Beyond the First Semester

Creator

Julianna Romano, SUNY CortlandFollow

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Creation Date

11-2024

Description

The topic I chose to teach was "Beyond the First Semester". My presentation was based off of the years to come for freshman students here at SUNY Cortland because I think it's a topic that gets neglected at times during the excitement of the first semester. While many institutions pay lots of attention to the transition from high school to college for first year students, they fail to recognize the transition college students undergo throughout the course of the next three years as a college student. A study by Althea Sterling, from Touro College, suggests that there is a period of attrition for sophomore students as there is little to no support relative to their student development as there was during freshman year (Sterling, 2018). As the academic, social, and economic demands of students typically increase during the years proceeding freshman year, students receive less support from their institutions. Research has shown that students tend to develop new identities and re-evaluate their purpose during years proceeding freshman year, so they are in great need of year-specific support, hence the purpose of this lesson, "Beyond the First Semester" (Sterling, 2018). Additionally, it’s of extreme significance that attrition rates are highly attributed to years proceeding freshman year, these being the years where less advisement and support are given to students in belief that they have already made the full transition to college after their first year (Willcoxson et al., 2011). This lesson guides students to understand how to find a sense of purpose throughout all years of college and navigate obstacles associated not only with their first year of college, but the years to come as well.