Launching the First-Year Experience Movement

Dr. John N. Gardner is an undergraduate student success thought leader and a social justice advocate. He is Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the non-profit, the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, co-founded by him and his wife, Betsy O. Barefoot, in 1999. John is also Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, University of South Carolina at Columbia. He was also the Founding Executive Director of both the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and the University 101 Programs. He also served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University's five Regional Campuses. Subscribe to the Office Hours with John Gardner: Innovation in Higher Education podcast.

Prologue. Reflections During the PandemicAcknowledgment Introduction Part I. My Collegiate Journey 1. The All-Important First Year of College 2. The Second Year of College. Continuing Recovery from the First Year 3. The Third Year of College. Making Some Successful Decisions 4. The Senior Year Capstone Experience Interlude. Graduate School—Even the Military Would Be Better Than This Part II. My Life and Learnings in the U.S. Air Force 5. I Should Have Paid the Air Force 6. Becoming an Involuntary College Educator and Discovering My Calling Part III. Becoming Who I Am as an International Higher Education Leader 7. My First Full-Time Teaching Position. Learning from It, Losing It, and Moving On. Winthrop College for "The Fairest Flowers in the Southland" 8. On Reinventing the Beginning Year of College. My Real Life's Work in The First-Year Experience 9. Evolution of University 101. Major Developments and Research Outcomes 10. The Conferences on the Freshman Year Experience and a Transformative National Movement. The First-Year Experience 11. Other Contributing Factors to the National and International First-Year Experience Movement 12. Another Important Transition. Moving the Annual FYE Conference (and Ultimately Its Founder. Out of South Carolina 13. 20-Plus Years of New Work--This Time From North Carolina and a New Organization Home Conclusion