First Year Experience

Program focused on associate level students, placed in learning communities, an additional requirement of a UNIV transition to college course, and embedded support services. The goal of the program is preparing students to transition or transfer to baccalaureate programs.

Evaluate all program maps in light of the USG Core IMPACTS and update our associate pathway for our two associate degrees (Core in Arts and Core in Science) using the changes/adjustments made to Core IMPACTS. Stabilizing the leadership in the coordination of the curriculum and implementation of FYE.

Educate incoming and continuing students on financial literacy. This includes campus activities regarding understanding the FAFSA, financial aid processing, reviewing student accounts, balancing a budget, and making healthy fiscal decisions. These activities are in collaboration with the Center for Student Success and Retention and Housing & Residence Life

MGA’s FYE initiative encompasses three elements – academic success,, character development, and community engagement.

The Knights Academy (KA) is an online academic community focused on increasing first year student academic success by engaging the student in a variety of learning activities. These activities seek to assist students develop critical student success skills by participating in quests and engaging with other students through discussion posts.  Topics covered in the Knights Academy include the following: 

To combat lower graduation rates, KSU will focus on four initiatives aimed at supporting new students.

1. The President’s Focused Learner Program

The President’s Focused Learner Program (PFL) is a KSU initiative seeking to assist incoming students at risk of “Murky Middle” GPAs with their ability to navigate the academic and personal well-being factors often necessary for a student’s academic success. The PFL Program spans all majors at KSU.

KSU’s “Starting Blocks” project launched in Fall 2024.  Block scheduling serves multiple purposes, all designed to enhance the academic experience and support student success. It streamlines the registration process for easier enrollment, ensuring students make appropriate selections of courses, including introductory English and math, during their first semester. It helps minimize potential credit loss if students change majors, and it provides students with the optimal opportunity to register for a full-time (15 credit hour) schedule.

FIRE 1000 ("Freshmen Introduction to Reasoning Essentials") is a first-year course that stimulates students' academic self-efficacy, depth of intellectual inquiry, and problem-solving skills. This is done through research and reflection to understand themselves better, their purpose, and the campus community. FIRE 1000 was launched in 2017 and is required at GSC for all new and transfer students under 13 credit hours.

In freshman orientation classes each 1st-year student will be required to complete an assignment designed to encourage the use of stepping blocks data.  Based on an academic major of interest, students will research common jobs associated with the major as well as the job market and the salaries associated with these positions.

Create success networks that connect students with peer support, mentors, tutors, advisors, and counselors that focus on the specific needs of various student populations.

Through a US Department of Education grant, GGC launched a STEM Living Learning Community (LLC) specifically for Informational Technology (IT) and Health Science (HS) programs that offers competitive housing awards and academic and career readiness support for two cohorts of 16 students pursuing these degrees each year.  Our LLC program builds on GGC’s record of successfully preparing STEM students by providing intensive academic support, proactive advising, career planning, and high impact practices such as undergraduate research opportunities.