The Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), which began in Fall 1998, is a program designed to offer integrated linked courses to incoming first-time students who are placed in Developmental Studies.  The ESP is an interdisciplinary program organized around themes involving inquiry, problem solving, identifying issues, and proposing solutions. In order to assist the student in transferring these skills, a learning community linking Learning Strategies, Math, Reading and Writing was designed.

The integration of skills is reinforced during the semester because faculty teach in clusters and meet on a regular basis to review the curriculum. By its very nature the program stresses the interrelationships between ideas and fields of study in settings which promote cooperation and collegiality.  Students in the learning communities are enrolled simultaneously with the same cohort of students in three or four classes.

The learning community program was designed to ensure that students are retained at a higher level as they matriculate through the University.  The program promotes retention by: