How can two-year colleges ensure that all students can access quality career navigation opportunities that inform their studies and position them for meaningful, family-sustaining work? That is the challenge being addressed at Boston's Bunker Hill Community College through a college-wide initiative known as Ethnographies of Work (EoW). The…

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of the effectiveness of a first-year experience program at one institution from the perspectives of the students, faculty, and staff through interviews and observations. This study was conducted at a community college located in Palm Desert, California on their first-year experience program,…

Guided pathways reforms require colleges to rethink how they teach and support students. The case studies in Part 2 of this practitioner packet examine how colleges at the forefront of these reforms are transforming their programs and support services by implementing three key guided pathways practices: (1) meta-majors (clusters of programs in…

This article explores the design and implementation of the curriculum for City Seminar, an integrated course in the first-year experience at a new community college. This interdisciplinary course focuses on a critical issue that provides content and context for quantitative reasoning (QR), reading, and writing (RW) to strengthen students'…

Laney's Success Model for First-Year Students attempts to increase retention by accommodating students and encouraging learning. It requires an institutional commitment for student academic success and tries to dispel the forces of attrition: academic boredom, difficulty adjusting to college life, and academic underpreparedness. The first-year…