Circ Les: A Comprehensive First Year Program For Entering Engineering And Science Students

The current paper describes a comprehensive first-year program for all entering engineering and science students that has been implemented at The University of Texas at El Paso. Designed to meet the educational and developmental needs of entering students attending an urban commuter campus, CircLES links a mandatory summer orientation and advising with a required first year engineering or science oriented learning community for the purpose of increasing student success and persistence toward graduation. Emphasis is placed on developing an environment in the first year in which students learn to be successful college students and begin the development of lifelong learning habits. This paper describes the rational, goals, and the structure of the program, results of the pilot and institutional scale-up, lessons learned, and challenges facing the movement of students from an entering students program to departmental programs. Retention rates and student feedback indicate that the program is accomplishing the short-term outcomes of increasing retention rates and providing students with experiences designed to increase their success and progress into the major.