Math Momentum jump-starts incoming Indiana students’ academic journeys

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue welcomed 171 incoming students to West Lafayette and Indianapolis this summer for Math Momentum, a five-week early start experience that builds Boilermakers’ math skills, confidence and connections through courses and activities designed to support their transition into the fall semester.

One of Purdue’s priorities is to improve student retention and graduation rates, and success in math is key to timely graduation for many students, especially Indiana residents. New this year and held from July 13 to Aug. 14, Math Momentum provides space and time for students to focus on learning and thriving in a college environment.

While living in Purdue’s residence halls, eating at the dining courts and taking part in social activities, Math Momentum students also earn seven credit hours across three courses. The experience — fully funded by the Math Momentum scholarship — gives students a head start on completing their degree; creates greater flexibility for future course sequences, internships or study abroad opportunities; and serves as a gateway to academic success for students across STEM and non-STEM disciplines.

“Our goal is to be able to support their preparation for their next required math class, and we’re marrying their math preparation with their college readiness experience so they are ultimately successful at Purdue,” said Marquetta Strait, University Innovation Alliance fellow and lead student affairs administrator on the Boilermaker Opportunity Program Plus team. “This experience is really about getting students plugged in, supporting them and also making sure they see themselves as fully capable because they did a lot to reach this point.”

Students selected to join Math Momentum are enrolled in a general studies course focused on developing higher education habits and skills, an additional course of their choice, and MA 190 (Foundations of College Math) — a class intentionally crafted as a segue into Purdue’s math sequence.

The course covers math concepts both new and familiar to Math Momentum students and was created in part using suggestions and insights from instructors who coordinate some of Purdue’s most commonly enrolled math courses. In addition to teaching essential math content, MA 190 instructors also share strategies for flourishing in future math courses through routine skills lessons — class time dedicated to sharing strategies for effective note-taking, studying and multiple-choice test-taking.

Amanda Manning, limited-term lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and course coordinator for Math Momentum, says the students in her MA 190 section — one of nine offered in West Lafayette and Indianapolis — have hit the ground running.

“I have had at least two or three light bulb moments every class where someone goes, ‘Wait, that’s why that works,’” Manning said. “I live for those aha moments; those are what I’m here for. The students in my section seem ready to build that foundation, are coming ready to learn and are showing what they’ve got.”

Students like Nely Luna, a Noblesville, Indiana, native majoring in elementary education, agree that the material helped lay solid groundwork for meeting expectations in her future Purdue courses.

“I feel like it helped strengthen my math foundation, and it’s always good to go back to the basics,” Luna said. “These are the types of things Purdue’s professors are expecting students to come in knowing, and it helped me a lot in that way. It has definitely made me more prepared for this fall.”

But learning math isn’t the only factor in the Math Momentum equation; the experience equally emphasizes the importance of engaging with the wide variety of on-campus resources and outlets available to students.

“We know that success is not one-dimensional, so Math Momentum is more than just coming to Purdue and taking our classes,” Strait said. “You have to make use of the resources that make Purdue home for yourself. Imagine you’re in a house, and you never sit on the couch — you don’t even know if it’s comfortable.”

As they live and learn on campus, Math Momentum students are attending information sessions, participating in college preparedness workshops, collaborating with peer mentors, taking part in study sessions and socializing at community building events — all opportunities designed to equip them with valuable tools, connections and behaviors that pave the way for positive outcomes.

Throughout the five-week experience, students like Luna grew accustomed to attending office hours and asking questions, while others like America Juarez from Elkhart, Indiana, appreciated the chance to identify and practice the study habits and methods that will propel her through the academic year.

“Having these study methods and being able to test them out now during the summer while my schedule is a little less packed has been super nice,” said Juarez, who is majoring in global studies. “It’s good to know what works for me now, so in the fall I can immediately apply it instead of having to take extra time to figure it out.”

Math Momentum is a collaborative effort between Purdue’s Office of the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and is one of a series of specialty summer programs coordinated by the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions.

For more information about Purdue’s early start programming in West Lafayette and Indianapolis, visit the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions website.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a research institution ranked among the top 10 public universities in the United States. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. As a land-grant university committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free