College Expands Staff for Recruitment, Retention

Efforts to expand access to the college for students from diverse backgrounds and improve support for all students during their first year are getting a boost in 2009.

With a renewed focus on access, retention, and student performance, the college is exploring bold strategies to make an engineering education more accessible. The college hired Nate Wright to serve as director of access and recruitment, and created the new position of first-year experience coordinator held by Lelei Finau-Starkey.

Wright will lead efforts to attract students from a broader array of backgrounds, including women, underrepresented minorities, and low-income, first-generation, and international students, while Finau focuses on providing the support that will ensure first-year students transition successfully into the engineering program and choose to continue with their engineering journey.

Finau has worked in recruiting CU engineering students for the last several years, and will now focus on student retention by providing advising and other support during the critical first year. Wright joined the college after serving as a senior admissions counselor for the CU-Boulder campus.