Conference Papers

Changing Student Summer Behavior: Purdue Summer Stay Scholars

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Abstract

Recent efforts by many colleges and universities to increase the on-campus component of summer enrollment is driven by a variety of motives, including better use of campus infrastructure, the benefits of smaller class sizes, targeted interventions for at-risk students, and increased opportunities for high-impact experiences such as on-campus internships and research with faculty. Purdue University is placing a high priority on increasing on-campus undergraduate summer enrollment as part of a presidential strategy. In 2016, Purdue piloted “Summer Stay Scholars,” a new initiative during the 12-week summer session that was designed to influence student behavior and attitudes related to on-campus opportunities during the summer. Summer Stay Scholars is a scholarship program that incentivizes 100–150 undergraduate students who decided not to enroll in their first summer at Purdue to remain on campus in a subsequent summer and take courses. In its first year, Summer Stay Scholars offered full coverage of tuition and fees for two or three on-campus summer courses. In addition, scholarship recipients were required to complete 140 hours in an oncampus internship or research project, designed to help students get ahead with degree completion and gain meaningful experiences that could aid them in their future careers. We hypothesized that Summer Stay Scholars would be more likely to return to campus in future summers, and that other students and faculty would become more aware of campus-based summer opportunities as a result of hearing about the experiences of Summer Stay Scholars.

How to Cite:

Askeroth, J., Nemelka, B. & Harbor, J., (2018) “Changing Student Summer Behavior: Purdue Summer Stay Scholars”, Summer Academe: A Journal of Higher Education 11, 1-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.5203/sa.v11i0.603