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Increasing 4-year graduation rates among US students, particularly those historically disadvantaged in higher education, is a national imperative. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of the multifaceted Research Aligned Mentorship Program in advancing the academic success of low income, first generation college, and minority students at Farmingdale State College. The Program was launched in 2015 with a First in the World FIPSE Grant from the US Department of Education. In this rigorous study, Farmingdale conducts a Randomized Controlled Trial that annually selects 400 entering first-generation, minority, and/or low income first-year students (approximately 220 treatment and 180 control) by applying an algorithm to the database of all entering students who fall into these demographics: first-generation, minority, and/or low income. Using student data (N=1,462), this paper examines the impacts of the Research Aligned Mentorship Program on whether students are on track to graduate within four years. Qualitative and quantitative data and analytic approaches are integrated to explore significant outcomes, including year-to-year retention, annual grade-point average, annual credits earned, and whether students succeed in graduating at the end of four academic years. The central research questions guiding this study are: (1) What is the impact of participation in the program on annual retention, annual credits earned, GPA, and four-year graduation rates? (2) Do impacts vary by level of participation? The Program provides such interventions as a first-year experience seminar, collaborative learning workshops, intensive counseling, and mentored research experiences. The overriding goal of the Program is to increase the four-year graduation rate of students by 20 percentage points over the 2015 IPEDS 4-year rate of 20%. Data show that active engagement is positively and significantly associated with students having higher GPAs, annual credits earned, persistence from year-to-year, and 4-year graduation. The first cohort of 216 students arrived in 2016. 199 of those students entered as first-year students. Of those entering first-year students, 49% graduated within 4 years (29 percentage points over the IPEDS baseline). The Research Aligned Mentorship Program is a proven example that can be replicated by institutions across the US -- especially by second tier public institutions like Farmingdale that educate the majority of our nation's minority, low-income, and first-generation college students. The appendices include: 73 references, six tables of data, and six deidentified student testimonials.

This document describes and illustrates an approach to expressive writing which employs student-authored books--"I Am The Author Books" (ITABs)--for use in individual and group counseling with children. It begins with a brief review of pertinent literature on expressive writing as a counseling intervention, and then describes experiences with ITABs. A case example describing the writing of a book on death and loss by a fourth-grade girl whose young sister died in a home accident is used to illustrate the technique. Following this example, other possible uses for ITABs are discussed and examples of other types of problems children can write about are given. The need to alter the format and process depending on the client's age, counseling needs, learning style, and perception of self is acknowledged. The tendency for young children to be highly receptive to this counseling technique is described and it is suggested that authoring a book helps these children to feel important, provides a medium with which they are familiar and comfortable, gives them the feeling that they are helping others, allows them to nurture "native imagery" through creative energy, and leads to self-discovery through self-expression. The resistance to ITABs by older children and young adolescents is discussed and strategies counselors can use to assauge this resistance are listed. The use of ITABs in group sessions or with an entire class is discussed. (NB)