TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING:PROMOTING STUDENTS` SUCCESS THRU THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ENGAGEMENT PLAN(PDEP) & ACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

This is a troubling time at colleges and universities nationally and locally relative to retention and graduation rates, achievement levels of students, and recruitment of highly qualified students. The situation is enhanced with an economic recession across the nation impacting higher education programs, services, and personnel. Even more formidable are the fiscal constraints of 1890's agricultural institutions having limited undergraduate scholarships, hiring of a cadre of highly qualified faculty, and insufficient program offerings impacting graduation rates, retention, and student performance. Literature report that unprecedented numbers of historically underserved undergraduate students come to universities and colleges unsure about their professional goals, limited insights in managing learning outcomes, and often unable to meet institutional goals to obtain an undergraduate degree. (Cambridge, 2010). However, for decades, 1890 institutions in food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences professions have prepared competent graduates with the knowledge, skill set and dispositions for the workforce. As the teaching and learning landscape at North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&TSU) is closely examined, emerging patterns and trends from 2007-2011 institutional data consistently suggest that over a fourth of all freshman students underachieved with a grade point average below 2.00 and typically graduated in more than four years. Another alarming trend is that a large number of students are remaining in the Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) at NCA&TSU without claiming an official major. This delayed in practice can immensely impact the student academic ranking, grade point average, financial benefits, and graduation time. Once freshman students officially declare a major in SAES and have a specialized academic advisor, their academic advisor takes on a stronger role as the student seek a career path or road map for success. The later is an acceptable practice in higher education in which advisement takes on a stronger role when the advisor and student are match early in a specialized area as he/she matriculate in school. On the other side of the spectrum, an increased number of students with 3.00 grade point averages and above are formally leaving the institution, students from various professional licensure programs are unsuccessful in obtaining their licenses, and student athletes' inabilities to meet academic standards have impacted the overall growth of the institution. For years, these emerging patterns and trends suggest a critical need for effective advisement, recruitment practices, and mentorship programs with strong student support services. Despite these challenges, the University of North Carolina System including NCA&TSU, are calling for a paradigm shift to advance the intellectual climate, maintain the integrity of students' development, and improve retention and graduation rates. Simply put, there is an urgent need for new "educational paradigm shifts" in the development, integration, and assessment of advising, retaining, and graduating highly qualified students.