New mentoring program focuses on building relationships early

Freshmen and new students at Emporia State University are faced with many new challenges.

For many of them it is their first-time away from home, they are surrounded by 6,000 students of whom they only know a handful, if any at all. They are given more responsibility and freedom than ever before, and they are expected to excel academically as well as socially. Given all this, the experience of being a freshman can be overwhelming.

ESU has set out to help students through these challenges, not only enabling them to survive but also helping them to succeed through the first-year college student success program.

The program deals with a myriad of issues, from building study habits to navigating social situations.

“This new program began this fall,” said program director Stacey Braun, coordinator of judicial and non-traditional programs. “We want to help our students get off on the right foot and not be overwhelmed.”

New students and freshman took a web based student survey called the CSI, ‘College Student Inventory', prior to coming to a SWARM. This helped find out where the student was on a variety of issues and their perceptions about attending college.

Through this program student's needs are assessed and they are grouped with mentors around campus. Mentors are members of the ESU faculty and staff.

“Our mentors have a genuine desire to help students succeed,” Braun said. “We are hoping that students develop a relationship with these mentors that will help them adjust and stay in school until they have completed their degree.”

Mentors have at least five students and meet with them at least three to four times during their first semester.

“It is up to the mentor and the student if they would like to meet more,” Braun said. “Starting off the program is only during the student's first semester to help students adjust.”

“Hopefully the relationships that are formed will last throughout the students' college career,” she said.

First-year experience programs, which began in the mid-1980s, are becoming popular at campuses across the country.

In 2003, about 65 percent of more than 600 schools reported having some form of program, according to a study by the National Resource Center for The First Year Experience and Students in Transition, based at the University of South Carolina .

“Through this program the students are able to form a connection with someone that works here (ESU) and develop some type of relationship and friendship,” Braun said. “They will know that someone on campus cares about them and cares about what they are doing.”

Last Updated July 2, 2007>