Management Forges Bond With Freshmen

Students in the College of Management's new freshman seminar and instructor Deborah Finch, right, hear about careers in accounting.

For freshmen, making the adjustment to college life is more than just remembering your dorm room key, doing your own laundry and finding your math class. Most students have to take on a new level of responsibility, from managing their money and making time to study to choosing a career path.

Helping students tackle these issues is one way to ensure they are successful in the transition and keep them in school, according to Frank Andrews, director of management undergraduate programs.

Andrews spent much of last year developing a new freshman seminar that teaches brand-new College of Management majors everything from important life skills to how to improve their test preparation. The program dovetails with the learning communities launched across the University this fall for all 1,528 new freshmen.

“The freshman seminar is designed to introduce students to the academic and social support services we have at the University,” says Andrews, explaining that the class offers information on majors within the College of Management, but it’s not an introductory course. “It’s more of a university survival course.”

Andrews credits College of Management Dean Kathryn Carter and Prof. Stuart Freedman, chair of the Management Department, for support in the development of the course, to which the Undergraduate Programs and Standards Committee of the college also contributed. Last year, faculty who served on the committee were Thomas Sloan, Srikant Vadali, Steven Tello, Steven Freund, Janie Casello-Bouges.

The course is also designed to address freshman retention in the college, which used to drop as much as 30 percent within the first six weeks of the fall semester, says Andrews. So far this year, 95 percent of the 219 freshmen who started off this fall are still enrolled, he says.

It’s a dramatic increase that Andrews attributes to the freshman seminar because it provides early intervention for students struggling to adjust and helps the college forge a bond a year earlier than usual. Previously, new students didn’t start coursework in the College of Management until sophomore year.

Deborah Finch, a visiting lecturer in the College of Management, teaches all nine sections of the seminar this semester.

“Teaching this class has been so rewarding! Though I have over 200 students, and only see them once a week, I feel I am able to help them navigate through their first semester and become successful students,” says Finch.  “It is interesting to see them transition from being high school students to college students. We really have a terrific freshman class!”

Each section of the freshman seminar, made up of about 25 students each, is block-scheduled for two other courses: pre-calculus and college writing. Through that, the students are sure to get into the right classes their first semester, and they stay together in all three courses. The approach, says Finch, is intended to help increase their sense of being part of a learning community, building a stronger tie to each other and the college.”

“One of the first things we tell students is that the study skills that may have served them well in high school do not necessarily carry over to college,” says Finch, adding that, for example, exams are often fewer and further between in college. “It is impossible to study six weeks of material by cramming the night before the exam; they may need to learn new study skills.”

The work on study skills includes an introduction to the University’s tutoring services early on in the semester, along with the libraries and assistance the staff provides, Career Services and Health Services.

The seminar not only connects freshmen to each other, they also help them bridge the gap to upperclassmen. Peer mentors speak to the class on a wide variety of topics that include study abroad, internships, what it’s like to double major or have a dual concentration, the college’s honor society, sports and clubs, says Finch.

At recent meetings of the class, Prof. J. Stephen Collins, chair of the Accounting Department, shared information with students about the career potential offered by a degree in accounting, from traditional CPA work to starting their own business to serving as a financial manager for a company or even a sports team.

“For most of the students, this is the first time they will get to meet the faculty and have the opportunity to ask questions about the various majors,” says Finch. “The presentations have been quite well-received by the students and their feedback has indicated they are seriously considering their choice of concentration.”

For freshman Charlie Anganes of Dracut, the seminar is one of the ways he’s adjusting to not only being in a college classroom for the first time, but in a classroom at all. Anganes was home-schooled with his five siblings from elementary through high school.

“I didn’t entirely know what to expect,” he says, “but it was a really quick and easy. For me it was a nice transition, to go and do something new at a different pace and in a different environment. It is definitely cool to be in a classroom setting.”

Anganes, 17, says he chose UMass Lowell because he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to study in college, but felt it was likely in business and knew of the College of Management’s good reputation. Anganes is an undeclared College of Management major thinking about majoring in accounting, thanks in part to the access to faculty and information about programs made available in the freshman seminar.

“The freshman seminar has been very, very good. Prof. Finch is excellent,” he says, adding that Finch is interested in what the students think about the University and works to engage them. Anganes adds that Finch requires students to participate in class and get their homework in on time, using the seminar as an example of what will be expected of them in their college career.

He says hearing faculty members like Collins describe each of the majors in the College of Management has been very useful as he weighs which field he’d like to study.

“One of the awesome things is I could look at the skills and the skills I’ve developed and see which ones I can integrate into (which majors),” Anganes says, adding “it was also a good transition into getting to know the business faculty. That could make or break your college career.”

He also says being grouped with the same students in three of his first-semester courses has also been good because, as a commuter student, it’s helped him get to know people. “It breaks the ice a lot more quickly.”

The feedback so far about the freshman seminar has been so good, Andrews says the college plans to launch a second-semester seminar this spring. That course will delve deeper into management-related topics, including running a simulated business. A similar program for new transfer students is also in the works.

Anganes says he’s interested in the second part of the freshman seminar and where it will take him next in his education – and career.

“Business can seem so broad and mysterious. It’s interesting to see how it all fits together,” he says. “It’s nice to be able to peer through the glass and see what you can do.”

- Christine_Gillette