Retention Rates a Hot Topic in America

With education a hot topic in the current president's administration and retention rates a key focus in the success of this endeavor, the Advising and Mentoring Center at TAMIU is helping improve retention rates one student at a time.

According to CollegeBoard, a nonprofit educational coalition, retention rates are important indicators of graduation rates because a student's first year at a college or university is the most crucial.

 Studies have shown that an important factor in higher retention rates in colleges is mentoring. As for TAMIU, the university has already taken proactive steps in improving retention rates and students' education by its implementation of a peer mentoring program for first time freshmen.

The Advising and Mentoring Center now possesses the capabilities to match each freshman with a peer mentor. The goal of these mentor meetings is to ease the transition between high school and college. For half an hour every week, the students meet with their mentors to discuss a wide range of topics including academics, life, and special interests. Additionally, mentors help their students become more associated with TAMIU, its faculty, and its resources.

In order to further improve retention rates and student success at TAMIU, the Advising and Mentoring Center brought in a retention specialist, Terra Weakley, in November of 2009. "Every institution is looking for high retention rates and that's for a variety of reasons," Weakley mentions. "The higher the retention rate, usually the stronger the student, and the more involved the university actually is in working to provide resources to keep those students on campus and through to graduation," she states.

 "TAMIU especially is one of the universities around the country that has really embraced this idea of the first year experience and poured in quite a bit of resources and energy into retaining the freshmen and making sure that their year is, transitionally, the most effective it can be, from students coming in that are transfers as freshmen to students right out of high school," notes Weakley.

  With the university and its staff intent on these goals, TAMIU is well on its way to helping the national goal proposed by Obama for education in America.

Weakley, and all the staff and mentors at the Advising and Mentoring Center are available to help each and every freshman through his or her first year at TAMIU, so that together more students can accomplish their goals in the pursuit of a degree.