Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
8-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Myron Pope
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Timothy Atkinson
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Jerrel Moore
Abstract
First-Year Seminar (FYS) courses have been the foundational building blocks for academic and nonacademic success for first-year college freshman since the late 1970s. With the focus on improving retention and persistence, FYS courses have been viewed as the resource that connects freshmen to the faculty, staff, student, and campus environment. Therefore, it is vital to see the impact that it has had on students and how it can further develop persistence through graduation. The researcher conducted this basic qualitative study to look for emerging themes of sophomore experience in the FYS courses and how that impacted their persistence and retention at the host institution. Data collected were in the form of one-on-one interviews with 20 student participants and a focus group with five student participants. The findings highlighted each participant’s experience at the host institution. The findings suggest that FYS supports student persistence and retention in the form of several different functional areas on campus.
Creative Commons License
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Recommended Citation
Smith, Michael A., "First-Year Seminar and Its Impact on Retention at a Small Liberal Arts College in South Carolina" (2021). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 392.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/392