SMART Start for MSUM Students
by Aries Serrano, Reporter
August 18, 2014
College can be a scary experience for many incoming freshmen,but MSUM is easing the transition for some students.
With thousands of students coming into campus this fall, it can be intimidating for incoming freshmen to meet new people.
MSUM uses the SMART Start program to help.
It’s designed to allow underserved students like minority and low income students to get a head–start in making friends, engaging with faculty to start the year off strong.
“This is a predominantly white area so it can be hard for students of color it can be hard for students of color to come in and to feel like they fit in and feel like they belong,” said Student Success Advisor Lexi Byler.
“It did make me nervous but definitely being in this program, it’s helped a lot you know, my first week of college I’ll already know a lot of new people,” said SMART Start Student Antonio Johnson.
Lexi Byler was in SMART Start two years ago.
She hopes to give others the same experience she had.
“I think it’s important to reach out to those students and make they sure that they do feel safe here and they feel like they have friends that they can have fun with and that they’re not the kids that are sitting alone in the cafeteria,” said Byler.
Ben Taylor is one of Byler’s best friends whom she met in the program and he says this is important for students to have.
“A lot of them are talking about professors they’ve already talked to and like that’s unheard of out of a freshman and that’s the kind of students that follow through an early start like this,” said Taylor.
The SMART Start is organized by MSUM’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Link to original article and video.