Nebraska Wesleyan University President Fred Ohles was invited by the White House on December 4 to discuss action steps that will help more students prepare for and graduate from college.
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the event, called the White House College Opportunity Day of Action. College presidents and other higher education leaders were in attendance.
Participants were asked to commit to new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
President Ohles presented Nebraska Wesleyan’s commitment to improve second-year retention in STEM fields by 15 percent over three years. That commitment will be met by overhauling introductory biology courses to connect students to scientific research earlier in their STEM college career.
For example, students in introductory biology classes will move from a traditional lecture hall format with 60 students to a seminar format with 16 students in each section who will be full participants in research projects. This approach will continue into two new sophomore-level biology courses.
The restructuring will result in “much more involvement by the students in the creation of their own learning and much earlier opportunities to act and think as scientific researchers,” Ohles said.
President Ohles was invited to the first White House Summit on College Access held in January. While there Ohles shared plans for a new partnership with Lincoln Public Schools and Southeast Community College to bring more low-income students into teaching careers.
Plans are still being developed but will include a 2-2-2 process in which students will spend their last two years of high school in early preparation for teaching careers, two years in an associate degree program, followed by two year’s at NWU where they will earn a bachelor’s degree in education.