Understanding the Impact of the Second Year of College (Schaller, 2010)
The sophomore year is extremely important to the personal, psychological, and educational development of students attending institutions of higher education. Throughout the fist year of college, all the of services and resources that we provided these students in a way coddle them and set them up for an expectation that we will always provide that level of support and service to them. However, in the current model, we do not seem to be doing that.
Once a student enters the sophomore year, we just kind of expect them to get it. It is difficult for them to make this transition from the first-year to the second-year because the level of support is dramatically decreased. I think there needs to be a campus-wide or at least division-wide effort to create second year programming for this cohort. I know we talk about summer bridge programs being a transition from high school to the first year of college, but what about creating a summer bridge program for that transition from the first year of college to the second year of college.
The University of Illinois-Springfield had this excerpt from their website (http://www.uis.edu/stars/sophomore-summer-bridge/) about a sophomore summer bridge that they have:
Sophomore Summer Bridge - At the end of the first year, students are required to stay for one week of Sophomore Summer Bridge. During this time the students can review what skills were beneficial to them in their first college year and skills that can be honed to help them be successful in their sophomore year. The students also receive further academic advising and participate in career advising and selection of majors. This is a time for the students to further bond with one another in an atmosphere with less stress.
I think student affairs educators need to really take into consideration the possibility of having summer bridge programs for sophomore students because of the different difficulties and situations that they are going to be facing - for example, choosing a major, student motivation, student values, and how they fit into the institution. They really start thinking what will be my mark on this campus and as student affairs educators we need to be able to facilitate that conversation with them.