Texas Woman s University

Transcription

1 Public Benefit Grant Program Case Study Series Texas Woman s University A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

2 Founded in 1901 as the Girls Industrial College, Texas Woman s University has been open to men since Currently, over 90% of students are female, and it is one of the nation s largest universities primarily for women. TWU enrolls over 11,000 students at three campuses in Denton, Dallas, and Houston. It offers bachelor s, master s, and doctoral degrees in the liberal arts and health sciences and has the largest bachelor s degree program in nursing in the state. Texas Woman s University (TWU) serves a unique student population: 40 percent of the students are minorities and 59 percent of the students are first generation. Accordingly, addressing the needs of these traditionally underrepresented groups is a university priority, and their efforts have been met with success: TWU ranks highest among Texas public institutions on graduation of first-generation college students. Reflections from TG TG has long supported a variety of organizations and institutions focused on improving college access and student success for students and families. This support has been more strategically organized under the auspices of the Public Benefit Grant Program over the past five years. In large part, these efforts recognize the changing demographics within Texas and across the country and acknowledge the need to improve opportunities for populations that have not traditionally pursued or persisted in higher education. TG invites your careful reading of this publication and would welcome any questions or feedback you may have about the content provided here. Please visit for contact information and other details about our corporate philanthropy. TG commends Texas Woman s University for the excellent work it has begun, and we look forward to many years of continued collaboration.

3 Table of Contents An Opportunity Coupled with a Need... 3 A BOOST to Help Students Weather the Storm... 4 A Snapshot of BOOST Participants... 6 Successful Strategies for Promoting Retention... 6 Building Academic Competency... 7 Forming Intensive, Long-Term Tutor Student Relationships... 8 Giving Students a Home on Campus... 9 Removing Distractions... 9 The BOOST Legacy... 9 About the TG Public Benefit Grant Program...10 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students 1

4 First-generation college students often face a multitude of barriers to college success, whether structural, economic, cultural, psychological, or some combination thereof. These students struggle to balance academic, family, and financial responsibilities simultaneously, while trying to navigate an academic system that is not only unfamiliar, but sometimes confusing and/or overwhelming. Because they are the first in their families to attend college, many first-generation students lack confidence in their ability to successfully navigate and perform well in college. Moreover, despite their good intentions, some families lack of experience in the American educational landscape renders them ill-equipped to support first-generation students effectively. I was the first in my family to go to college, and they are supportive of me, but it s also hard for them to have me gone. They don t always understand some of the things I m going through at school. Sofia García, BOOST participant 1 Faced with these challenges, many first-generation students struggle academically in their first several semesters at school. In addition, a change in one aspect of a student s life can cause reverberating effects in other aspects of his or her life. For example, in order to continue receiving the First-Generation College Student Grant at Texas Woman s University, a student must maintain a 2.75 grade point average (GPA). Slipping below a 2.75 GPA causes a student to become ineligible for this grant. You can stay in college with a 1.0 GPA, but the difference came in that they would lose their financial aid if they were below the So now you have a double whammy.... If they couldn t make the grade with the current financial aid, well now without financial aid, they were going to be more likely to be out there looking for a job and [have] less time to study and less time to go to tutoring. Juanita Dueñez-Lazo, BOOST Director This double whammy has the potential to be catastrophic: a loss of financial aid often means that a student must seek out employment to compensate for the funding loss. As a result, first-generation students who are already struggling academically are put in a position in which they have even less time to study, thus greatly increasing their chance of failure. 1 All student names in this document are pseudonyms. 2 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

5 Retaining first-generation students is a challenge that requires an understanding of their needs while taking into account the complexity of their life situations and how those situations affect decisions to persist in college. TWU took up this challenge, putting together a program designed to provide academic, financial, and psychological support for first-generation students in an attempt to help them break through the barriers impeding their success. An Opportunity Coupled with a Need During the school year, TWU started an intensive first-generation recruitment campaign as part of the Education. Go Get It * initiative. At the same time, Juanita Dueñez-Lazo, the director of international education at TWU, attended a presentation on the TG Public Benefit Grant Program after hearing about it from the school s director of financial aid. After noting the grant program s focus on special populations and the resources it offered, Dueñez-Lazo realized that a retention program for first-generation grant recipients would fill a critical gap within the university. As she put it, It s one thing if we were successful to recruit [first-generation students], but it was an entirely different thing if they couldn t make the grades to stay in college or [keep their financial aid]. Dueñez-Lazo reflected on what she felt were some major stumbling blocks for firstgeneration students at TWU and worked with the director of intercultural services to assess the existing mentoring programs for these students; this enabled her to identify the following roadblocks to success. In order to pay for school and help support their families, many first-generation students had to work while in school, diverting their energy and attention from their studies. As a strategy to save money, many first-generation students shared textbooks with other students rather than purchasing their own. Not having their own textbooks hindered many students from completing out-of-class assignments. First-generation students often lacked adequate social support networks, and therefore, did not know how to navigate the university system and take advantage of the resources offered. This was exacerbated by the fact that many of these 1 Higher education enrollment initiative of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, also known as the Closing the Gaps initiative. Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students 3

6 students never gained the skills necessary to succeed in college, and therefore needed more support than other students. Finally, first-generation students needed more intensive tutoring than the university offered. This informal gap assessment helped Dueñez-Lazo identify a distinct need to work on retention of first-generation students at TWU, particularly with those who had lost or were at risk for losing their First-Generation College Student Grant because of poor academic performance. Being part of the Division of Student Life perfectly positioned her to design and implement such a program: The Division of Student Life includes 15 different components, including the counseling center, the health center, the wellness center, academic advising, the career center, and employment services. All of those things together made it the perfect launching place. In 2006, TWU was one of six organizations to receive a Public Benefit Grant exclusively for retention services. The $110,000 grant supported the creation of the Academic BOOST for College Success and Excellence program (BOOST) at the Denton campus. Funding from TG directly supported staff wages and benefits, the purchase of a computer and program supplies, a $1,000 stipend for each student, and an awards banquet at the end of each semester. To round out the $130,000 program budget, TWU donated $20,000 in in-kind resources in the form of facilities, supplies, and staff time. A BOOST to Help Students Weather the Storm BOOST was started formally in 2006 and specifically focused on those students who were originally deemed eligible for a First-Generation College Student Grant, but lost their eligibility due to a drop in their GPA. Additionally, students were required to be enrolled full time, be in good standing with the university (i.e., maintain a GPA of 2.0 or greater), be involved in at least one university activity, and have leadership and/or community service experience. 4 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

7 The program included several components: Enrollment in University 1011: Contemporary Learning in Higher Education, a college study skills class; No-cost access to textbooks through the BOOST library; A resource center where participants could complete mandatory weekly tutoring hours and receive advising; and A $1,000 stipend upon completion of the program. Overall, the program served 77 first-generation students during the school year and boasted a 97 percent completion rate. Approximately half (52 percent) of participants improved their GPA over the course of the program, and 16 participants were able to raise their GPA enough to requalify for the First-Generation College Student Grant. In a survey given after program completion, 80 percent of respondents reported that they felt better able to break their barriers to success because of the BOOST program, and 100 percent reported that BOOST helped them achieve greater academic success. Scott Benjamin, a BOOST tutor, had the following to say: I ran into some of my past students the other day and that fear factor they used to have was gone. They weren t afraid to take the hard classes. They know it will be tough, but they are willing to try. Dueñez-Lazo articulated just how key increasing student confidence was. Once [the students] started believing they could, then they did. It s a selffulfilling prophecy. Although the program has not been fully sustained after the sunset of TG funding, many components have been adopted by other programs at TWU. In a sense, staff members looked at BOOST as a pilot program for different kinds of services. Additionally, the BOOST program was a launching point for TWU s Mobile Go Center and G-Force wherein college students engage in outreach to improve college access and several BOOST participants are now mentors for high school students. Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students 5

8 A Snapshot of BOOST Participants Race/Ethnicity Gender 1% 4% 11% Hispanic 28% 60% African American White Asian American 96% Female Male Class Standing 15% 11% 42% 32% Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Successful Strategies for Promoting Retention The BOOST program staff members understood that the recipe for college success contains a number of ingredients, including, but not limited to, time management and study skills, direct academic support, positive social support networks, and confidence in one s academic ability. They also recognized that attrition can occur because of a lack of interaction between a college student and his or her institutional environment. Therefore, they designed the BOOST program to include a range of interventions to support program participants along all of these dimensions and more. 6 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

9 Building Academic Competency Participants were required to enroll in University 1011: Contemporary Learning in Higher Education as part of the BOOST program. BOOST covered the tuition for this one credit college study skills course that emphasized study habits, test-taking strategies, and coping with academic-related stress. Part of the curriculum included a presentation on different learning styles and a test to help students identify their own learning styles. It was cool to see what kind of learner I was. It made me realize that we all don t learn the same way, and that if I don t get something the first time by listening, maybe it s because I have to see it instead. Camila Lopez, BOOST participant The presentation also helped students identify what kind of study habits would be most effective for their style of learning. This component of the curriculum showed students who previously lacked academic confidence that they could build understanding by seeking out different modes of information. Additionally, course instructors were fluent in both Spanish and English to accommodate the many non-native-english-speaking BOOST participants. While classes were taught predominantly in English, instructors allowed students to ask questions in Spanish and conversed in Spanish with those who felt more comfortable doing so. According to one student, this helped her feel more comfortable in the class. My first language is Spanish, and I m not very good at English, so sometimes I couldn t figure out how to ask my question in English or I would feel uncomfortable asking. It was really nice to be able to speak Spanish in class, and I felt like the teacher understood us and we could relate to her more. Sofia García, BOOST participant Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students 7

10 Forming Intensive, Long-Term Tutor Student Relationships Staff members knew that in order for the tutoring portion of the BOOST program to be successful, it had to be more intensive than the other tutoring services that TWU offered. Students were required to attend at least three hours of one-on-one tutoring a week. In addition, rather than rotating through an anonymous series of tutors, students were able to develop long-term relationships with one or more of the five tutors that BOOST hired. This continuity in tutors was a critical component of the program. Long-term relationships engendered more trust between the tutors and students. It also allowed the tutors to get to know the students on a personal level and tailor their tutoring to the individual student s learning style, strengths, and weaknesses. As Lindsey Haynes, a BOOST tutor, related, When the program first started, the students were really timid in tutoring and didn t even know what they needed help with. Once they got to know me, they became comfortable and confident. In order to accommodate students schedules, BOOST offered tutoring over a combined 120 hours a week during both daytime and evening hours. Although some students found the required tutoring hours to be overly burdensome, others found them so helpful that they attended more than their required hours. The most successful took the most advantage of the tutoring services. The tutors were a really important part of BOOST. I went to them almost every day. We were required to go anyway, but I would go more often. Sometimes it was just because I hadn t really been able to understand what the professor said, so I would go to the tutor and they would just explain the concept again and then I would get it. Lucia Mendoza, BOOST participant 8 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

11 Giving Students a Home on Campus Another component of the BOOST program was the BOOST Resource Center. This center was a place where BOOST participants could use computers, receive tutoring and advising, and borrow textbooks from the BOOST library. The program loaned textbooks for the entire semester so that students would not have to share with classmates or incur the costs of buying their own. While providing these concrete resources was critical, according to Dueñez-Lazo, the added value of the BOOST Resource Center lay beyond the tangible assistance that students received there: [BOOST] students were important. They felt they had a place on campus. Removing Distractions As one of the requirements of participating in the BOOST program, students were not allowed to hold a job while enrolled in the program. Dueñez-Lazo explained the reasoning behind this decision: We didn t want them working anywhere else when they were going through this so they could see the difference [in] how much time it required, because I think students are under the false pretense that they can work.... They fail to see how much time they really need to dedicate to studying. So we were able to show them that for every hour that they were in class, they needed to spend three hours reading. This finding is supported by an extensive body of research that indicates that working over 20 hours a week in an off-campus position is negatively associated with college persistence. To offset this potential loss in income, BOOST gave participants a $1,000 stipend for completing the program, providing students with $500 midway through the program and $500 at the end in order to motivate students to complete the program. The BOOST Legacy Although the BOOST program is no longer in existence, echoes of the program remain. The resources acquired through the Public Benefit Grant Program, such as the BOOST library and the dedicated office space, continue to be available for past BOOST participants. Additionally, the lessons learned from the BOOST program continue to inform programming at TWU, as the university works to develop more services that promote retention and success for first-generation students. Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students 9

12 About TG s Public Benefit Grant Program TG believes that investing in education and human potential serves as one of the most promising strategies to improve the lives of individuals and of society as a whole. Education including postsecondary education is no longer a luxury. If we expect our nation to continue to prosper and grow, we must improve educational attainment, especially for those students who have not typically been successful in gaining access to or completing a postsecondary education. With this rationale in mind, TG s Board of Directors established the Public Benefit Competitive Grant Program in 2004, recognizing that nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions were in the best position to determine and propose specific solutions to address issues of college access and success for the students and families they serve. TG intends that the primary beneficiaries of the proposed programs be students who are from low- to moderate-income families. In addition, the competitive process favors proposals that also aim to serve the needs of firstgeneration college students or students who are from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate education. Reinvesting our financial resources in the educational community and through nonprofit organizations that share our mission and vision is just one more way that TG demonstrates its belief in the value of higher education. But these efforts are more meaningful when others can learn from them, engage in discussion about the findings and outcomes, and perhaps incorporate ideas or promising practices into their own programming. TG welcomes any questions or feedback you may have about the content provided here. Please visit for contact information and other details about our corporate philanthropy. 10 Texas Woman s University: A Program to Boost Retention for First-Generation Students

13 Information about TG s grant-making and higher education institutions The Public Benefit Grant Program is open to all schools and organizations regardless of their participation in the federal education loan programs. Successful grantees are selected pursuant to a performance metric established for the grants program. All nonprofit institutions eligible to participate in the federal financial aid programs, as authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, are also eligible to apply for a TG grant. In addition, the program accepts applications from community-based nonprofit organizations that also aim to improve access to or success in higher education. Moreover, there is no correlation between our selection of grant awards and an institution s business relationship with TG. The Public Benefit Grant Program does not subscribe, nor impose, any quid pro quo condition. TG personnel associated with administering the grants program are expected to strictly adhere to this standard. If any prospective or current applicant receives any communication from TG staff or any other person that implies that a quid pro quo condition may exist, please notify TG by calling TG s ethics hotline at (877) or by calling the chief ethics officer directly and confidentially at (800) , extension TG s chief ethics officer will respond to and act upon any concerns received. Calls to either number may be made anonymously.

14 To order additional copies, visit To request permission to reproduce any of the information provided, please call TG Communications at (800) , ext Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation.