While many factors help student retention, Samantha Corcoran’s favorite is fostering curiosity. She likes to ask her students: “Do you love learning? Do you love going new places?”
“We’ve chosen to focus on increasing student curiosity in everything that we do,” says Corcoran, associate engineering educator in the College of Engineering.
Wichita State University’s First-Year Seminar “Introduction to Technology and Innovation” and Shocker Design Experience are producing impressive retention increases. Freshman persistence has increased to 80% from fall 2024 to fall 2025. That’s a 14% increase since the program was updated in 2021.