Orientation

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:

Improve graduation rates of transfer students through improved course articulation, addressing performance gaps in challenging gateway courses, and directed academic advising.

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.

GSU recently secured two grants totaling over $1 million to develop a one-stop student success portal integrated with the learning management system. In pursuit of this ASPIRE goal, we have launched initial modules focused on career exploration and planning.

The portal will continue to expand with additional resources, including mental health support, academic assistance, FAQs, and guides for student resources such as VMock, our AI-powered career readiness platform.

All incoming first-year students were connected post-NSO with online information and communication from their top 5 engagement choices via the Panther Involvement Network - PIN. During their in-person NSO event, each student attended a 'Panther Connect' session to dive deeper in their top desired involvement opportunity, where they were able to connect and share contact information with students that possess similar interests as them.

As part of the consolidation with Georgia Southern University (GS), an EGSC/GS team is proposing to replace EGSC’s 1 credit hour CATS 1101 Critical and Academic Thinking for Success freshmen orientation course with two 1 credit hour courses, as presented below along with their draft student learning outcomes (SLOs):

The Roadrunner Scholars is a residential and immersive summer bridge program designed for students requiring learning support math and English.  In this six-week program, students were enrolled in both learning support math and English as well as their credit course counterparts, and the Perspectives seminar. Roadrunner Scholars were provided tutoring assistance, peer education, development opportunities, as well as social activities.  All aspects of the program were provided at no cost to the student through scholarships offered by our Dalton State Foundation.  Students were invited to app

PACE is a first-year student program that provides intentional interventions through both curricular and co-curricular activities that support academic perseverance and enhance a sense of belonging. Beginning with First Chime, a fun convocation to “ring” in the beginning of the school year, students are connected to faculty members in their focus area and peer mentors to understand expectations for the first weeks of school. Interventions are planned and implemented in Perspectives (our first-year seminar course).

The College will create a dynamic roadmap to guide students on all the steps they need to take and the information they need to learn after they are admitted to the college, to ensure a successful start of their college career at Coastal.

This activity is designed to enhance first-year student persistence, progression, and graduation by fostering a coordinated approach that integrates faculty mentoring, professional academic advising, and career services guidance. The focus is on holding students accountable for their academic choices, ensuring they remain on a graduation plan aligned with their career goals, and connecting them with key campus resources to support holistic development.

Student Accountability & Engagement: