Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

Encountering Adulthood

College as a Rite of Passage

Len Fleischer

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v18i2.2756

Keywords: Keene State College, integrative, teaching, learning, transition, experience, assessment, thinking, development, training, leadership, engage, parents

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Abstract

The transition from high school to college has become a de facto rite of passage in modern American life. There is an absence of consensus in the culture of what might constitutie authentic markers of movement from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Thus, higher education is faced with the challenge of initiating adolescents into intentions, dispositions, and habits of character and intellect that might comport with what is understood to be healthy adulthood (Arnett, 2004; Elbot & Fulton, 2008; Fleischer, 2005).