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== '''Strategy 8: Increasing First Year Student Retention''' == '''Project Lead: Mohamed Moustafa''' One of the main problems facing first year students is uncertainty choosing a field of study or a major to pursue, this applies directly to undecided students but also impacts a great population of freshman students who are decided yet dubious. Through our journey as UIF candidates we had the opportunity to interview freshman students and we found that they are mostly unaware of the wide range of university major offerings. Making students more aware of majors available and career opportunities in each field can make them more likely to commit to finishing their degree and counteract 'first year drop off'. Another very useful startegy for freshman retention that we uncovered through our discussion with several faculty and staff leaders is student-faculty engagement outside of class. Increasing this engagement helps create a home-away-from-home feeling for students which increases their attachment to the university and improves their academic performance, hence increasing retention. Following these discoveries, we developed two intiatives that focus on increasing student-faculty collisions and students' awareness of university offerings. '''Initiative #1: Engaging Faculty in Freshman Student Orientation''' *Invite introductory course faculty to attend lunch & dinner with students during orientation (Pilot program)*Include faculty as participants in team building and ice-breaker events*Run faculty & student focus groups pertaining to engagement*Add mini-intros to different fields of study throughout orientation*Include activity introducing WSU major offerings/resources to orientation '''Initiative #2: Welcome Week Majors Fair''' *Organize a fair as part of Welcome Fest*Departments host tables and promote their available majors & minors*Faculty interact with students and answer questions*Invite alumni to represent departments and talk about their beyond school experience <br/>==
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