Case Studies
TorchStar believes in partnerships and sharing. By sharing our experiences in working with others, we hope to provide you with ideas of how you might enhance the work that you are doing at your own institutions. Specific names and places of clients are often removed to protect the confidentiality of our partners, but we provide enough detail so that you can see how the TorchStar approach has helped others to understand, focus, and act.
STAY Student Insights
West Virginia University Case Study
West Virginia University identified a goal to improve retention and graduation rates. They worked with TorchStar to develop a tool that allowed them to gain actionable insights from students.​ Level of participation and impact on success were used as key measures for positioning programs and services that were most effective and those that may need to be re-envisioned.
Parent Insights and Experinces
Gonzaga University Case Study
The Office of Parent and Family Programs experienced growing demand for services and interest from parents and families and observed greater need for coordination across offices. A partnership with TorchStar Education generated insights that provided a roadmap for Gonzaga to transform parent and family communication and engagement.
Growing the Four-Year Graduation Rate
by Sally J. McMillan, Serena Matsunaga, and Jimmy Cheek
With a vision of becoming a top-tier university, the University of Tennessee was able to focus on four key actions and multiple supporting programs and services targeted at improving four-year graduation rates. The improvement in on-time graduation took a village. Improvement in graduation rates did not happen immediately. But change happened. The majority of students at UT now graduate in four-years.