Strong Start: Helping Excelsior Students Succeed from Day 1
Excelsior University ensures that students are prepared for success the moment their first term begins. The Strong Start Project is guided by the idea that every student who starts with Excelsior—whether they are completing the necessary general education courses, switching majors, or returning to finish a degree—should have the skills, support, and confidence needed to reach graduation.
Most Excelsior students are adults studying online while balancing careers, families, military service, and/or community commitments. Recognizing the unique barriers that these learners face, faculty and staff developed a series of targeted interventions designed to increase preparation, encourage early engagement, and build a sense of belonging, all from day one. The Strong Start Project helps students who are beginning their coursework, where early confidence and engagement often set the stage for the rest of their college career.
A Multilayered Approach to Student Orientation
Excelsior University’s Strong Start Project includes eight interventions that range from large projects to what Mary Berkery, the associate dean of liberal arts, calls small but meaningful nudges. “Three of our interventions have focused on increasing incoming students’ confidence and preparation for their first term. We launched three orientation experiences this year: a live New Student Orientation Zoom session held on the Monday evening of each eight-week term start; an optional, self-paced New Student Orientation course in Canvas (NSO 010); and live Cornerstone Check-in Zoom sessions held during Week 1 and Week 6 of each term.”
These interventions help students when they need support most. According to Tracy Caldwell, director of the Strong Start Project, the live New Student Orientation and first Cornerstone Check-in take place during the first week of classes—when students are often looking for immediate help with accessing course materials, navigating Canvas, and understanding available support resources. Later, in Week 6, a second Cornerstone Check-in offers another opportunity for students to reflect on their progress, ask questions, and ensure that they are on track with remaining assignments. “This opportunity allows students to check in on how they are doing and makes sure they understand the remaining assignments in the Cornerstone,” Caldwell says.
Strong Start sessions provide just-in-time guidance while reinforcing the availability of on-demand resources. They also create a sense of connection early in the student experience. Through collaboration between the New Student Orientation team, advisors, and instructors, students encounter supportive, familiar faces who help foster confidence and reduce uncertainty at critical moments in the term.
The orientation course was intentionally designed around competencies relevant to adult learners. Instead of residential life topics often covered at other colleges, Excelsior emphasizes foundational research and writing skills, self-regulated learning, “grit”—as Berkery puts it—and a growth mindset. Students learn how to balance schoolwork with their job and family responsibilities, plan their study schedules, and learn how to ask for help when they need it. The goal is to replace uncertainty with practical, everyday solutions.
The Institutional Impact of Excelsior’s Strong Start Project
Cornerstone instructors play a critical role. They are the “first responders,” providing outreach to missing or struggling students and bringing any concerns to Excelsior’s Academic Advising and Student Support teams. This relationship between faculty and students has proven so effective that the outreach model has expanded to other courses. Near the end of each term, faculty also send reminders encouraging students to register for their next courses. “We see this investment pay off, as well, with a demonstrated increase in registration rates,” Berkery says.
Caldwell notes that many new students arrive with understandable concerns. “One of the barriers for our new students is anxiety over coming back to school after an absence,” she says. “In my experience, they also may struggle with technology, time management, and task prioritization.” Elements of the Strong Start initiatives are designed to directly address these challenges. Within the Cornerstone course, students assess their own learning styles and habits and complete a Self-Regulated Learning assessment that offers personalized strategies for improvement.
That reflection becomes part of a larger journey. By the end of the course, students “pay it forward” by creating a video for future Excelsior students, sharing what helped them succeed. The assignment creates a full-circle moment: Students who may have started with uncertainty and unanswered questions gain the confidence to guide others. In doing so, they not only build skills but also begin to see themselves as capable, connected members of the Excelsior community.
Berkery did extensive research before initiating Excelsior’s Strong Start Project. “Our interventions are specific to Excelsior’s students and their needs,” she says, “but they can provide lessons for institutions with similar student bodies and enrich the broader higher education community by adding this understudied population to the literature and conversations.”
Excelsior is showing other institutions that the right beginning can change the entire trajectory of an adult learner. By meeting students where they are and offering preparation that matters, the University is creating a pathway that carries students from their first login through their final course.
Early Results and Student Response
Although the project is still in its early days, having fully launched in early 2024, the data is encouraging. Students who participate in the New Student Orientation session engage earlier in their courses. The numbers suggest that when students feel prepared before the first assignment, they are more likely to log in, contribute to discussions, and complete a course. Subsequently, Excelsior has seen a significant decline in failing grades and withdrawals in first courses, as well as a substantial increase in first-time students returning for their second term.
Student feedback reinforces these findings. Many comments emphasize gratitude for the encouragement and community. One student said, “I found out I wasn’t alone.” Berkery says that captures a large part of the Strong Start Project, “consciously reminding students to stick with it in those hard moments and to remember that you’re not on your educational journey alone; we are always here alongside you to help.”
According to Berkery, the lesson can be summed up by paraphrasing the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Without any requirement, approximately 2,000 students have completed NSO 010 since its launch in August 2025, and attendance at live Zoom sessions has “astounded” organizers. As Berkery says, “Students vote with their (virtual) feet, and you can see one measure of the effectiveness of an intervention by the numbers of students choosing to spend their precious, limited time engaging with the [Strong Start] activities.”
