Counseling & Support

Evidence-based Strategies - Examples, Research and Tools

Strategy j: Include students’ family and friends in program activities.

Examples

I Am Always Behind You
Cynthia Peters
The importance of family support is illustrated in this moving description of a small graduation celebration, where family members declared their support to adults preparing to enter college.

A Night to Dream, in “Making It Worth the Stay: Findings from the New England Learner Persistence Project”
Erin McNally
A description of a powerful program event where immigrant adults are invited to think about their life dreams and hear from peers about how they've met theirs.

We are the Three Musketeers
Hyacinth Bewry
This student author presents an account of her struggle to finish a Certified Nursing Assistant program and the fellow students who helped her through.

Research

Sponsors and Sponsorship
John Comings & Sondra Cuban
In this report of how relationships help and hinder student persistence, the authors identify three types of student “sponsors,” people in students’ social networks who provide support to their persistence. They suggest that programs can play a role in supporting those relationships.