The Thrive Program at Bucknell aims to fulfill the promise made in our strategic plan – “Bucknell – distilled to its fundamental purpose – exists to educate individuals and, through that education, change people’s lives…. to offer students a transformative experiences that prepares them to thrive not only at Bucknell but throughout their lives.” Underlying the program is a study of the ways in which students struggle, grouped into four pillars: 1) Meeting Basic Needs, 2) Sense of Belonging, 3) Access and Use of Resources and 4) Holistic Growth. This framework was used to generate over 300 university-wide initiatives that would enhance the student experience. To date over 80% of these initiatives have been completed, including the Thrive Fellows Program, hiring three student success coaches, hiring an inaugural advising director and inaugural ePortfolio director, a First Generation Honor Society, a Thrive Course for students, a one-day Thrive Retreat for all of campus, a redesign of new student orientation, and passing of a grade forgiveness policy. The Thrive work has been presented at over 20 schools including in Ghana and Colombia and has been featured on numerous podcasts and radio programs.

To learn more about Thriving at Bucknell, you can reach Joe Tranquillo, Associate Provost for Transformative Teaching and Learning and Professor of Biomedical and Electrical Engineering at [email protected].