Persistence Plus

The U.S. labor force could have a shortage of up to 3.5 million workers by next year. Filling this gap not only demands enrolling and retaining adult learners, but addressing equity gaps in STEM.

There's still time to sign up for this Thursday's webinar in partnership with CollegeAPP at 2PM ET! In this session, you’ll hear how CollegeAPP helps colleges recruit diverse adult learners into STEM programs and learn from their partner MiraCosta College. Persistence Plus will then share evidence-based strategies for supporting those adult learners to a STEM credential and a life-altering new career.

If you’re interested but can’t make it, please reply to let us know so we can get you the content.

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"Unfortunately, I keep hearing from college staff and students themselves that they don’t know how to make friends. During a recent community college visit, I was told about a college skills workshop that unexpectedly became a lesson in friendship. We’ve long relied on the mere exposure effect—the idea that students will organically make friends by being stuck together—but if that ever did work, it sure ain’t working now. Given many students’ social behavior following the pandemic—choosing online coursework, avoiding in-person events, and staying in their room to engage virtually—what can we do to help those who want to make friends?"

Over the years we've learned how a sense of belonging and students' abilities to build relationships can have a positive impact on retention. Our Director of Behavioral Science and Education Ross O'Hara shares some research on how colleges can help students make those important connections (via Psychology Today).

How to Make Friends and Stay in School Studies show how structured social time can help students make friends.

Thinking through strategies for how to get students to engage? Persistence Plus Director of Behavioral Science and Education Ross O'Hara shares how you can leverage social norms to increase student engagement and ideas you can implement on your campus (via Psychology Today).

Advice for Getting Students to Engage It all starts with changing students' social norms around help-seeking.

How do we get students to use campus resources? Persistence Plus is a few days away from the start of our training series! We've partnered with Lumina Foundation to lead two free trainings this month to increase usage of the critical services colleges offer for student success. Persistence Plus will share evidence-based strategies we've used with our partners, including Lorain County Community College and The City College of New York, to increase students' utilization of advising, tutoring, basic needs resources, and more.

Please register to join us at one of these sessions:

-Thursday, 1/25 at 12PM ET for direct student service professionals looking for actionable strategies to implement tomorrow: https://bit.ly/PPlusLuminaJan25

-Wednesday, 1/31 at 2PM ET for campus leaders devising systemic, long-term changes to get students to utilize services: https://bit.ly/PPlusLuminaJan31

Each training will last 1 hour, with a bonus 30 minutes to workshop campus-specific challenges. If you’re interested but can’t make it, leave us a comment so we can get content to you.

Over the past decade, Persistence Plus has partnered with education institutions across the globe to support learners. One of the most common concerns we've collaborated with our partners to solve is how to get students to better utilize the resources available to them. A recent survey by Tyton Partners of more than 2,000 college students highlights a key barrier to usage of campus resources- students lack awareness that these supports exist.

In this piece P+ Director of Behavioral Science and Education Ross O'Hara outlines findings of the survey, and shares how changing campus norms may be a strong way to encourage students to take advantage of campus resources (via Psychology Today).

Are you interested in learning more about this topic? In partnership with Lumina Foundation, Persistence Plus is excited to lead two free webinars in January to increase usage of the critical services colleges offer for student success. Stay tuned for links to register next week!

How to Get Students to Use Resources Students are largely unaware of the support available. New norms could help.