[music] [Voice over]
Montgomery College's Start Smart information sessions and this pamphlet get students on
that path to completion.
The Start Smart pamphlet is available at the counseling and advising office and contains
a 10 item checklist for new students.
These information sessions help students get on the right path, if students have chosen
a major, they may be able to attend the session for their major and have the opportunity to
meet with counselors, and hear about clubs, special programs and scholarship opportunities.
And Montgomery College has a great program designed just for first year students.
It's a great way to get involved and enjoy college success.
[Dana Baker] The first year experience program at Montgomery college is a series of 5 things
that come together to help freshman students, whether they start in the fall or the spring,
to navigate the system of college.
The first way is with new student advising.
Where they come in, They sit down with a counselor.
They talk to us.
The figure out what courses they need to take.
The second thing is new student orientation and that is run through the office of student
life..
[Mary Sierra] The Office of Student Life collegewide really supports students on their co-curricular
journey, so we are the learning outside of the classroom.
We like to provide students with fun activities, educational activities, volunteer activities
for them to really connect to the campus in a way that they wouldn't be able to do anywhere
else.
New student orientation is currently not required, but we strongly encourage and suggest all
of our students to attend.
We show them all the different ways they can connect.
Whether it's through our club program, whether it's through our service learning component
or just volunteering on the campus or even off campus.
We offer many opportunities out there, so we want to connect them.
We want them to get involved because we know when students get involved it impacts their
success tremendously.
[Voice over] -- Next on the list...
First Year Seminars (DS107).
This is a one-credit class that teaches students the ins and outs of college and helps them
to put together an education plan.
[Dana Baker] That is a road map to success for our students.
It helps them to pick courses from their first semester through completion so that they know
exactly what they need to take every semester.
And then we have programs and services for our new students, everything from gatherings
to workshops that help them to better understand what it is they need to do.
The research has shown that the students who participate in the DS107 course have an 83%
retention rate vs a 73% retention rate at the college as a whole.
So they are learning something that causes them to persist.
The Bridge to College Success is an opportunity for students to get a jump start on planning
for college success.
The course, which runs for 2 weeks during the summer, and for 7 weeks during the fall
and spring is a combination of the DS107 course which is the Freshman Seminar, and in the
summer it has an enrichment component.
We teach them what they don't know.
...How to navigate the college system.
Where are the buildings?
What type of math is going to be required for my major?
How do i navigate the chemistry diagnostic?
What does it mean to be a STEM student?
All of the things that they wouldn't necessarily know coming in, we teach them in the enrichment
portion.
They visit the career transfer center, the financial aide office comes over and speaks
to them, so they get a wide breadth of the information that they would need to be successful
walking in ... all of these activities get them involved with faculty, with staff , with
other students, people that they will listen to, people that they can keep coming back
to when times are good to celebrate and when things start going bad to say, "okay what
do i do now?"
That's why they 're important because they help our students persist.
[Mary Sierra] My best advice for any new student is to get connected in whichever form that
means for them.
So if they have an hour, a week, a month or if they have more time, but to really connect
to that community
[Dana Baker] Get involved, get connected, see an adviser.