On Oct. 24, Ben McNamee of the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston sat down for an interview about the student success program, TRAIL, and his role within it.
Claire Speredelozzi: So, what’s the program name?
Ben McNamee: Management TRAIL, Transfer Resources for Achievement, Involvement, and Leadership.
CS: How long has TRAIL been running?
BM: Since Fall 2014, it’s been a program. I started working with the program in Fall 2016.
CS: What’s your role in it now?
BM: So, my role on campus is an academic advisor but I coordinate the program as outside of my advisor responsibilities. I supervise the TRAIL mentors. I help them put on programs. I’m the assigned academic advisor for all the students who join the program. I just help them to navigate any hurdles they may encounter as transfer students.
CS: What’s the eligibility for joining TRAIL? Is it just for transfer students?
BM: Yes, it’s for any transfer student who is in the College of Management has the opportunity to join. They join at orientation and basically we have reserved seats in certain classes that they can choose to take at orientation and as long as they enroll in one of those classes, then they’re in the program.
CS: Do you do a cohort?
BM: Ideally, it’s harder with transfer students to make it a full cohort because if they transferred in with one of the classes we put in the cohort then they obviously don’t need that class so we’re not going to make them take it. Ideally, they’ll take more than one of the classes that we have held seats for. And then, the idea would be that the students who are in their Business-Communication classes also would be students in their Accounting class. So, ideally, they’ll have most of their classes together. It doesn’t work out 100 percent that way.
CS: How are TRAIL and MAP related?
BM: One of the classes that the students can join is Business Administration 101 which is like a transition seminar that I teach. In that class, we actually bring in some speakers or bring the class to MAP events as the class that week. Instead of having a class about Career Services, I might bring them to a presentation or have Career Services come in and talk directly about it and then they’ll get MAP miles for that. So, MAP is required for all management majors but it is open to anybody in the College of Management, as well as any other college or major, whether they’re management or IT and so one of the things—and is a benefit of joining TRAIL—we put MAP events out there. Students who join TRAIL end up earning more MAP miles in their first semester than students who don’t join TRAIL. It is one of the things we push and encourage.
CS: Within this success program, is there a higher retention rate?
BM: The retention rate is higher for students who join TRAIL, the on-track marker, so the management major is very prerequisite driven. There’s a series of eight classes that students need to have done in order to stay on track and students who join TRAIL are more likely to have more of their on-track markers done after their first year than students who don’t join TRAIL and they end up with higher GPAs.
CS: Are you the only person who works within TRAIL or do you have a set of advisors?
BM: I’m the only advisor for TRAIL. The TRAIL staff would be me and the three TRAIL mentors that work with the program.
CS: Are they adult staff or students?
BM: They’re peer mentors. They’re all transfer students so they all can relate to the students in that way of being able to say, “Oh yeah I remember when I transferred. It was a struggle so this is how I handled that.” They chat with the students and give them advice and that kind of stuff.
CS: Do you take any transfer or do you prefer sophomore transfers?
BM: No, we take anybody! I’ve had students who have had literally six transfer credits, so they’re pretty much a freshman, to students who have transferred in 90 credits and they graduate within a year. We are happy to offer the support to any student at any part of their college career. We’ll take them from where they are and help them to be successful at UMass Boston. Because that’s ultimately what our goal is, is to try to get students to be successful no matter where they’re at.