SCoRE | Resiliency Training Improves Student Retention

The case for SCoRE

Hear what researchers, college and university administrators, and LEAD Pittsburgh affiliates have to say about the need for resilience education and SCoRE.

Resiliency Training Improves Student Retention

Posted on September 19, 2011

Sheila R. Fine (bio) emphasizes that resiliency training can improve college retention.

I think having resiliency taught on the college campus is extremely important. Colleges are looking for the best student for their school, where there is a good fit. They spend a lot of money and time in looking at students and then going through the selection process. College presidents and admission officers have to know that certain kids are going to come with some learning issues as well as some emotional issues.

People want their college to show that they have retention—that their kids can come to school. They will help them deal with some of the very normal adjustments to school and they can go through and graduate. Their numbers are going to look good. Their kids are healthier. Their campus is healthier, and they can show that they have facilities on their campus to deal with normalcy, with things that are a little bit more challenging, and they can have a graduate class that is very equal to the admission when the kid comes to school. I would imagine that like any company or organization or institution, keeping kids in place is very important for their bottom line.

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Excerpted from interview with contributor in May 2011.

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More From Sheila R. Fine (bio)

Learning Resilience Is Imperative

What the experts say

"Even for the brightest, best-adjusted young person the transition from high school to college is a very, very challenging one.… All young people entering college could benefit from focusing on what their strengths are and how to protect themselves in the face of the stresses that will inevitably come with the transition to college life.… The lessons that one learns in developing a kind of resilience outlook are lessons that will serve one for the rest of one's life."

Ellen Frank, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

"This program provides students with a skill set that either initiates them into resilience or adds to their strengths, and resilience will help them throughout the entire course of their lives."

Toni Macpherson, MEd
Executive Director
LEAD Pittsburgh

"If resilience education were incorporated early into college life, it would benefit campuses in many ways, because they would avoid a certain amount of increased individual difficulties with students, and that's wear and tear on the entire college campus.… There is no doubt in my mind that having a set of coping and resilience skills is just as important as whether I get an A or a B in a particular course."

David J. Kupfer, MD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

"Learning to be resilient is imperative in life; I don't know how you can go through life as well without it.… I think students will take away fewer scars of failure, rejection, and anxiety because they’ll know how to do things they might not have known had they not taken a course in resilience."

Sheila R. Fine
Chair, Board of Directors, and Principal Founder
LEAD Pittsburgh