Class Activity: Different Perspectives Retention Exercise

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This retention exercise, created by John Gardner and Betsy Barefoot, was designed to highlight a retention strategy in relation to the transition to college and to help students persist in the first year. 

Students who feel marginalized at your institution because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or other characteristics will be at risk for dropping out. Ask your students to take the perspective of someone different from them, and write a short essay on whether the institutional environment is or is not supportive of that individual. Examples would be white men or women, students of color, students of different religions, students with different sexual orientations, or students of different ages.