Representatives from more than 560 institutions and 120 vendor partners gathered in Seattle, Washington from February 15-18 for this year’s Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience, hosted by the USC’s National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (NRC).

This year marked the 45th year of the Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience. The conference serves as an annual forum for higher education professionals to celebrate and share their knowledge related to supporting student learning, development and success in the first year of college.

“It’s a testament to the commitment of the University of South Carolina to sustain this activity for the whole world since 1982, and that’s a remarkable record of sustainability for innovation,” founding director and senior fellow of the NRC John Gardner says.

Prior to the official opening session, attendees had the option to participate in an array of preconference workshops covering topics such as assessing student data, improving engagement, and structuring the transfer student experience.

José Antonio Bowen, senior fellow of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, opened the conference with a keynote address, titled “First-Year Thriving in an AI World.” His talk focused on leveraging AI with critical thinking to bolster the first-year student experience.

Amber Williams, Vice Provost for Student Success at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, gave the final keynote, titled “Beyond Deficit: The Strengths-Based Architecture Behind the 92%.” Her talk focused on the student success-first model that led to her institution’s incredible first-year retention rate.  

Katharine Pei, Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the Department of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, closed the conference with a reflective session titled “Bringing it Home: Implementing Conference Insights at your Institution.” This session gave attendees the tools and time to reflect on all the insights they gathered throughout the conference.

In total, nearly 1,800 people participated in the conference, hailing from 49 states, Washington D.C. and nine countries. The conference featured 12 pre-conference workshops and 301 sessions over the four days.

USC was well represented across the conference, with dozens of Gamecocks in attendance and 26 university staff members among the presenters. This includes NRC Scholar-in-Residence Jamil Johnson, who presented six sessions in total. Johnson, along with the University Advising Center’s Alyssa Stephens and representatives from three other institutions, led the discussion on findings from the 2023 National Survey on the First-Year Experience, one of the featured sessions at this year’s conference.

NRC Executive Director Kate Lehman was joined by four other Gamecocks to present “Understanding First-Year Men’s Engagement in College: What the Data Reveal and Why It Matters.” Presenting alongside Lehman were NRC research analyst Kevin Wenger, Katie Hopkins and Sandy Greene from University 101 and Rebecca Greenfield from the Student Success Center.

The conference was buzzing with excitement and engagement. “I tell people all the time, I say ‘If you want to go to a conference where every session will be excellent, which is pretty rare, then you need to go to FYE. Because you will not be disappointed,” presenter Dottie Weigel of Messiah University said.

This also marked the NRC’s first major event since acquiring the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS). Over the past 20+ years, NISTS established itself as a national voice on transfer student success, offering research, resources and professional learning opportunities that influenced how colleges and universities served students who moved between institutions. The Center’s acquisition creates a more comprehensive national hub for transition-related research and professional development.

To thank the NISTS team for their many years of service to the field, Lehman and USC’s Vice President for Student Affairs and Academic Support, J. Rex Tolliver, hosted NISTS staff on stage during the conference’s opening session.

“It was exciting to have the former NISTS staff on stage and just really celebrate the incredible contributions they've made to higher ed,” Lehman said. “The reality of students who go to college today is that many of them are technically transfer students, whether they attended a community college for a semester and then transferred, or even if they took a couple courses in high school. Many of them are coming to us with some other educational experience, and so I think, a lot of them have transfer on their minds.”

The conference was complete with networking opportunities for new and returning attendees alike. On Monday, February 16, first-time conference participants had the opportunity to engage in a primer, hosted by Lehman, Gardner and Hopkins. This session, offered at each FYE conference, speaks to how the NRC and University 101 came to be at USC, while also sharing tips on how to make the most of your conference experience as a first-time attendee.

Looking ahead, the 46th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience is set for February 13-16, 2027, in Orlando, Florida. Lehman said that prior success in Florida and the popularity with colleagues traveling from around the country factors into the choice of location, as does the family-friendly atmosphere for attendees to explore before and after their sessions.

“We are taking our warm vibes and FYE magic to the most magical place on Earth,” Lehman said. “It’s always a popular location for folks, especially in February and for our colleagues coming from the northeast, who are often digging themselves out of snow to join us.” 

This fall, the NRC will host its 33rd National Conference on Students in Transition virtually from September 30 to October 2, focusing on supporting student success in the first college year and beyond.