Laurie L. Hazard has been teaching and designing curricula for First-Year Experience and study skills courses for the last twenty years. At Bryant University, Laurie is responsible for the administration and development of programs and curricula aimed at student success and retention. She is the Director of the Academic Center for Excellence, the Curriculum Coordinator for their First-Year Experience and English as A Second Language Programs, and teaches in the Applied Psychology Department. Laurie is an award winning educator who was selected by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition as a top ten Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate. She… also received the Learning Assistance Association of New England's Outstanding Research and Publication Award. Laurie has served on the New England Peer Tutor Association Board from 1997-2007 and has been a Guest Editorial Board member for the Learning Assistance Review. Her own research focuses on the personality traits and habits of students that influence academic achievement. She has done extensive work assessing the effectiveness of learning assistance programs and FYE courses. Publications by Laurie and her co-author include: Exploring the Evidence, Volume III: Reporting Outcomes of First-Year Seminars, a monograph published by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and "What Does It Mean to be 'College-Ready'?", an article which appears in Connection: The Journal of the New England Board of Higher Education. Laurie's work in the area of student success has received national media attention. Her interviews include: "Prepare college-bound kids for hard work ahead, which appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 2007 and "Study Tips for College Students" in Seventeen Magazine in 2008. In March, 2010, Laurie was interviewed by Associated Press columnist, Beth Harpaz, for her article "Colleges Don't Like Senior Slump in High School." Most recently, Laurie was a guest columnist for the Washington Post Answer Sheet wither article entitled, "How to Help Your Child Adapt to College Life."Jean-Paul (JP) Nadeau earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Rhode Island and has been teaching first-year composition, basic writing, and literature courses since 1992. Currently he is an Associate Professor of English at Bristol Community College, located in Southeastern Massachusetts, where he is also Chair of the English Department's Portfolio Assessment Program. He recently co-authored Community College Writers: Exceeding Expectations (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), a longitudinal study of first-year writers. JP has given dozens of presentations at local and national conferences during the last fifteen years, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Learning Assistance Association of New England Conference, and the Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference. He was recipient of the 2006 Learning Assistance Association of New England Outstanding Research and Publication Award along with his co-author, Laurie Hazard. In that same year he was awarded a research grant from the Calderwood Writing Initiative at the Boston Athenaeum.