Fostering scholar success takes institutional management and collaboration. Barrington Worth, Dominican College’s vp of scholar success and engagement, is aware of this effectively—as a result of he was a struggling first-generation school scholar himself.
Worth spoke with Inside Greater Ed about his philosophy for scholar success, present initiatives at his Illinois-based establishment and the lasting efforts of growth work.
Q: What attracted you to your position?
A: My position is to seek out methods to assist our college students develop, thrive and overcome the challenges that may impede their tutorial success. Half of our college students are the primary of their households to attend school. Many work full-time. Success is hardly a given. I ought to know—I failed out of school my freshman yr.
However I used to be fortunate. My grandmother, who solely had a seventh-grade schooling, by no means misplaced religion in me. She and my associates pushed me to attempt once more. This time, I used to be lucky to have an adviser, coaches and a myriad of mentors who didn’t permit me to retrench into my skewed perceptions of myself. They empowered my hope, and I turned the primary in my household to earn a bachelor’s diploma.
Immediately, I embrace my position in serving to Dominican College pursue its mission to assist underresourced college students obtain the alternatives {that a} school diploma gives.
Q: What makes Dominican distinctive as an establishment and as a scholar physique?
A: At Dominican, we serve lots of of first-generation school college students. Greater than 70 p.c of our undergraduate college students are Latinx. This tutorial yr, half of our first-year college students required bodily and psychological wellness help throughout the first eight weeks of the semester. Almost half wanted monetary help, and practically one in 5 expressed considerations about satisfactory entry to meals or having a protected place to dwell. How are you going to speak about schooling once you’re hungry, scared and unsure the place you’re going to sleep from one evening to the subsequent?
Most college students at Dominican aren’t solely overcoming these challenges, they’re breaking by means of ceilings. The six-year commencement fee of our Hispanic college students exceeds 60 p.c, whereas it’s round 50 p.c nationally. This previous fall, we welcomed the biggest first-year class in our historical past—at a time when school enrollment is dropping nationwide.
Q: What methods does Dominican make use of to create scholar success?
A: Our work begins in the summertime earlier than our first-year college students arrive on campus. We ship a quick survey to study extra about social determinants of their well-being, corresponding to housing insecurity, transportation and monetary misery. We ask college students to reply in one in all 3 ways: “I obtained this,” “I’m figuring it out” or “I need assistance.” In the event that they ask for assist, they get it. If they are saying they’re figuring it out, they get assist anyway.
Dominican’s Care Community creates detailed care plans for every scholar by means of our partnership with NowPow, which helps join college students to native companions and assets of their house communities. For instance, NowPow helps commuting college students faucet into community-based assets inside strolling distance of their houses, corresponding to meals pantries and psychological well being companies. This previous semester, 95 p.c of Dominican’s first-year college students obtained some sort of help for fundamental wants.
For households of first-generation college students, the price of school can appear insurmountable. To assist shut this hole, Dominican gives monetary literacy help by means of our Household Academy: we offer a collection of classes in each English and Spanish to attach households with Dominican’s monetary help packages and introduce them to different households with related points. Households that attend 5 classes additionally obtain credit score for his or her scholar to enroll in a summer season course for gratis.
To assist ease expertise prices, Dominican companions with CDW Company to supply our Stars Align Tech Entry Program. For college students who take part in this system, Dominican covers the price of a brand new laptop computer up entrance, permitting college students to bundle the associated fee into their tuition help.
In 2019, Dominican redesigned our alert system to assist new college students keep on observe academically. All through the semester, our devoted alert group notifies us when a scholar has failed a take a look at, has not attended a category or has missed different alternatives. Advisers then observe up with every scholar individually to supply help and supply steerage.
A method we foster a way of belonging for college kids from various cultural backgrounds is thru Dominican’s Middle for Cultural Liberation. Our Pillars Students program helps first-year African American college students, together with by offering scholarships and alternatives to interact in community-based, social justice alternatives. From 2021–22, the Pillars Students program helped enhance Dominican’s retention of African American college students by 30 p.c.
Q: Hope was necessary for you in your larger schooling journey. How does that construct into your private philosophy round scholar success?
A: I don’t consider that occurs if we don’t acknowledge the significance of nurturing hope. For underprivileged college students, hope has sustained them by means of many challenges. Nonetheless, school is commonly a distant idea. It’s not nearly affordability, however achievability. College students can understand themselves as much less able to studying than their friends. There’s a cognitive disconnect that can’t be missed.
Additional, we should try to reframe our perceptions of who could be profitable. Whereas there is no such thing as a easy reply for the best way to higher recruit and retain underresourced college students, it begins with recognizing that every particular person can thrive in a school setting, nevertheless it requires us to supply a stage of dedication that extends effectively past classwork. It takes the initiative to ask what we will do at the moment—not tomorrow or three years from now. Even when a few of our packages fail to attain the outcomes we anticipated, we hold our concentrate on progress. If we’re studying from what hasn’t labored and transferring ahead, we’re succeeding.
Q: What long-term results are you seeing from these efforts?
A: Inside a yr of graduating, 78 p.c of Dominican’s college students go on to jobs at main firms, start-ups, medical facilities, nonprofits, faculties and past. Round 20 p.c enter graduate faculty.
For me, the best reward comes on commencement day, when first-generation school college students stroll throughout the stage to obtain their diplomas. All of the academia fades away in that second to at least one prevailing thought: this second is the start. They’ll carry torches of hope into their communities for the remainder of their lives.
Looking for tales from campus leaders, school members and workers for our new Pupil Success focus. Share right here.
