ABSTRACT
A er access and admissions, students make their way onto the proverbial harbors of college campuses, as if they are many ships docking at the same port. is entering process, the transition into college, is a time when the act of inclusion of student diversity is particularly crucial. e transition to college during a student’s rst year is a time lled with enthusiasm, hope, and sometimes, disappointment for many students (Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solórzano, 2009). In student a airs, most scholars and practitioners mark this time period as facilitating students’ emotional, social, and identity development (Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010). Most scholars agree that the rst year of college is crucial because only approximately 20% of full-time students and 55% of part-time students will come back for their second year (Aud et al., 2012). e rates of persistence between the rst-year transition and the second year of college are even more concerning for students of color who are even less likely to come back for a second year of college as compared to White students (Aud et al., 2012; Ross et al., 2012). Firstgeneration students, those whose parents did not attend college, have also been shown to have more di cult transitions to college than their peers whose parents attended college (Padgett, Johnson, & Pascarella, 2012). Given that the rst year of college is a time when many students are undergoing substantial personal development (Evans et al., 2010) and are determining whether to continue in college past the rst year, scholars generally agree that the transition process is ripe for intervention from practitioners and faculty to help students succeed in college (Li, McCoy, Shelley, & Whalen, 2005; Sankar & Raju, 2011). In terms of aiding the successful transition, this rst year has also been asserted to be a particularly important period of time (Reason, Terenzini, & Domingo, 2006). A response to the magnitude of this rst-year transition process has been to develop
programs aimed at helping students to make a successful transition into college (Inkelas & Soldner, 2011; Li et al., 2005; Passel & Cohn, 2008; Sankar & Raju, 2011). Student a airs practitioners have been a big part of making this rst-year transition successful, through orientation programs, rst-year experience programs, fall welcome events into the academic year, residence hall activities, and other programs and events.
