Lynchburg College gets students ready for class

By Christa Desrets

Published: August 25, 2008

Go to class. Read your textbooks carefully. Study for exams.

Guard your three-ring hole punch with your life.

“That’s the thing that’s most likely to walk out of your room,” said Jessica Baldwin.

The director of learning resources at Lynchburg College knows what it takes for a student to succeed at life beyond high school.

This week, she is part of the college’s 19th annual Summer Transition Program, which aims to impart some life lessons to more than 70 incoming freshmen.

In a workshop Monday, Baldwin told students what to expect of the upcoming year.

“It’s going to go by really quickly,” she said. “It’s all new and exciting and fresh. Freshmen lose themselves — they get drunk on freedom.”

Classes are different from high school, she said.

Tests count for more. Homework may never be graded.

Professors expect more attention to readings than just a quick skim of the textbook.

And students who make less than a C average face academic probation, which could mean removal from school if they don’t pull up their grades.

Rashard Adams, a sophomore and student leader at LC, had a first-hand account of that.

His first semester at LC was tough, he said. But he was able to improve in his second semester at the college, and this week is recounting his story to incoming freshmen.

“These little skills might not seem like much but they help you survive,” he said. Last summer, he went through same program.

The five-day-long agenda targets students from minority backgrounds, students who are the first in their families to attend college and international students adjusting to a new culture. Students come to campus a week early to attend the sessions.

Kristen Sands, who came to LC last week from the Bahamas, and Tamara Lins, who came from one of LC’s sister schools in Austria, both said the program was helping them settle into their new home.

“Everybody is so warm and welcoming,” said Sands, who is the first from her family to study abroad.

Students in the program learn everything from computer skills and deep-breathing exercises to study techniques and time management. They attend workshops on leadership and team building, staying healthy and getting involved in community service.

Students don’t pay anything extra to attend, said graduate assistant Laniera Jones, who coordinated the program. The program is funded in part by a $22,500 grant from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and the Verizon Foundation.

Students such as Dayarna Randall, from Richmond, and Jason Smith, from Stafford, said they attended the program to meet people and get to know the campus.

Smith also took away suggestions on how to succeed in school, he said.

“I’ll try to avoid the party scene, at least a little, until I get my work done.”