Faculty Think Tank/Scholars’ Studio Learning Communities
Funded by $100,000 Wal-Mart Foundation grant.
Led the design and implementation of a vehicle for campus-wide discussion about student success, focusing on how the practices and attitudes of faculty, staff, and administrators shape the academic culture. The Faculty Think Tank asks professors to consider how their pedagogical practices encourage or stifle budding scholars, and offers “space” to explore both the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and their own scholarly processes. The Scholars’ Studio creates a lab for testing and refining innovative, high-impact practices through a project-based learning community for freshmen. Within the Scholars’ Studio, faculty and students work collaboratively to generate knowledge and solve problems.
Summer Smash/Summer Experience
The Scholars’ Studio Summer Experience offers students the unique opportunity to develop as writers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. Tailored to participants’ needs, this intensive program builds confidence, offers a head start on college, and cultivates the academic and study skills necessary for success. Students who successfully complete this program increase their potential to advance into college-level writing.
Developmental Immersion Group (DIG)
DIG offers a highly engaged experience for exceptionally underprepared students. Taking advantage of the national increase in time-to-degree, DIG uses the first year of college to build academic confidence through interdisciplinary, project-based learning that focuses on the development of college-level critical thinking, computation and written communication.
Monica N. Turner 