Abstract
Student persistence in computing majors is one of the keys to providing the talent needed to fill the projected job openings in the computing professions. A range of factors can affect a student's decision to remain in a computing major or change to another major. In this paper we describe an assignment that we use in a course for first semester computing majors. The assignment is based on students interacting with alumni on an individual basis. The nature of the assignment addresses a number of the factors that have been shown to influence students' persistence and may result in an individual student getting the specific intervention that he or she needs.