Happy holidays! I wish you all a winter season filled with peace, kindness, and hope. While we turn an extra special focus to these ideals during the holidays, Douglass is always thinking about how we can help foster peace on earth. We believe that educating the next generation of leaders to be compassionate and confident is essential to securing a global future of peace and prosperity. As 2019 comes to an end, I am thrilled to share several of the many milestones we’ve experienced this past year that contribute to our mission.
Students know the value of a Douglass education, and as a result, we experienced record-breaking enrollment in 2019. This past year, the incoming student enrollment rate increased by 5%. This increase continues our positive overall enrollment trend which has increased by 10% over the past four years. These numbers mean that even more students are experiencing the transformational impact of courses such as Knowledge and Power, opportunities for leadership development at the BOLD center, our many service-learning initiatives, and more.
Douglass students are asserting themselves as leaders in spaces across the campus community. There are currently 267 Douglass students enrolled in the Honors College and 238 Douglass students enrolled in the School of Engineering. Additionally, many Douglass students were selected to join Phi Beta Kappa, an exclusive academic honor society. By taking on these challenges, our students are more prepared to become 21st-century changemakers.
This past year we also made major strides towards achieving equity in STEM disciplines. At the Project SUPER Research Symposium, over 80 Douglass students presented on their summer research projects. In addition to Project SUPER, The Reilly Douglass Living-Learning Community and the Computer Science Living-Learning Community both continued to foster positive educational environments that ensure students excel. Due to the impact of these communities, the overwhelming majority of our students stayed in two of the most demanding undergraduate disciplines on campus. In 2019, students in our Reilly Douglass Engineering Living-Learning Community had a 97% retention rate in The School of Engineering. Additionally, students in the Computer Science Living-Learning Community were 22% more likely to stay in a technology field than those who did not participate in the community.
These statistics are just several measures of the impact of the College’s work in 2019. With the strength of our community in mind, I am eager to see what the next year, and the next decade, will bring for the College. Enjoy the winter season and the beginning of the new year!
