As registration for the fall 2008 semester at Central Texas College begins, first-year students are encouraged to enroll in a new course designed to help them succeed and achieve personal success in their college career.

Learning Frameworks - College Success was established this semester to assist freshmen who are not quite sure what college holds for them.

The purpose of the class is to help students overcome past difficulties in learning, develop success strategies, match student strengths with career choices, and help them reach untapped potential for personal success.

This highly interactive and practical class will help freshmen adapt to the independent and often stressful nature of college. Course topics include understanding your own motivations and learning styles, how to pay for college and graduate debt-free, and handling stress.

Students will explore campus and online resources they can use to get academic help as well as help solving personal and logistical issues related to their college experience.

One of the main goals of the course is to assist students in creating their own plans to balance their college life, including study, friendships, work and health.

Another important feature of the course is that each student will be assigned a personal mentor who will follow them throughout their CTC experience.

A group of faculty and student support staff members worked from an inventory of commonly cited reasons for the lack of student success to develop the learning framework course. During the process, CTC faculty found these problems to be widespread nationally and discovered a textbook written for a similar course in Colorado. The author visited CTC in February and worked with the course development committee on customizing the course for CTC students.

Learning Frameworks - College Success offers three credit hours toward a degree and is transferable to four-year universities in Texas.

Interested students can register for the class under PSYC 1300. It is offered Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:50 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:50 p.m.