe that parents can advocate on behalf of their children by educating themselves on particular transitional challenges their children potentially face, as well as by helping these freshmen daughters and sons establish realistic educational and social goals. Parents can assist their children by helping them to anticipate the significant transitions that occur during the freshman year. This paper will acquaint the reader with three key transitional challenges new college students face, and offer an approach to productive interactions between the Swanson Schoolâ??s orientation facilitators/freshmen faculty and the parents to ease these challenges. The paper will demonstrate the importance of making parents part of the first year orientation and educational process. Steadily improving persistence rates at the University of Pittsburghâ??s Swanson School of Engineering indicate that educating new students and parents in realistically anticipating first year challenges allows first year to successfully work through key freshman year challenges