PennWest among schools participating in program to help keep students enrolled
PennWest University is one of six schools in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) participating in a program designed to keep students enrolled past their freshman year.
Mastering Academic and Professional Systems (MAPS) is meant to help low-income and first-generation students get a handle on parts of college life that can be challenging to them, such as navigating financial aid, advising and registration. Once these areas become more comprehensible, the thinking is, it will help students with little or no acquaintance with higher education successfully move from their first to second year of college and keep them from dropping out.
Along with PennWest University, which has a campus in California Borough, the other participating schools are Indiana, Slippery Rock, Shippensburg, Millersville and East Stroudsburg universities. The program is being funded through a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh.
Christopher Fioerntino, the state system’s chancellor, said in a news release, “Students do their best work when they are not left guessing. We want every student, in and out of the classroom, to have the information and support they need to focus on learning, finishing their degree and preparing for what comes next. Programs like this help our students to get the support they need.”
Each of the universities participating in the program will place 12 first-year students in a yearlong program that will include monthly meetings, coaching, mentoring and activities that connect them to on-campus resources.
“Every student who stays enrolled and earns a degree is a nurse, an engineer, a teacher or an entrepreneur that Pennsylvania’s economy needs,” according to Shelley Scherer, CEO of the PASSHE Foundation. “The first year is where we lose too many of them. MAPS keeps first-generation and low-income students on track to finish – and when they finish, they stay, work and build careers in the communities and industries that depend on them. That’s a direct investment in Pennsylvania’s workforce and its future.”