Retention rates at a southeastern community college declined to approximately 26% between 2009 and 2012. This decline in student success may indicate a problem with programs intended to help retain students. To promote student retention, the participating community college has recommended that students complete a college success course as part of their curriculum. Despite these recommendations, the effectiveness of this institution's college success courses on academic persistence has not been examined. This study helped to reduce this gap in practice by examining whether completing a college success course contributed to students persisting beyond the 1st year of college. Tinto's and Astin's academic persistence frameworks provided the theoretical foundation to define the factors that influence student success. This study employed a secondary analysis of the institution's 2009-2011 student records to investigate academic persistence rates of 1st year students who continuously enrolled semester-to-semester. Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests identified a significant relationship between 1st year students enrolling in a college success course in the fall semester and retaining the same population of students to the following fall semester. This finding suggests that college success courses positively influence student retention, particularly among 1st year, 1st semester students. Discovering that some students did not register in a college success course suggests an opportunity to evaluate this institution's registration procedures. Increasing student retention contributes to social change by assisting college leadership in their mission to provide students with the skills needed to qualify and compete for higher-level jobs within the community. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]