By Sommer Hamilton

Texas A&M is a big school. And with more than 4,000 energetic undergraduates streaming through halls and filling chairs and study spaces, so is Texas A&M’s Mays Business School. But incoming students beware: you won’t be given a chance to get lost in the crowd here.

This fall 781 of the 840 incoming business freshmen are part of the innovative Transitions learning community that pairs new students in groups of 20 with upperclass peer leaders and an instant network of faculty, staff and student contacts all bent on ensuring student success.

In larger classes and smaller group meetings, Mays’ youngest students are settling in to talk each week with student mentors and faculty advisors. Discussions range from study strategy and prioritization to business ethics and the sudden freedom and limitations of living away from home. But even more revealing are the connections that freshmen are already forming with like-minded students and inspiring mentors in their learning communities.

There’s proof in the learning groups pudding: The first-year communities contributed to a 96 percent retention rate for first-generation business students known as Regents Scholars. These scholars recorded the second-highest GPA of any college on campus, and nearly all who started the program in fall 2005 returned to Mays again this fall. This year, all 60 of the 2006 freshmen Regents Scholars are enrolled in the freshman foundation course.

Mays has another secret weapon for retaining Regents students. Additional student mentors and 47 faculty members, from lecturers to deans and department heads, meet one-on-one with Regents students half a dozen times each semester.

Mays’ recruitment coordinator Sonia Garcia says such mentorship is key to connecting students to concrete goals and the people who can help them achieve those goals.  “This mentorship concept applies to all the students,” she says. “But especially when you mentor students who are the first in their family to go to college, the results are tremendous when it comes to retention and having students who are really satisfied with their college experience.”

The fall 2006 group of nearly 800 represents the largest ever for the coveted freshman business communities. Started in fall 2001, the project quickly grew from 25 students to 250 in 2005.

This year Associate Dean Martha L. Loudder opened the program to welcome all incoming students. And most, including 710 incoming freshmen and 71 Business Honors freshmen, accepted the challenge.

The strategy is straightforward: Expand freshman communities to improve the undergraduate learning experience for Mays students, and eventually help ensure that more students make it to graduation and productive careers.

The freshman groups are the first step in Mays’ Transitions program, which takes students through all four years of their academic career as they master business competencies and engage in community and business projects that will better prepare them for their business fields. The 78 peer leaders (sophomores and juniors) and learning directors (seniors) who teamed up with Mays’ newest freshmen this year are part of that effort.

An old saying applies here, says Loudder, who coordinates the program along with Garcia and Director of Undergraduate Learning Tim O. Peterson: It takes a village to raise a freshman.

“The real credit goes to the 160 students and faculty volunteers who mentor the program, a supportive dean and a generous benefactor in John Speer ’71 of Royce Builders,” Loudder said. “We are very proud that Mays can lead the colleges at Texas A&M in offering this kind of small-class experience for all interested freshmen.”