Successfully Crossing the Cultural Border between High School and College: Promoting a Sense of Belonging in a Freshman Seminar Course

Abstract

Traditional undergraduate students from the United States often find the transition from high school to college difficult. Challenges include inadequate preparation, a loss of interest, adjusting to poor instruction, discouragement due to low grades, financial difficulties, family problems, and cultural issues which impact the students' sense of belonging. The focus of this paper is to describe how a freshman seminar course for computing majors was implemented to positively impact all incoming freshmen and to promote this sense of belonging, which is the central objective of the course. Results of our assessment showed increases in positive student interactions with faculty and students, and an increase in the sense of belonging. The paper describes the freshman seminar course, reports findings drawn from the quantitative and qualitative data, and outlines further initiatives to be made in the course to help students successfully cross the cultural border between high school and college