First Year Experience

Contact Information

Director: Tate T. Smith, M Ed
E-mail: ttsmith@lcsc.edu
Office: SUB 208
Phone: 208-792-2208
Web: http://www.lcsc.edu/first-year-experience

First Year Experience Program

The First Year Experience Program engages students during their first year of college in order to increase student success, retention and degree completion.  The program supports a variety of activities such as: conducting freshmen surveys to better understand the student; facilitating new student orientation courses (SD-107) that help students understand themselves, their environment, how to access resources, and how to persist and achieve their goals; coordinating the peer mentor program, which provides student support through the connection of student leaders with new students transitioning to campus; providing follow-up calls/correspondence to students who are struggling; assisting in academic advising; assessing student interests and facilitating the pursuit of those interests; and following-up with students who withdraw from the college.

Peer Mentor Program

The peer mentor program is a support system consisting of 25 student leaders dedicated to mentoring new students. A peer mentor is a student in their sophomore-senior year who helps new freshmen build a foundation for personal success at Lewis-Clark State College.  They work closely with students enrolled in SD-107: New Student Orientation to help them connect with the LC State community and achieve their educational goals.  Peer mentors provide academic, social, and emotional support to their mentees while also introducing them to additional campus resources, policies, and procedures.