South Carolina college students at risk of dropping out

I lost funding for a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to help first-year students prepare for a successful transition from technical college to university. I worry about losing these students. I was a first-generation college student and was not prepared for the challenges of higher education. In fact, I failed psychology the first time I took the course, so I know how important it is to help nontraditional students navigate college life.

I am also part of a team at APA that was affected by National Science Foundation funding cuts. Research has shown that college success can be predicted by student performance in introductory psychology courses, and the grant would have provided funding to build better resources for the educators teaching these courses, including high school AP psychology teachers and university faculty. The quality of the classes can vary by institution, and we were planning to work with experts to develop a uniform curriculum as part of the APA Introductory Psychology Initiative.

The course we have been developing teaches students about human development, how to manage stress, social psychology, critical thinking, how to study, and other skills. The NSF funding also would have allowed us to build a community of support with blogs and chat tools where instructors and professors could ask questions and get help developing their curricula. I am particularly concerned about the under resourced, underprepared students who would have benefited from this course.