Valencia Community College in Florida developed a holistic approach to improve student retention during the period October 1987 through September 1992. Two of the major thrusts of the retention project were the development of an extended orientation course about student success (SLS 1122) and the development of a faculty mentoring program. Study findings on the short- and long-term effects of these two strategies included the following: (1) students enrolled in SLS 1122 passed their courses for that term at a rate of 81%, compared to rates of 56% for students enrolled in other college prep courses and 67.2% for all other students; (2) SLS 1122 students had a next-term return rate of 78%, compared to 67% for college prep enrollers and 57.6% for all other students; (3) students enrolled in SLS 1122 enrolled at a rate of 65% after 4 terms, 48% after 7 terms, and 30.4% after 11 terms; compared with rates of 50%, 33%, and 20% for a similar group of degree seekers over the same time periods; and (4) students enrolled in SLS 1122 also attempted a greater number of hours. To expand participation in the student success course and the mentor program, incentives must be offered to recruit more faculty mentors; department chairs will have to be willing to assign more faculty to teach student success; the program will have to be changed so that mentors work with students for only one semester; and the students will need to produce an educational plan at the end of the first semester of participation. (KP)