Analytical Report

Mallory Mobley

Professor Dick

Word Count: 1,068

03/05/2017

Analytical Report

Student Assistance

Many students at Florida Gateway College (FGC) struggle with the transition into college. It can be overwhelming and many people come in unaware of what college life is really like. For the analytical report, I chose adding free seminars for students at FGC to help them transition into college. Based on this topic, three people that I want to consider from the FGC campus personnel to focus my report towards are school counselors, librarians, and support groups. These three would be the best for my analytical report because they all play a role in a student's success. School counselors can provide packets and information regarding financial aid, applying to college, and courses that the student will strive in. Librarians can help students navigate the online library, the FGC library, and assist students when conducting research for projects, assignments, etc. Support groups can encourage students to connect and discuss any questions they may have. These groups are beneficial because most of the time another student can provide helpful information and answers to newer students. Since my main focus is helping the student, this audience has the needs, values, and attitudes that will assist every student with the transition into college life at FGC (see table 1). By adding free seminars to the FGC campus, we can assist students with the transition into college life.

Table 1

Readers	Needs	Values	Attitudes
Primary (Students)	Helpful Reliable information	Flexible seminar hours	Open-minded and excited
Secondary (School counselors, Librarians, Support groups)	Appealing Specific facts	Time efficient Honesty	Optimistic and anxious
Tertiary (FGC Administration)	Enjoyable Visual aids with text	Cost efficient Creativity	Skeptical and enthusiastic

In Table 1 (see above), I made my primary readers the students, secondary readers and school counselors, librarians, and support groups, and the tertiary readers are FGC Administration. Since these readers play different roles they have a variety of values, attitudes, and needs.

Once I created Table 1, I surveyed about 50 students in a variety of my classes to see if they knew about the Student Assistance programs at FGC (Figure 1) and what Student Assistance they would be interested in taking advantage of to improve their time at FGC (Figure 2). These charts show my results from the survey. One of my friends Kelsey Strickland stated “She had no idea about all the Student Assistance programs they offered at FGC like counselors and staff of that nature...she wanted counselors that assisted with financial aid and scholarships since college can be expensive”. Many other students like Kelsey had the same remarks regarding their awareness of the programs.

According to Figure 1 above, seventy six (76%) percent of students were not aware of these programs that are available at FGC and only twenty four (24%) percent were aware of the programs. Many of the students in my class pay thousands of dollars per semester to take the classes and have the supplies they need in order to be successful for that semester. In Figure 2, eighty percent (80%) of students would like to see financial aid and scholarship program and the other twenty percent (20%) wanted the addition of tutoring and exam preparation programs. They said sitting down and listening to someone talk about how to pay for college would be more helpful than just reading papers or scrolling online, trying to understand what everything means. The other ten students said they would like to see a program that helped them succeed in the classroom like more tutors and practice exams for national accredited tests.

After reviewing my results from the survey, I realized what a significant role these seminars would play for newer students in college at FGC. By using the school counselors, joining support groups, and library assistance we can help students complete this hard task. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Of the 2.9 million high school completers in 2014, some 2.0 million, or 68 percent, enrolled in college by the following October. This rate is defined as the annual percentage of high school completers who enroll in 2- or 4-year colleges in the fall immediately following high school”(1). To me, 68% is a number that could use improvement. Many places, including FGC, are experiencing this lack of student enrollment. By implementing free seminars to help students transition into college life, we can encourage and assist students with the transition into college life at FGC. According to the U.S. Census and American College Testing Program, “an estimated 18 million students enrolled in college in 2008; nearly 34% dropped out in the first year because they were under-prepared and lacked realistic expectations about college”(1).  This statistic speaks volumes to me because it shows how unprepared and unaware students are about college life. If we created seminars and provided helpful information to students at FGC I believe they would be less likely to drop-out or fail a class. These seminars would give students realistic expectations about college and what it takes to be successful. They would also allow students to prepare and get ready for the transition into FGC. Hopefully these seminars would help the students in my class that are struggling with the transition into college life at FGC. Many people do not realize how unprepared new students are and how much assistance the students need to really achieve their potential.

I would recommend that FGC Administration should start looking into providing FREE seminars for new students based on data that I found on the Internet and in the classroom from real FGC students. After discovering how overwhelmed and uninformed these people are, something has to change at FGC to accommodate the newer students. Whether it's the librarian providing students with information about navigating the library or the school counselor teaching showing how financial aid works and how they can afford college, we can help students improve themselves, one student at a time. As a student of FGC, we should feel prepared to handle college tasks and meet required expectations. If FGC followed my recommendations, you would see more and more equipped students that are ready to take on the college challenge.

Works Cited

"Fast Facts."Fast Facts. National Center for Education Statistics, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. <https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=561>>.

Brian Harke. "High School to College Transition, Part 1: The Freshman Myth." The Huffington Post, 22 June 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-harke/high-school-to-college-tr_b_620043.html>.