By:  Michael Patterson, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, map6169@psu.edu

Transition from high school senior to college freshman is a difficult and daunting task for any incoming freshman. At Penn State Brandywine, Bobbi Caprice, assistant athletic director has created a process to ease the transition from high school for all Brandywine student athletes. Caprice brings freshman student athletes into seminars that give them the resources to be successful on and off the field.

The freshman student athlete seminar was built to solve many of the problems incoming freshman were facing. Freshman were experiencing various scheduling problems or they were losing financial aid because they had no awareness of their own responsibilities. Caprice set out to develop a program to eliminate these problems.

Every other Monday, PSU Brandywine student athletes come together for Caprice’s seminars. Each seminar is tailored around the current needs of the student body. In the beginning of the year, students learn about scheduling and the available resources for them on campus such as the stem lab and learning center. As the year progresses, they’ll learn good study habits to help them be successful in the classroom and financial aid information so they can be prepared for the upcoming year.

The freshman student athlete seminar is a fairly new program that has grown over the last three years. The program was two years in the making for Caprice and the Athletic department personal, but it has shown tremendous success in three short years. They are constantly changing and updating it to benefit the students.  While it was mandatory for all student athletes to participate, they found that many students were still missing these informative seminars. As Caprice states, “(The program is) troubleshooting a lot of the issues we’ve had in the past and now it’s not happening as much. Even last year, any students who have had issues they were students who missed the opportunity to participate.” This year, they’ve added the seminars as a credited courses to entice more students to participate and it has been effective.

Penn State Brandywine proves to be a campus that is looking to make its students successful. The freshman student athlete program is giving the student body a chance to learn and be prepared for all that awaits them as they enter their first year of college.