Understanding

the Sophomore-Year Experience on Kent States Kent Campus

A Synthesis by Josh Perkins

Overview
Upon the gathering and initial review of statistics and student interviews a few themes
emerged on Kent States main campus. While there were a few personal statements that were
unique, on a whole, Kent State sophomore students seem to fall within four of Chickerings
vectors as highlighted by Lemons and Douglas (1987). The vectors that they include are
developing competence, moving through autonomy toward interdependence, establishing
identity, and developing purpose.

Of the students that were interviewed, getting connected both socially and academically
(finding their identity) emerged as a common theme. The topic of connection was consistently
the answer given for the questions that asked about the most positive and most negative
experience on campus. Given the many responses that highlight connection, this appears to be
an area that our sophomore program needs to focus in on.

Another area of focus that was highlighted in the interviews was students acknowledgement of
increased academic rigor and lack of understanding of where to find help. While there are a lot
of resources available for students, it may serve the University well if there is a sophomore
specific resource. The importance of academics can be seen in the increase of sophomore
students GPA from their first semester to their second semester.

As mentioned above there are a lot of offices across campus providing resources for the
sophomore students, but there is not a centralized place where students know to go to when
they have a need. Barbara Tobolowsky (2008) states that a comprehensive approach to the
sophomore year, embedded in campus culture and tied to the campus mission, is more likely to
yield broad institutional support and long-term sustainability than a fragmented approach (p.
66). After our initial review of our sophomore population at Kent State University, it is
apparent that a sophomore program that houses resources and provides timely publications
with help students to connect socially, academically and will serve to localize resources in a way
that are accessible.

Tobolowsky, B. (2008) Sophomores in transition: The forgotten year. New Directions for Higher
Education, 144, p. 59-67.

Best Practices in Sophomore-Year Experience

One of the key themes that have surfaced through talking with our Kent State students is that
they appear to be unaware of the resources that are available to them as sophomore students.
Likewise, in light of the emphasis on job attainment after graduation, there also seems to be a
lack of student understanding, knowledge and appreciation of their individual programs
curriculum as well as the Universitys curriculum. In working with a lot of millennial students, it
is important to explicitly explain the why of the curriculum and programmatic offerings. Given
the type of students that we are serving at Kent State the following high impact practices should
be more explicitly stated or developed in some cases:
1. Develop moments for student to set educational goals in which require spending
meaningful time engaged their education and curriculum.
2. Create space and opportunities for sophomore students to interact with faculty, staff &
peers.
3. Provide continued diversity exposure through service learning opportunities, education
experience opportunities, etc.
4. Form a culture of feedback This can be provided thought a few different modes
academic advisors, faculty, staff, leadership opportunities, mentoring programs, living
learning communities and the like.
5. Staff & Faculty education while there are a lot of beliefs on our campus in regard to
what students or sophomores need, further education would be beneficial for those
working directly with sophomore students.