\n\tBy SHANNON O. WELLS<\/p>\n
\n\tA federally funded project at Pitt to improve success and completion rates for rural students is getting results through innovative recruitment and retention efforts, increasing availability of programs and resources, and bolstering technical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\n\tApril Belback, associate vice provost for student success and advising, provided an overview of Pitt\u2019s Partners for Rural Student Success Impact & Mobility (PRSSIM)<\/a> project at the May 8 meeting of the Student Administration, Aid and Affairs committee.<\/p>\n \n\tFunded by the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Rural Postsecondary & Economic Development Program<\/a>, PRSSIM seeks to improve completion and persistence rates through a three-point approach focused on increasing retention rates, student success and bolstering technical infrastructure. Tools include recruitment and pre-college programming, career and major exploration, academic workshops, financial literacy, tutoring and mentoring.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cStudent success at Pitt involves intentionally coordinating programming and interventions for all students at Pitt, but (also) thinking about where the gaps are, and then providing interventions for what we call At-Promise student populations<\/a>,\u201d Belback explained. \u201cWe identified that rural students \u2026 were one of those At-Promise student populations.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2022, Belback\u2019s team wrote a grant based on this and the need to partner better and more deeply with Pitt\u2019s regional campus students.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, 26% of Pennsylvania residents live in rural locales. When the grant was pursued, rural students comprised 18% of Pitt\u2019s overall undergraduate student population, Belback said, noting that Pitt\u2019s Bradford and Johnstown campuses are situated in those designated rural counties.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne of the first things we did when we were got the grant in 2022 was work with admissions and (Kellie Kane\u2019s) team to better think about how we are recruiting students with a concentrated effort in these counties,\u201d she said, referring to the interim vice provost for enrollment. \u201cWe identified \u2026 most specifically the high schools that are located in these rural locales across Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTo better balance the load of rural student recruiter Daryl Burleigh, who covered all of Pennsylvania, \u201cwe jumped at the chance to think about expanding those efforts\u201d by hiring Danielle Kochka as admissions counselor. \u201cWe doubled our efforts in recruiting across Pennsylvania, and now we\u2019re able to split it east and west.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey\u2019re able to kind of think about how to do that in a broader effort,\u201d Belback noted. \u201cSo, that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSome objectives of the grant include:<\/p>\n \n\t\u2022 Increasing the number of students served. \u201cWe wanted to think about, \u2018How can we provide programming (and) resources once they\u2019re here?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2022 Increasing the number of students on Pitt\u2019s campuses, retention of them once they\u2019re here, and graduation rates.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2022 Increasing internship attainment.<\/p>\n \n\tNoting that it takes a \u201clag of a year to get attainment and goals objectified,\u201d Belback said in the first year, \u201cwe did an amazing job. Our admissions team over-exceeded our target with programming and resources. We thought, \u2018Well, we\u2019re going to try to hit 250,\u2019 while they did over 3,000 rural applications. And that\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re hitting the mark again this year \u2014 we over-exceeded as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tIn other promising results, rural student enrollment increased slightly. \u201cAnd even more exciting is rural-student retention went up over 3%,\u201d Belback noted. The four-year graduation rate remained steady, \u201cbut the six-year graduation rate, which makes sense for rural students, went up 3% as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s become evident at the regional campuses is that, \u201cif we can keep them after that first year, they graduate at that campus. It might take them just a little bit longer, but we\u2019re finding ways to help them through that \u2026 to help them think about ways to graduate faster.\u201d<\/p>\n \tInternships increasing<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt took us a little while to think about what the internship process should look like, but we figured it out,\u201d she said. \u201cThis past year \u2026 we were able to pay students or provide stipends for 11 students. This year, we\u2019re up to almost 20 students that will be paid in the coming year for internships that otherwise would not have been paid.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith the Experiential Learning Academy<\/a>, student interns are coupled with an academic coach to make sure they understand what the experience means. \u201cWe work with them on resumes and matching them with an internship that matches their major, and work with their faculty member on the regional campus to make sure it\u2019s something that would be aligned if it is something for credit.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn other projects, the Degree Finder exploratory tool<\/a> for students that started with the Oakland campus now encompasses Greensburg and Bradford and will soon serve the Pitt-Johnstown campus.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cQuite often our prospective students use it, but also (Pitt students) if they\u2019re exploratory or thinking about adding on a credential,\u201d Belback noted.<\/p>\n \n\tSimilarly, the me3 career inventory tool<\/a>, which helps students map their interests to careers and Pitt majors, is being expanding to the regional campuses.<\/p>\n \n\tJohnstown faculty noticed that students struggled to pay for the ALEKS Math Placement Assessment and weren\u2019t enrolling in their campuses, especially rural students. \u201cWe\u2019re helping them with a stipend to make sure that they can fulfill that requirement (as a) pilot that we\u2019re running this year, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tA Professional Development Day based on rural student success will take place in October, featuring Ty McNamee of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges as the main speaker. \u201cHe\u2019ll be providing activities for folks throughout the day,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re more than happy to have (more) folks there. It\u2019s free.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAcademic coaching also is available for rural students, \u201cespecially those \u2026 that might not otherwise have academic coaching available,\u201d Belback noted. \u201cThat\u2019s on top of their academic advising.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA rural resource library was recently launched on the PRSSIM website<\/a> that includes references and student stories. \u201cIf you want to know about our amazing students, there\u2019s many \u2026 on our website. Please take a look at them, because, of course, they\u2019re amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShannon Wells is a University Times reporter. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share? Share<\/a> it with the University Times.<\/p>\n