The Quiz of Student Interest (QSI) "Combatting Early Isolation in First Year Students"

Abstract

The ECU Honors College enrolls its incoming students into a two-part honors colloquium divided between the fall and spring semesters of their freshman year. These courses challenge the honors students to engage with the Honors College’s core values of innovation and entrepreneurship, by exploring the concept of “Wicked problems''. Wicked problems are defined as problems resistant to resolution (Burnett & Evans, 2016). We selected the Wicked Problem of Early Isolation in First-Year ECU students, choosing to attack this problem through our original idea known as the "Quiz of Student Interest" (QSI). The QSI is a comprehensive quiz for all incoming students to take, so that they may be connected to clubs and organizations on ECU's campus that match their interests. We hoped that a more connected and engaged student body would struggle less with isolation and its associated mental health comorbidities. Through our honors course work, we developed prototypes of the QSI and communicated with many professionals in the ECU and Greenville and communities. The objective of this paper is to tell the story of the QSI's development through each stage of the ECU Honors course work, concluding with the current status of the QSI.