First Year Experience

Integrate the IBM SkillsBuild Getting Started with AI module into all First-Year Experience (FYE) courses.

The Summer Success Academy (SSA) is a structured summer bridge program designed to support incoming first-year students who are required to enroll in co-requisite English or Mathematics courses due to not fully meeting college admissions benchmarks. The program provides an early, supportive transition into the academic, social, and personal expectations of university life while equipping students with the skills and confidence necessary for long-term success.
Program Design and Structure:

Experiential Learning at the University of Georgia empowers every student to apply their learning in real-world contexts, equipping them with the competencies and expanded perspectives to thrive in the emerging, dynamic global society.  

Pursuant to NISS recommendations, UNG launched a 1CH FYE course with a pilot group in fall 2025. The pilot group includes all associate degree-seeking students, bachelor’s degree-seeking students in Education programs, and all students with co-requisite learning requirements. Enrollment in UNG 1101 for fall 2025 is ~1600 students

VSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (Experiential Learning); 4 year completion Spring 2025

The LIGHT Your Path initiative aims to integrate student support services at MGA to provide a guided structured pathway for incoming freshmen towards successful academic and career outcomes.  

This initiative is built around MGA’s existing student support resources to include advising, student success coaching, academic engagement, career and leadership opportunities, and freshman year experience. This initiative addresses Strategy I under MGA’s 2023-28 Strategic Plan to ‘Champion Student Success.”

FLIGHT is a class-year connections program designed to support Kennesaw State University students throughout their collegiate journey. Using an innovative four-year framework, FLIGHT fosters community, belonging, and student engagement while helping students build a distinct identity within their class cohort. Through targeted programming and developmental milestones, FLIGHT addresses the social, personal, and academic needs of students, promoting retention, progression, and deeper connections to campus resources and the KSU community.

Students transferring between institutions tend to have unused courses in their new programs. This results in additional time and costs spent at the new institution. There is an articulation agreement for courses in the core curriculum between the University System of Georgia (USG) institutions, but no such agreement exists for private or out of state institutions.

KSU has identified courses that are high enrollment courses with significant DFW rates and will continue to ensure that sufficient sections are offered to meet student demand, offer targeted academic supports to achieve greater impacts, and engage faculty in learning communities focused on course redevelopment.

This project is aligned with one of our “Top 5 Strategies,” which is to expand faculty knowledge and practices that support student success.

The President’s Focused Learner Program (PFL) was 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 spanned all majors at KSU.

As of Fall 2024, the services and events previously offered within the PFL program were incorporated into the Academic Coaching and Support office, enabling more comprehensive support for “murky middle” students.