Where student success begins: The people behind New Start

The University of Arizona’s 2026 New Start class arrived on campus this summer to begin their Wildcat journey. Over the weeks that followed, they discovered what college would ask of them and what they could accomplish.

Through college-level coursework, peer mentoring, campus engagement and a residential experience, New Start gives incoming students an opportunity to build the skills, confidence and connections they can carry into the fall semester. For more than 50 years, the program has helped Wildcats make that transition.

But New Start does not happen on its own.

Behind the students who challenged themselves, built friendships and began finding their place at the U of A was a village of people from across the university who invested their time, expertise and energy in their success.

They are the people who make New Start happen and put the U of A’s commitment to success for every student into action.

Building a community

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Ricardo Marquez saw that commitment firsthand.

Marquez, a school relations coordinator in the Office of Admissions and former high school educator, took on New Start responsibilities in addition to his day-to-day role, working closely with students and mentors as they navigated the transition to college.

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After one demanding week, Marquez returned to his office and found a note waiting for him.

“Happy coordinator week to the most supportive human!!!” it began. “Thank you for dedicating your time to New Start staff and students.”

Marquez said the note gave him a second wind and reminded him why the work matters.

For Marquez, it reinforced something he saw throughout the summer: Students thrive when they know people are invested in their success.

Creating connections

In the College of Engineering, Nöel Hennessey, director of ENGAGED, helps coordinate Engineering Blast Off as part of New Start, connecting incoming engineering students with faculty, advisors and current students.

At New Start Welcome, Hennessey met engineering student Azani Anderson, who expressed an interest in biosystems engineering. Hennessey told Anderson about ROOTS, another ENGAGED program that provides research experiences in vertical farming and precision agriculture.

Anderson later attended the program’s final student presentations, taking a first step toward an opportunity that could help shape their academic and professional development.

For Hennessey, it showed what can happen when students bring curiosity to New Start and people across the university help them explore where it might lead.

From admissions files to fist bumps

As senior coordinator for data integrity and processing initiatives in undergraduate admissions, Brent Gambrell normally works behind the scenes with student applications and records. New Start puts him face-to-face with the students behind those files.

As part of the team teaching UNIV 101, Gambrell helps students understand how general education connects with their broader college experience.

Gambrell said his 2026 class was the most engaged he has taught. Students shared perspectives, asked questions and regularly stayed after class. Some simply wanted a fist bump before leaving.

For Gambrell, those connections help “demystify college” and allow students to begin feeling more at home at the university.

Discovering they can do the work

Michelle Woodward, director of online instruction and course director for Math 100 in the Department of Mathematics, helped develop New Start’s 2026 STEAM component with graduate students Griffin Smith and Jordan Sheppard.

One exercise challenged students to use powered dune buggies, data and mathematical models to determine when two moving vehicles would collide.

Woodward walked into a classroom filled with students analyzing data, creating graphs, debating assumptions and helping one another.

“Students were not just preparing for college,” Woodward said. “They were already practicing what it means to think, collaborate, investigate and communicate like college students.”

Carrying it into the fall

For Logan Adams, the ultimate measure of New Start is what students carry with them after the summer ends.

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As executive director of orientation and new student transitions, Adams and her team bring together people and programs from across the university to help students begin college with the confidence, connections and support they need to succeed.

One of those people is Jacob Shirley, senior coordinator for Summer Programs in Orientation and New Student Transitions. Shirley oversees peer mentors, resident assistants and student coordinators who often become the first people students turn to for help. He describes that responsibility as doing the program’s “heart work.”

By the time New Start ends, students have earned academic credit, explored campus, built friendships and begun finding their place in the Wildcat community.

The 2026 class brought curiosity, enthusiasm and a willingness to challenge themselves. Meeting that energy was a community of people across the U of A who taught, mentored, encouraged and opened doors for them.

That is why the village behind New Start deserves some applause.

Student success is not the work of a single program, course or person. It begins with a culture where people across a university decide that every student’s success matters and then do their part to make it possible.

For the 2026 New Start class, that culture was already waiting for them when they arrived.