Helping Sophomores Succeed offers an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the common challenges that arise in a student's second year of college. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina's National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, this groundbreaking book offers an examination of second-year student success and satisfaction using both quantitative and qualitative measures from national research findings. Helping Sophomores Succeed serves as a foundation for designing programs and services for the second-year student population that will help to promote retention, academic and career development, and personal transition and growth.

Praise forHelping Sophomores Succeed

"Lost, lonely, stressed, pressured, unsupported, frequently indecisive, and invisible, many sophomores fall off the radar of campus educators at a time when they may most be seeking purpose, meaning, direction, intellectual challenge, and intellectual capacity building. The fine scholars who focused educators on the first-year and senior transitions have done it again?a magnificent book to focus on the sophomore year!"
?Susan R. Komives, College Student Personnel Program, University of Maryland

"For years, student-centered institutions have front-loaded resources to promote student success in the first college year. This volume is rich with instructive ideas for how to sustain this important work in the second year of college."
?George D. Kuh, Chancellor's Professor and director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research

"A pioneering work, this brilliant text explores in practical and meaningful ways the all but neglected sophomore-year experience, when students face critical choices about their major, their profession, their life purpose."
?Betty L. Siegel, president emeritus, Kennesaw State University?

"All members of the campus community?faculty, student affairs educators, staff, and students?will benefit from learning about the unique challenges of the second college year. The book provides research and best practices to help educators and students craft an integrated, comprehensive approach to helping second-year students succeed."
?Marcia Baxter Magolda, distinguished professor, Educational Leadership, Miami University

The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition supports and advances efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education by providing opportunities for the exchange of practical, theory-based information and ideas.

Mary Stuart Hunter is director of FYE and professor of higher education at the University of South Carolina.

Barbara F. Tobolowsky is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department at the University of Texas at Arlington?and?the former associate director of FYE.

John N. Gardner is an educator, university professor, administrator,?and executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College in Brevard, NC. He is also the founder and senior fellow of FYE at the University of South Carolina.

Scott E. Evenbeck is professor of psychology and dean of the University College at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). He has been on the faculty of IUPUI for 34 years.

Jerry A. Pattengale is assistant vice president for scholarship and grants at Indiana Wesleyan University and serves on FYE's advisory board.

Molly A.?Schaller is an assistant professor and coordinator of the College Student Personnel Program and a Fellow in the Learning Teaching Center at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

Laurie A. Schreiner is a professor of higher education an program director of the Doctoral Program in Higher Education Leadership at Azusa Pacific University.

The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (FYE)?supports and advances efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education by?providing opportunities for the exchange of practical, theory-based information and ideas.

List of Tables and Exhibit xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Authors and Contributors xv

Introduction 1
John N. Gardner, Jerry A. Pattengale, Barbara F. Tobolowsky, Mary Stuart Hunter

Part One: Foundations 11

1 Understanding the Impact of the Second Year of College 13
Molly A. Schaller

2 Keys to Student Success: A Look at the Literature 30
Kirsten Kennedy, M. Lee Upcraft

3 Factors That Contribute to Sophomore Success and Satisfaction 43
Laurie A. Schreiner

4 College Sophomores: The Journey into Self 66
Molly A. Schaller

Part Two: Approaches for Engaging Second-year Students 81

5 Academic Advising: Helping Sophomores Succeed 83
Virginia N. Gordon

6 Promoting Career Success in the Second Year of College 99
Paul A. Gore, Jr., Mary Stuart Hunter

7 Curricular Approaches for the Intellectual Development of Second-Year Students 114
Scott E. Evenbeck, Sharon J. Hamilton

8 The Critical Role of Faculty and Faculty Development in Sophomore Success 129
Laurie A. Schreiner

9 Service-Learning in the Sophomore Year 146
Steven G. Jones, Robert W. Franco

10 The Potential of Study Abroad in the Sophomore Year 163
Susan Buck Sutton, Stephanie L. Leslie

11 Undergraduate Research: A Powerful Pedagogy to Engage Sophomores 177
Kathryn J. Wilson, Mary Crowe

12 Residential Learning in the Sophomore Year 189
Jimmie Gahagan, Mary Stuart Hunter

13 Spirituality, Meaning Making, and the Sophomore-Year Experience 203
Jennifer A. Lindholm

Part Three: Campus Practice and Implications 215

14 Designing and Implementing New Initiatives for Sophomores 217
Julie Tetley, Barbara F. Tobolowsky, Edward K. Chan

15 Assessment: Evaluating Second-Year Programs 234
Ann M. Gansemer-Topf, Jerry A. Pattengale

16 Recommendations to Improve Sophomore Student Success 248
John N. Gardner, Barbara F. Tobolowsky, Mary Stuart Hunter

Appendix A Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analyses in Private Institutions: 2007 Survey of Sophomores 257

Appendix B The Sophomore Student Success Initiative: Questions for Discussion Between Resident Advisor and Sophomore Students 263

Appendix C Principles of Good Assessment 267

References 270

Names Index 297

Subject Index 303