By
Madeline Patto
Eduardo Segovia, a Richland College graduate who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, joins other students from the college in sharing their stories at the annual Achieving the Dream conference.
DALLAS — Eleven successful community college students with various
science and liberal arts majors have one thing in common: they all
thought about quitting school.
Just enrolling was difficult enough. It took most of them more than five visits to campus to complete their initial registration.
All of the students, who ranged in age from 20 to mid-50s, persevered because of their relationship with another person.
For several of the students who participated in the plenary at Achieving the Dream's annual conference, it was a parent or another relative who had made the critical difference. For most of the students, however, the encouragement that got them through their rough patches came from community college employees.
For Kelly Grizzle, who enrolled in college 32 years after high school, it was the developmental math instructor whose patient explanations of math concepts helped her earn her first 96 percent on a math test. Prior to that, she had walked out of two computer-based math courses in frustration.
For Dat Tran, who has been accepted into two pharmacy school programs, chemistry teacher Becky Williams' instructional style “made me love science.”
For Marie Gonzalez, an engineering student, it was a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) advisor who helped her make an academic plan, and told her about scholarships and internships that she went on to obtain.
The experiences of these students of Richland College, which is part of the Dallas County Community College District (Texas),
align with survey data that indicate that relationships undergird
students' perceptions about their college experiences and influence
whether they stay enrolled.
“One of the things we underestimate is how important every single person is who works at the college,” said Arleen Arnsparger, project manager of the Initiative on Student Success at the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE).
She added that “it’s not hard at all” for college personnel to make personal connections with students when they understand it should be their top priority.
College employees need to do things like make eye contact with students and sincerely reach out to help when they have questions about college processes or need academic assistance, Arnsparger explained during an interview after the student session that she moderated with CCCSE Director Kay McClenney.
In the 2012 report "A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Student Success,"
CCCSE reported that:
When McClenney talks with groups of community college faculty, she often hears from them that community colleges’ low graduation rates are due to students who enroll intending to take just one or two courses, and that students have the right to choose to fail. She said does not buy it because the data does not support that conclusion.
“While it is factually true that some community college students come to take one or two courses, ... it is impossible to convince me that any community college students come to complete six weeks of mathematics and nine weeks of anatomy and physiology,” McClenney said.
She has a data-driven response to those who argue that students have a right to choose not to complete degrees.
“Until that choice not to persist and not to complete is equitably distributed across groups of students by race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, then I believe that is an argument that we cannot afford—as a sector and a society—any longer to make,” McClenney said.
Just enrolling was difficult enough. It took most of them more than five visits to campus to complete their initial registration.
All of the students, who ranged in age from 20 to mid-50s, persevered because of their relationship with another person.
For several of the students who participated in the plenary at Achieving the Dream's annual conference, it was a parent or another relative who had made the critical difference. For most of the students, however, the encouragement that got them through their rough patches came from community college employees.
For Kelly Grizzle, who enrolled in college 32 years after high school, it was the developmental math instructor whose patient explanations of math concepts helped her earn her first 96 percent on a math test. Prior to that, she had walked out of two computer-based math courses in frustration.
For Dat Tran, who has been accepted into two pharmacy school programs, chemistry teacher Becky Williams' instructional style “made me love science.”
For Marie Gonzalez, an engineering student, it was a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) advisor who helped her make an academic plan, and told her about scholarships and internships that she went on to obtain.
Helping hands all around
“One of the things we underestimate is how important every single person is who works at the college,” said Arleen Arnsparger, project manager of the Initiative on Student Success at the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE).
She added that “it’s not hard at all” for college personnel to make personal connections with students when they understand it should be their top priority.
College employees need to do things like make eye contact with students and sincerely reach out to help when they have questions about college processes or need academic assistance, Arnsparger explained during an interview after the student session that she moderated with CCCSE Director Kay McClenney.
Data highlight disconnects
CCCSE reported that:
- Only 14 percent of 127,770 student respondents said they had been contacted by someone at their college when they were struggling academically. (Thirty-four percent of students reported they had not experienced academic difficulties.)
- More than 60 percent of 22,617 faculty members said they had either communicated directly during class or outside of class with students who were struggling academically.
- Twenty-seven percent of faculty said they notified someone else at the college as part of a systematic early warning system.
When McClenney talks with groups of community college faculty, she often hears from them that community colleges’ low graduation rates are due to students who enroll intending to take just one or two courses, and that students have the right to choose to fail. She said does not buy it because the data does not support that conclusion.
“While it is factually true that some community college students come to take one or two courses, ... it is impossible to convince me that any community college students come to complete six weeks of mathematics and nine weeks of anatomy and physiology,” McClenney said.
She has a data-driven response to those who argue that students have a right to choose not to complete degrees.
“Until that choice not to persist and not to complete is equitably distributed across groups of students by race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, then I believe that is an argument that we cannot afford—as a sector and a society—any longer to make,” McClenney said.
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