The George Washington University implemented a holistic summer program in the summer of 2017 designed to improve student persistence for students who might be vulnerable for leaving GW without a college degree. The program provides the structure and environment to help foster student success. Summer Academy addressed two student populations—students returning to GW and incoming first-year GW students. Summer Academy enables returning students to make academic progress during the summer and catch up or remain on track for graduation, and provides incoming students with a supportive environment to transition to GW, academically and socially. The primary components of Summer Academy include:

• Academic Success Coaching—Each student was assigned a success coach with which they met for an hour each week. The primary role for each coach was to serve as a caring and engaged mentor helping to guide students on their road to academic success.
• Academic Success Seminar—Each student completed an hour per week seminar. The primary goal of the seminar was to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed at a research university. Students sharpened their academic skills and learned how to utilize the available campus resources.
• Supplemental academic support—Each student was required to take advantage of 3 hours of “Learning Resources” each week as a support mechanism to help students excel in class.
• Faculty engagement—The Summer Academy team worked closely with the faculty members of courses in which 5 or more Summer Academy students were enrolled to monitor attendance, performance, and supplemental resource support.
• Housing—Students who had EFCs below a certain threshold were provided on-campus housing in a particular residence hall with shared common space. In addition to the living arrangements students were provided a food stipend to help reduce the financial burden for students who did not have the means to stay in DC over the summer otherwise.
• Programming—In order to create a greater sense of community for students who often feel as though the university does not care about them, Summer Academy provided weekly programming and community-building activities.

This poster presentation will highlight Summer Academy as part of GW’s retention strategy and will focus on the role of success coaching. The poster will include data on the impact of Summer Academy after its first summer leading to higher first-to-second year retention rates of Pell-eligible and URM students that exceed the overall student population. Additional data will include key academic performance measures that contributed to students’ overall academic standing.

Submission ID:

M4.3751

Day:

Monday, November 12, 2018

Time: 

3:30 PM - 5:00 PM