Since 2010, Sam Houston State University’s ELITE program has supported student retention and graduation through mentorship. In 2016, the Graduate and Professional School established ASPIRE, providing 25 graduate students with guidance and scholarship opportunities. In 2019, Evolve was created under the same umbrella as ELITE but is tailored to serve students who transferred to SHSU from community colleges or universities.
The three programs are now officially coming together under the newly established Department of Collaboration & Outreach, which is led by Jalon Berry and aims to address student access and retention.
Berry himself was in an ASPIRE cohort in 2017. A cohort is made up of 25 SHSU graduate students that maintained an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher. Members of the cohort, referred to as ASPIRE scholars, must maintain a 3.5 GPA to receive scholarships, peer and professional mentorship and have access to academic and professional development workshops.
Comments