An academic paper on student retention presented at a national symposium in the U.S. wins Director’s Award.
The paper, entitled “Early Identification and Intervention Influences the Success of First-year “At Risk” Science Students” was written by Professor Sue Bertram and staff members John Nelson and Laksanavadee (Lily) Visanuvimol, the Carleton personnel behind the Science Student Success Centre.
The group was first notified in early fall that their paper had been accepted for presentation at the 7th Annual National Symposium on Student Retention to be held from October 31 to November 2 in Charleston, South Carolina. According to the conference organizers, the paper “went through an extensive peer review process. Each submission was scored on relevance, quality of the research, the degree to which the paper was grounded in the literature, the clarity of the problem statement, the evidence presented and attention to form.” The paper was also chosen to be published in the conference proceedings.
The annual conference is organized by the Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE) from the University of Oklahoma and provides a forum for representatives from institutions of higher learning to share the most current research on student retention and success. Prior to departing for Charleston, Bertram, Nelson, and Visanuvimol were notified that their paper had won the Director’s Award, “which is given to the paper that best addresses an issue of current interest and need in the field of student retention and success.“ The prize comes with a plaque and a $750 monetary prize and was handed out at a gala luncheon held on the first day of the conference.
Through their paper, the Carleton group shared the results of a study they conducted examining the effectiveness of a program that alerts students early in the year that they may be in academic difficulty. Effectiveness was tracked by comparing the pass rate of those students who participated in the subsequent intervention program that involved volunteer student mentors helping the ‘at-risk’ student with those who did not participate.
“It was very rewarding to be recognized this way,” says Bertram, “as our study acknowledges the cutting edge work we are trying to do with the SSSC. It also allowed us to tell a larger audience about the wonderful work our volunteer student mentors are doing. Our program would not be so successful without the dedication, support and phenomenal attitudes shown by these student volunteers.”
Bertram went on to say the conference did give her a sense of how Carleton’s programs stack up against what others are doing elsewhere. “It was clear in talking to colleagues from some of the other universities that we have initiated some very innovative programs here that others are quite interested in duplicating.”
View the Paper presented here.