Davenport University student Hannah Rasch is a coach at the Michigan Volleyball Academy, a volunteer at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and the 2017 Michigan Apple Queen. And now she can add 2017 Outstanding Student of the Year to her list of achievements.

The award was presented to Rasch at the Michigan Developmental Education Consortium’s annual conference in Bay City in October.

The consortium presents the award “to an individual who has successfully completed developmental education classes to begin a collegiate career and who has balanced classroom education with co-curricular and extra-curricular involvement.”

Like many students, Rasch needed a bit of help with English and math at the beginning of her college experience. She received that help through DU developmental courses and is using it as a foundation for success in her current studies. To ensure her success, she worked one-on-one with professors outside of class, regularly visited the Tutoring Center, attended study tables for student-athletes, and used a color-coded system for managing her classwork and notes.

As a result, Rasch did well in both the paired ENGL109/ENGL109L course — which allows qualifying students to skip ENGL 021 –and in MATH 030. That was followed by success in the subsequent English course and in Intermediate Algebra.

“Both lab classes helped me prepare for the next level of classes,” Rasch said. “The structure of the classes helped me have a better understanding of what was going to be expected in the higher level classes. I felt more comfortable transferring from high school classes to college classes.”

While currently working on an associate’s degree in medical assisting, Rasch plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in health and human services case management (formerly known as medical case management) — a program in which she is already enrolled. Her goal is to pursue a master’s degree in occupational therapy.