Celebrating Student Success

What's a celebration without a cake? Helping cut the ceremonial first piece of cake during the LEAP celebration Feb. 3 are mentor Novaliyando Endryko, students Paige Pedersen and Cristina Gilbert and The Windsor Foundation Board member Larry Hayes.

Saint Mary’s students, staff and faculty gathered today in the McNally Theatre Auditorium to celebrate the success of this year’s LEAP Program and to hear the announcement of a generous gift that will allow Saint Mary’s to take this proactive 2-year pilot program to the next level.

Universities have a range of interventions to support first year students who face academic difficulties. The LEAP Program (Learning, Engagement, Achievement and Peer Mentors), addresses these difficulties before they occur through dynamic First-Year Learning Communities that help new students establish the academic, social and life skills essential to a successful transition from high school.

Designed to create a sense of connectedness, LEAP catches students before they arrive on campus and provides an enhanced level of early support through small class sizes, individual attention from professors, targeted skills development and peer mentoring. The aim is to engage first year students more quickly and effectively and mediate the challenges which often lead to academic difficulties and early drop-outs.

For the past two years, Saint Mary’s LEAP program has consisted of five learning communities, each with a cohort of 30 students who take three courses together, participate in weekly learning strategy sessions and receive mentoring from senior students. Thanks to the generous support of The Windsor Foundation, a charitable organization that has recently expanded its mandate to address the challenges faced by today’s youth, Saint Mary’s will be able to expand the LEAP Program in 2012 and guarantee it for the next five years. 

This page last modified Friday, 03-Feb-2012 17:53:40 AST