Freshmen to live and LEARN

Two years ago, Kimberly Schneider, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, applied for a National Science Foundation grant in the hopes of developing a program to retain science, technology, engineering and math majors.

Now, 28 high school graduates have been accepted to the Learning Environment and Academic Research Network program that will start this fall.

"National Science Foundation grants are really competitive, so we're thrilled to get the funds to start the program," said Schneider, who received the $170,000 grant last December.

Schneider was inspired to develop the program during a visit she paid to the University of Michigan a few years ago. She saw that they had programs similar to the one she wanted to develop, including a living and learning program with more than 100 students in it.

"University of Michigan is definitely the template, the inspiration and … where some of the ideas came from," Schneider said. "I thought, ‘If they're doing over 100, we at least start something smaller and hopefully grow it in the future.'"

She submitted a 15-page grant proposal that detailed her plans for the program, along with letters of support from various entities on campus, like the Office of Student Affairs.

"There's multiple goals, but the long-term goal is to increase retention in the STEM disciplines," Schneider said. "I wanted to get more students involved in research earlier in their careers because that's been shown to increase retention in all disciplines."

What sets the LEARN program apart from other specialized academic programs is that it's specially designed for first-year students who don't often have the opportunity to start research so early in their academic careers. Twenty-eight first-year students will live and learn together in one wing of the Hercules Community. They will take three courses together: freshman seminar, introduction to research and English, if they have not already earned credit for it.

The introduction to research course has never been taught before because it was developed specifically for this program and will be taught by Schneider.

Schneider said the course will help students understand exactly what research is and how they can get involved in it.

"Each student will have the opportunity to be a research apprentice in a laboratory," said Schneider, who anticipates the apprenticeship will run about 12 weeks.

She said the experiences the students will have in this program will be unique because many freshman do not get involved in research during their first year, and they'll get to see the variety of things they can do with their discipline that they might not have learned about otherwise.

One such student who will get to have the unique experience afforded to her by the LEARN program is Marissa Goldberg, whose parents are UCF alumni.

Goldberg, who graduated from high school two weeks ago, was accepted into the program and will begin attending UCF this fall as a computer engineering major.

"I heard about it through an email they had sent me and also some things they had sent in the mail," Goldberg said. "I liked how it was the only research program for freshmen."

She said she's also looking forward to working with a graduate student who shares similar interests and living in a community that will seem more like a family.

"I think it will be nice to have that kind of atmosphere," Goldberg said.

The community element is one of Schneider's main goals with the program.

"We're trying to build a sense of community, not only within their floor, but that UCF is a community," Schneider said.

Schneider said she hopes the students in the program with also take an interest in leadership positions and upper-level research programs because it will better prepare them for jobs and/or graduate school.

Since this program is brand new, Schneider said they'll be making assessments through the next year and the two years after that will also be funded by the grant to figure out what works best.

"We'll make adjustments even as the first year goes by, if we're noticing problems," Schneider said. "We want to do what's best for the student group."