Most colleges adopt strategies to improve student performance. In this article, the authors describe how Valencia Community College in Florida developed a strategy that would move it from the already much better than average results in student learning, persistence, and success it was achieving toward the quantum level of improvement. They also describe how a theory of work was developed and how it resulted in new and powerful strategies for improving student performance by focusing much of their effort on the earliest experiences of students in their transition to college, both in the classroom and in the systems and processes of induction into the college. The experience at Valencia shows that a focus on the front door, on creating strategies and environments that increase student engagement, holds great promise for significant improvements in student performance throughout the whole trajectory of their college careers.