Starting college can be a daunting transition for many students, with some moving cities or states and integrating into a new world of learning. That’s why most colleges invest significant time and energy to ensure first-year students have a successful start, connecting them to peers, support resources and faculty invested in their personal and academic growth.

But the support often lags during the transition to sophomore year. Retention is a key factor in timely degree completion; students who leave college after the first year are much less likely to ever finish their program.

That’s why DePaul University in Chicago piloted a new intervention this summer to bridge the transition from first-year to sophomore status. Through short online modules, students improved their time management, money management and career skills, preparing them to tackle the new academic year.

What’s the need: As a university, DePaul has focused on improving second-year retention, said Jaclyn Jensen, professor of management and associate dean for undergraduate programs in the Driehaus College of Business at DePaul.

Jensen was approached by a DePaul alumna, Pam Schilling, co-founder of the ed-tech company Archer Career, who was looking to apply for the Illinois Innovation Voucher program. The program provides funding for small or medium-size businesses that partner with higher education institutions in the state.

Archer Career offers online, self-paced microlearning courses to support students and early-career professionals in achieving their career goals. Topics range from job search skills, such as networking or how to develop a LinkedIn profile, to personal skills, including identifying goals and career exploration.

“This opportunity to seek funding was also the catalyst between leveraging our focus on retention in business students and that connected really seamlessly with her platform,” Jensen explained.

How it works: The Rising Sophomore Success Program is structured as a collection of 10-minute modules, which include video and interactive activities. To select relevant course topics for RSSP participants, DePaul leaders used historical data on why students left the university, as well as demographic information to identify common pain points in the student experience.

For example, DePaul has a large share of commuter students, so building students’ time management and executive functioning skills was important to enable them to juggle their various responsibilities.

Students applied to be admitted to the program and completed the course during the summer after their first year.

“From a student standpoint, we thought, ‘OK, we have this time when you’re not overwhelmed by taking multiple classes and you might actually have some time to carve out in meaningful ways to invest in your own success,’” Jensen said.

Students were also supported by a peer mentor, an upper-level undergraduate in the business school, who facilitated weekly check-ins, talked through challenges and encouraged them in their learning.

In addition, each student was paired with a professional mentor, either someone already in their support network or a graduate who could provide career advice.

For the pilot cohort, DePaul recruited 10 rising sophomores in the Driehaus College of Business, which included three incoming transfer students. The participants were celebrated with a kickoff event in the spring and a graduation ceremony during the fall after completing their Archer Career courses.

What’s next: Following a successful pilot, DePaul and Archer Career were awarded a voucher from the state to integrate agentic artificial intelligence into the platform. It also provides funding for Archer Career and for DePaul personnel, including the peer mentor, an intern and a faculty researcher.

The AI will offer personalized nudges and encouragement to students as they navigate the platform, similar to the way a coach might. Previously, a student intern hired to work on user design drafted messages for the peer mentor to send to students. Now, the university will automate the messages using AI.

The nudges “will still rely on the behavioral data of students who are engaging in the platform, but it won’t be a member of the team manually sending those messages out at a particular time, but leveraging technology to help us do things like that,” Jensen explained.

The goal is to scale the program to maximize impact and increase the number of students who can participate, Jensen said. DePaul plans to launch a more robust pilot of 50 student participants in summer 2026.

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This article has been updated to clarify Jaclyn Jensen’s title.