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February 25, 2015 2015 EDUCATION MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
Continued
He said those students entered LC
ready to excel, and they did so. In
part, Blackburn credited this to the
relationship the college has with LCHS
and to the dual credit program offered
between the high school and college.
In the everyday success of its students,
one of the challenges the college faces
is preparing students for their freshman
year.
Blackburn explained that with the
diversity of the college, not everyone
coming in is at the same level of
preparedness. “These are bright and
capable kids,” Blackburn said, “But
they need us to help get them focused.”
He went on to say that in many cases,
these are first-generation college
students. They don’t have a reference
point from other family members as
to what college will be like, and they
don’t know what to ask for in order
to get them brought up to speed in the
classroom.
Because of this, the school on-the-
whole needs to be prepared to recognize
these situations and help students
address them through programs offered
at the college.
He said the college is fortunate because
it does have outstanding faculty that are
dedicated to the students. In tutoring
labs, students who need that extra
help receive one-on-one assistance.
“One of the things the academia have
created is “learning communities,’”
Blackburn said. “We call them linked
courses where students are in three
courses together and the instructors work
as a team to make sure they are progress-
ing at a proper rate.”
“We have the academic success center,
which is free professional tutoring avail-
able to our students. There is a writing
lab and there is a math lab.” Blackburn
concluded, “I have to give a lot of credit
to our instructors. In the success center,
