The early college experience is different for everyone, but most would concede that the transition to college requires students to develop new social and academic habits. This transition can be daunting, especially in light of early coursework that sets the groundwork for competitive admission to professional programs. Further, the literature suggests that this adjustment is less intuitive for some students. This study focuses on the role of student-instructor interactions during office hours in the early success of first-year pre-physician assistant students through their first semester of introductory biology. The aim of this work is to improve persistence through undergraduate courses and acceptance rates into physician assistant programs. Ultimately, this work would increase the diversity of healthcare practitioners in local healthcare systems. Using the improvement science model, I introduced a series of interventions designed to learn how these changes affected student office-hour attendance for my introductory biology course. One such intervention, a video providing explicit directions on how to get to instructor offices and what the office hour experience would look like, was effective in removing barriers to office hour attendance for some students. Specific reminders to students inviting them to attend office hours were also influential. Finally, the office hour experience seemed to support students' self-efficacy, feelings of community, and development of academic practices, which, in turn, contributed to their classroom success. Further study is required to understand if these interventions will affect student transfer of office hour practices and resulting skills to other classes. [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.]