The Roadrunner Scholars is a residential and immersive summer bridge program designed for students requiring learning support math and English. In this six-week program, students were enrolled in both learning support math and English as well as their credit course counterparts, and the Perspectives seminar. Roadrunner Scholars were provided tutoring assistance, peer education, development opportunities, as well as social activities. All aspects of the program were provided at no cost to the student through scholarships offered by our Dalton State Foundation. Students were invited to apply for the program based on their high school GPA and requirement of learning support classes. The program ended with a Celebration dinner.
In addition to the completion rates, the students were surveyed at the end of each course (math and English). Below are some of the results for summer 2025.
- For math, 19/25 (76%) successfully passed MATH 1101.
- For English, 24/25 (96%) successfully passed ENGL 1101.
- For the seminar course, 20/24 (83%) successfully completed PRSP 1010.
Five participants earned a 4.0 GPA, and all 25 enrolled in Fall 205 classes.
Participants were surveyed about their experience.
100% of the survey respondents (7) stated that they would recommend the program to other incoming students.
100% felt somewhat or extremely confident about starting college after the program
When asked, “Do you feel that you've built any meaningful relationships (e.g. with your instructors, classmates, staff, etc.) as a result of participating in this program?” students responded with:
- Yes, at first, I believed that I would not make any friends, but I made plenty of friends in this program, and I also thought the professors would be hard on us, but all the professors were very understanding and taught very well.
- yes! I thought i was going to be alone for the whole program the first day, but at the end i knew and could talk to anyone without trouble!
- Me and my roommate are still very good friends so yes.
- Yeah, some professors helped me through my work and made the learning experience really good.
These data will be collected with each cohort.
The program is completed for 2025. Faculty and staff participants are sharing feedback as we look on ways to improve for 2026. Main discussion focuses on the 11-credit hour load and inability for students to attend more co-curricular activities due to the homework necessary for the intensive pace.
We have had a commitment of up to $110,000 funding from the Dalton State Foundation for this initiative.
We will begin to send invitations to apply in January 2026 using our CRM. Follow-up will occur with those submitting applications to try to increase participation.
The program will begin again in June 2026.
One potential challenge may be funding. Our Dalton State Foundation has pledged $110,000 to support. However, should additional funds be needed to support the expanded program, then we will need to identify a source.
Scaling the program has been difficult in recruiting more students to make the full summer commitment.
