The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is inviting students to apply for its Learning Institute and Opportunities for New Students (LIONS) Program. The LIONS Program prepares incoming freshmen for collegiate life through classes, workshops, and on-campus living. The five-week residential program starts July 8 and runs through August 9, 2024.
UAPB began the LIONS Program in 2008. The experience has become known for its robust academic and social offerings designed to assist freshmen students as they move from their homes to a new environment. Students participating in the program live on campus in a residential hall to help them acclimate to the university community.
“The transition from high school to college can be nerve-racking,” said LIONS Program Director Carolyn Mills. “We view the LIONS Program as the perfect on-ramp to this new chapter as college students. It has a wonderfully successful track record as that necessary bridge into college.”
Since the LIONS Program began, more than 1,500 students have attended. UAPB’s college retention rates indicate that LIONS participants earn higher grades and graduate at a higher rate and sooner than the general student population.
Erikton Goodloe, a native of Rockford, Illinois, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture concentrating in Agricultural Business. He participated in the LIONS Program in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the years since, Goodloe received several USDA scholarships and was selected for four paid internships.
“I’ll remember that summer for a long time,” Goodloe said. “The pandemic required that we meet virtually, but the LIONS Program still gave me a tremendous advantage as a freshman. I had been conditionally admitted because of my GPA, and the LIONS Program helped shore up the academic areas where I definitely needed help.”
LIONS is sponsored in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-secondary Education, Strengthening Institutions, Title III, Part B, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program.
For more information about the LIONS Program, contact Carolyn Mills at 870.575.8362 or millsc@uapb.edu.
To read more about the program, please visit www.uapb.edu/lionsprogram or www.uapb.edu and click on the LIONS Program tab. For information about financial assistance, please call 870.575.8302 or email finaid@uapb.edu.
UAPB News 