Students to conduct research on improving retention rates at UH Hilo
The sociology course will benefit the university and prove rewarding for students considering entering the field of education or interested in identity and social psychology issues.
By Kara Nelson
Seniors at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo will have the opportunity to take a special-topics sociology seminar in spring 2015. The course, Education and Identity on Campus, offers students the opportunity to conduct extensive research regarding the identity, community involvement, and retention rates of transfer students at UH Hilo. It is hoped the students’ work will result in improving the experience and retention rates of UH Hilo transfer students.
The course was designed by Lindy Hern, assistant professor of sociology at UH Hilo, to fulfill a need for seminar courses in sociology and to meet student interests. Hern says the sociology course will benefit the university and prove rewarding for students considering entering the field of education or interested in identity and social psychology issues.
Most importantly, the class offers students applied-learning opportunities.
“I wanted to design this course so that I could involve some of our upper-level students in an important research project,” says Hern. “For the class, they will be conducting focus groups with transfer students. With the research conducted in this class, we want to figure out how we might better serve transfer students as a campus community so that they feel welcomed and supported.”
Part of this goal includes getting transfer students to stay at UH Hilo to complete their degrees.
“I was inspired to get involved in this project … by one of the students in my social research methods course last spring,” explains Hern. “She wrote a research proposal dealing with transfer student identity. It turned out that … Susan Brown (UH Hilo professor of psychology and interim associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences) was already starting a project on transfer student retention, so the three of us joined forces.”
The student, Remi McKay, is graduating this semester and will attend graduate school next fall, but she will be involved in the class and be the research assistant for the undertaking.
Hern anticipates the class will result in meaningful progress in retention at UH Hilo. “An important outcome of the class and the research that we will be doing should be new programming for transfer students who transfer in for the fall 2015 semester. If successful, the project and programming could serve as a model for working with other groups in the campus community.”
Not only would such an accomplishment improve student retention, but it would improve retention in all groups, which Hern says is an important social justice issue. “We want all students who invest in their education and are willing to work hard, to have the resources that they need to finish.”
Hern, who came to UH Hilo in 2013, received her master of arts in sociology and doctor of philosophy in sociology from University of Missouri-Columbia. She previously taught at Manchester University and St. Louis Community College-Meramec and also was a graduate instructor at University of Missouri-Columbia. Hern’s areas of expertise are political sociology with a focus on social movements, and social inequality with a focus on gender.
In addition to the impact the students’ research may have on campus, Hern anticipates the students will find meaning in this new class.
“I hope that they learn the joy of conducting research that can be applied to situations very close to them,” she says. “I think that they might find it to be surprising that hard work doesn’t seem so hard, when it pays off with real outcomes.”
The Course
Education and Identity on Campus
Writing Intensive
Tuesdays and Thursdays
3:30-4:45 p.m.
University Classroom Building, Room 331
SOC 494
3 Credits
CRN: 13032
Prerequisites: SOC 100, senior standing, or consent of instructor
Restrictions: Junior or Senior classification
For more information, contact Assistant Professor Lindy Hern.
About the author of this story: Kara Nelson is a senior at UH Hilo double majoring in English and Communication. She is an intern in the Office of the Chancellor.
-UH Hilo Stories
