A program dedicated to helping first generation and underrepresented students earn an IU degree is expanding to five regional campuses outside Bloomington.
The IU Bloomington Groups Scholars program is now open to IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU South Bend and IU Southeast students as well. The program, which has admitted more than 500 students this fall, provides academic, financial and social support to students as they work toward a bachelor’s degree.
Sam Young, director of the Groups Scholars program at IUB, said the program started on the IUB campus in 1968, admitting 43 students from Northwest Indiana to increase campus diversity. Over the last 55 years, he said, the program has morphed into a scholarship program that not only provides gift aid to students with financial need but also academic advising, student support and tutoring. Gift aid is a type of aid students do not have to pay back.
“We have a Honor Society and a STEM program all within one stop shop,” Young said.
Scholars also participate in a summer experience program where they are introduced to the community and campus stakeholders, Young said.
“Give them a fresh new start of how to do college work versus doing high school work earlier than a typical incoming freshman. That transition is so vital for their success,” Young said.
Before the expansion to the regional campuses, Young said the Groups Scholars program had more than 13,000 alumni. Young said after the university published a statement about the success of the program on regional campuses, he’s received messages from people asking how they can help and recommend a student.
Last year, the Groups Scholars program expanded to the IU Northwest campus. Susan Sciame-Giesecke, vice president of regional campuses and online education, said IU Northwest, in Gary Indiana, worked closely with the people who run the Groups Scholars program at IUB. Then people at IU Northwest taught the other regional campuses how to implement the program.
“It was so successful, that we thought, gosh, this would be great for all the campuses. We were able to secure funding from the Well House Society, so that helped us a lot,” Sciame-Giesecke said.
The support and resources for the Groups Scholars program will vary by campus, according to a News at IU article. Some campuses provide summer programs, laptops or laptops scholarships, book vouchers and scholarships.
Seuth Chaleunphonh, dean of student life at IU Southeast and faculty fellow for the regional campus and online education office, said the main component of programming on the regional campuses is the summer bridge program, in which student commute in to the regional campuses. Many of the program components are like the Bloomington campus’s, Chaleunphonh said, including cultural excursions, meeting campus and community leaders and maximizing financial aid.
Chaleunphonh said 57% of the Groups Scholars on the regional campuses were first generation students, a significantly higher number than normal.
Chaleunphonh said among all five regional campuses, there were 129 students in the Groups Scholars Program. He said about 36% of those students had dual credit coming in and 38% had an honors diploma. Students of color, Chaleunphonh said, made up about 32% of the regional campuses in the fall 2023 school year. He said 61% of the 2023-2024 Groups Scholars of the regional campuses are students of color.
Chaleunphonh said the average grade point average of Group Scholars on regional campuses was 3.14 and more than 98% of students completed the summer experience program in 2023.
“That's a big part of Groups Scholars, not only does it help them get that experience, but it really is a commitment point,” Chaleunphonh said. “There, they have to complete that to continue in the program in the fall."
Chaleunphonh said he thought IU Northwest was a great school to start the process of expansion, see what the best practices are and how the program would work with regional campuses, because it is a Hispanic serving institution. According to IU Northwest’s website, 29.8% of students are Hispanic or Latino; the second largest ethnic group on campus. This year, he said, the campus recruited the most students for the program, with 43 in total. The first year, he said, they had 16 students and retained 14.
“We're looking for students with great resiliency and character and that's part of the application process,” Chaleunphonh said. “You can tell by reading their essays and stories, and then second is the recommender connections and network around the state of Indiana.”
Chaleunphonh said students love having immediate social support and he remembers helping some students, who come in five weeks earlier, complete their financial aid. Chaleunphonh said he didn’t know if the students could have completed it if they started during the first week.
Additionally, he said, the program is a confidence builder and students have repeatedly said they didn’t know if college was for them, despite having high GPAs.
Xondrais Glenn, a Groups Scholar at IU Southeast, said the program made her feel like she belonged and made showing up on the first day easier, along with giving her additional confidence in the tools she was bringing with her that she had what she needed to succeed.
Sam Young is an alumnus of the Groups Scholars program himself and said what the program gave him is still giving students family, the engagement, the opportunities and the support.
“I think, overall, it's touching all those pieces, allowing a student to develop and grow to a mature adult, and then now a functioning person that is in their career or developing their career and becoming more successful so that they can say they are an alumna of the university,” Young said.
Sciame-Giesecke said students talk about how college wasn’t something they thought they could afford or something they could do. Getting into a program and having someone say “I believe in you,” she said, makes all the difference in the world.
Sciame-Giesecke also said that the university believes everyone should have the opportunity to earn a college degree.
“If your ability to pay for it is an issue, I should say, then we want to take care of that. Right, we want to remove that barrier,” Sciame-Giesecke said. “Because we know that our future teachers and doctors and nurses and attorneys are sitting all over the state of Indiana.”
[CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the percent of students of color on regional campuses in the fall 2023 school year]
