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Channel 12 News
October 28, 2009
The fact that Tamara Pierre, a mother of three, is attending North Hennepin Community College to become a nurse is no small accomplishment.
"I barely graduated high school," said Pierre. "I didn't think I had the skills to attend college."
Non–traditional students like Pierre and first–generation college students like Kaitlyn Hennig, who is also studying nursing, are often at greater risk of dropping out. But now North Hennepin and other Minnesota colleges are reaching out to those students who face academic or financial challenges in an effort to keep them in school.
"There's lots of things, little hurdles that we would like to be able to help them get through," said Jane Reinke, North Hennepin's vice president for academics and student affairs.
At North Hennepin, a special program called Trio is helping students like Pierre and Hennig stay on track and stay in school by offering academic support. The program pairs students with an advisor who makes sure the students are focused and working towards graduation. The advisors are also able to offer students a morale boost.
"This Trio program really supported me to the point where I get motivated enough to come to school and succeed," said Hennig.
"My adviser tells me,'you're motivated you can do this'," said Pierre. "Having her voice in the back of my head saying, 'you can do this' is huge."
As colleges rely more heavily than ever on tuition dollars, it makes sense that North Hennepin and other MnSCU schools are reaching out to students with special programs aimed at keeping them on track and in school.
"In the last few years we've started trying to sort of systematically implement some of those best practices in order to improve student retention and help support students," said Mary Diedrich, the college's dean of student success programs.
That extra support from advisors seems to be paying off for students like Pierre and Hennig. Both women are getting good grades and on track to graduate from the nursing program. It's an accomplishment both women say they could not have done alone.
"I am so thankful," said Pierre.
North Hennepin is also working on developing a special program called the Early Alert Response System which would trigger a coordinated response from faculty and school advisors when a student's grades start slipping or the student stops showing up for class.
Video clip of Channel 12 Newscast
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