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Ensuring Student Success For The First Year & Beyond

The BEAR Life (Bridging Economic and Academic Resources) freshman transition program celebrated its first cohort this year, with 80 students successfully completing the program with an average GPA of 2.8.

This grant-funded initiative supports and empowers first-year, Pell-eligible students transitioning from high school to college with its Summer Bridge program, a team of dedicated Peer Guides, campus locations for study and sharing community. While this year saw its first cohort succeed, the program has been years in the making and promises success in the years ahead.

BEAR Life Director Nadia Eslinger related how this program began. “We celebrated our first year of having a cohort, but we’re in our second year of funding. The first year was planning, programming and setting it all up. Then, we got our first group of students in the fall of 2023. It began with Julia Winden Fey and Sponsored Programs writing and applying for a grant funded by the U. S. Department Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant. That took some time since we didn’t know we had the grant until September 2022. We didn’t start until January 2023 when I began hiring our staff, and our first cohort came in the fall of 2023.”

The first year of college is a great time for change, but some students face unique challenges during this time of transition. BEAR Life is a five-year grant dedicated and designed to connect these first-year students to the resources and community they need to make that first year successful. The program offers peer coaching from upper-level students and professional coaches, the Summer Bridge program, workshops on topics to empower students with real-world knowledge and skills, service learning projects and academic assistance.

Pell-eligible students make up more than 40% of UCA’s student population, and many are low-income, first-generation college students or both. While many are somewhat prepared, equity gaps make that first year of college very difficult, and this program seeks to bridge those gaps. Eslinger said, “I think it’s important to understand that not all students come in at the same level on the same playing field. Sometimes, these students are academically prepared and can do the work but need support. If they have parents who maybe didn’t attend college or are unfamiliar with how college life works, that can be a barrier. Sometimes, financial barriers caused them to step out or leave the university.”

She continued, “So I think, for us, it’s essential that they have a support structure here at BT����that understands all those challenges, and we do what we can to help them through that. Access to money and resources opens many doors; when you don’t have that, you feel like those doors can’t be opened. But they can, and there are still possibilities. You just need the support network to help you.”

The Summer Bridge program is one benefit of this specialized support network through BEAR Life. This program brings new students to campus early. It seeks to acclimate them to campus life by providing connections through team-building activities, seminars on adulting, leadership and service-learning opportunities. It also gives students more knowledge about the academic environment at a university. They move in, tour the campus and learn about resources like tutoring and Student Health. They settle into their dorm rooms and meet their peers, fostering connections through community service-learning projects.

Eslinger stated, “BT����provides a ‘liberal education,’ which means we educate the whole student. This is not a training program where you can learn just one thing and be ready for a job. We feel that doing service-learning projects helps the students grow, connect to our community and understand central Arkansas’ different cultures and populations. It’s so they can feel like they’re a part of the community and so they will want to continue to give back and serve after earning their degree.”

Another benefit of the Summer Bridge program is that students learn the “hidden curriculum,” a series of implied rules, social norms of the college campus and classroom expectations that students may not know about. Eslinger explained, “The way I define it is that it is a set of expectations that we don’t necessarily try to hide from students, but it’s a set of expectations that we know, and we expect them to know, but, through no fault of their own, they don’t know. It’s just them coming into a new culture. They don’t know that they are supposed to go to faculty office hours or check their account to ensure everything is paid for. They don’t know about the 80/20 principle, which states that they should do most of their learning on their own now and enrich that learning in the classroom. Summer Bridge does just that. It helps bridge those potential gaps to get them acclimated to college life and ensure they’re ready to start and be successful.”

Eslinger continued, “Students have described the experience as ‘transformative.’ They feel like they’ve got a better start to college life. They made friends, learned about campus and felt more comfortable attending Welcome Week.”

The overall success of the BEAR Life program is also linked to academics, which is supported by a team of guides, coaches and requirements that help students learn a new way of studying in college. Success coaching is a required part of BEAR Life and comes in the form of upperclassmen peer guides and professional coaches. Eslinger said they had five peer guides for this first cohort, and each guide was assigned a group of 20 to 25 students. These extensively trained guides met with their students at least once monthly and inquired about their grades, how they were adjusting to college life and more. It was an opportunity for more support for the students. She explained, “It’s just the accountability piece, like they know someone is going to be checking up on them, making sure they’re doing what they need to do.”

Other program requirements include tracking at least five study hours per week, completing learning modules during each semester, attending a wellness coaching session and remaining in good academic standing with the university. These program elements are also supported by academic counseling and coaching from academic advisors and locations specially designed for study hours.

The Bear Burrow is one such place. Located in the newly renovated Student Success & Veterans Resource Center, it is a room set aside just for BEAR Life students for study time; Eslinger describes it as “an ‘everything area.’ They study there. They meet, they chat, have group sessions and play games. It’s their space, and they use it for everything. There are always two or three students in there every day. It’s always stocked with snacks and supplies they can use, like pencils and paper. It’s a cozy space we try to make comfortable for them – a place of their own.”

As BT����celebrated this first cohort, Eslinger reflected on the changes she witnessed in the students. “I’ve seen a big change in confidence. Many of these students came in with some level of imposter syndrome, not sure about themselves and their abilities or who they were and who they wanted to be while they were at UCA. By the end of the year, we have people running for Student Government Association (SGA) positions or getting leadership positions in their fraternities or sororities. So I saw a big change from them coming in as timid, unsure freshmen to these strong, successful sophomores ready to lead the next generation of students. They’re ready to tell their own story and determine the kind of student they want to be and the kind of leader they want to be, not just on campus, but out in the community.”