College Success for Tusculum University

David L. Strickland, MA, is the director of the Student Success Program and a professor of sociology at East Georgia State College. He is coauthor of an introductory sociology textbook, My Sociology, now in its second edition. He is the author of the freshman orientation course textbook at East Georgia State College, College Success: A Concise Practical Guide (seventh edition). In addition to writing, he has taught college courses full time for more than twenty years. During that time he also served for three years as the director of institutional research for the college. Prior to teaching sociology, he conducted grant-funded health-care research at the Center for Rural Health and Research at Georgia Southern University and published numerous articles and chapters on the sociology of health care. He has been a pioneer in the area of online instruction and served as a coauthor for the eCore version of Introduction to Sociology, which was used by the thirty-four institutions of the University of Georgia. Strickland credits some of his insights regarding orientation to college to the fact that he, like a large number of the students that he teaches, was a first-generation college graduate. He is also co-author of an introductory sociology textbook, My Sociology, which is designed around some key pedagogical principles that he uses in his classes at EGSC. These are described in a recent publication (http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jpps/vol5/iss2/4/). He has taught sociology full time for twenty years and is recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Faculty of the Year award. He has been a pioneer in the area of online instruction and served as one of three co-authors for the first eCore version of Introduction to Sociology, which was used throughout the University System of Georgia. In addition to teaching, Strickland also served for three years as the Director of Institutional Research for EGSC. He served as a member of the board for social science association and is currently a board member at large for the Georgia Sociological Association. For four years prior to teaching sociology, he conducted grant-funded health care research at the Center for Rural Health and Research at Georgia Southern University and published numerous articles and chapters on the sociology of health care. A recent vita is available online at http://faculty.ega.edu/facweb/strickland/VITA/Strickland_David__2015.pdf

Carol J. Strickland, PhD, RN, is retired from teaching but served for seven years as associate professor of nursing and director of nursing research at Georgia Southern University School of Nursing in Statesboro, Georgia. She worked in nursing at the University of Rochester School of Nursing in Rochester, New York, for twenty-four years, where she received her PhD in nursing. Her interests and clinical experiences are in psychiatric mental health nursing, combining her knowledge of nursing with that of the neuropsychological and neuroimmunological functioning of the human brain. She has published numerous articles in the area of psychiatric mental health nursing practice, psychoneuroimmunology, and sociology. She was also recently appointed to the editorial review board of the Journal of the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Strickland states that her knowledge of first-year experiences comes both from having served as an instructor/mentor in a first-year experience course at the University of Rochester and from immersion in the literature. In addition, she was a first-generation college graduate. She has gained insights into the value of having a book designed to guide the mentorship process that is so essential to helping students transition from high school to college: "In this way, we pass on core competencies and the knowledge to facilitate educated, visionary, and dedicated scholars who will be the leaders, teachers, and mentors of tomorrow."