Data is available about participation and completion rates for Latinx students at Hispanic Serving Institutions at both City Tech and through New York State.
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Mental-health programming opportunity for the SRC
Hi Everyone,Ā
A colleague (Dr. Amanda Almond) passed the following resource along to me:Ā
https://www.activeminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Supporting-the-Whole-Student.pdf
This is a guide for colleges to use when thinking about how to support āwhole studentsā during their first year or so of college. It comes from an organization that focuses on the role of mental health in helping students achieve during their time in college.Ā
The organization also has events and virtual speakers, and I think we could potentially host one at our campus. You can see some of their featured speakers here:Ā
https://www.activeminds.org/programs/am-speakers/am-speakers-virtual/
I understand that we may have some funds available for supporting student mental health through the CARES Act. Is anyone else interested in seeing if the Student Ready Committee could help sponsor and organize one of these events?Ā
Thanks!
Rob
What does it mean to be a student-ready college?
Our work is part of a nation wide conversation. Let’s keep talking and creating an environment where we grow more student-ready each day.
Revisiting Resources
To revisit our 2nd meeting’s discussion on resources, I feel the Excelsior Scholarship should be listed under the Financial Aid section of the webpage we reviewed. Students interested in applying for the scholarship have expressed confusion about eligibility and the application process. While Financial Aid’s webpage does offer information, a specific link in their section under Resources for Advisement would provide additional accessibility.
Thoughts on student stories
I was quite impressed by the stories, the students really did seem to reflect on their experience and honestly share their thoughts. As faculty many times we are being pulled in so many directions , so many commitments that we donāt prioritize as we should.
Reading reflections or better yet taking the time to talk Ā to our students once in a while can help us stay grounded.
Expert Brain
I was hired for my expertise but am I (or my students) suffering from my “expert brain?” That’s what I thought about as I reflected upon “Our Stories” during our first Student Ready College Committee meeting for the semester.
My expertise represents my mastery of a particular subject.Ā I once thought that was all that students needed from me; to know the subject matter and know it well! Apparently that’s not all that they need. Am I so engulfed in my “expert brain” that I’m missing all the contextual factors of a college experience? These same factors that can, and often do, interfere with what we do in the classroom.
Rethinking infrastructure and supports
I read a great article from the NY Times that IĀ found to be apropos of this discussion. As mentioned in the article, I think predictive analytics would be very useful. Data from past studentsā records high school grades, SAT scores, Regents scores, etc) create a “profile” we use to help identify incoming students who have a stronger likelihood of poor academic performance. The next step would be offering the necessary, relevant supports for success. We shouldn’t be waiting for students to ask for help, we should be reaching out to them.
I’m not sure if any of you have already read this article or if it’s already been posted here somewhere, but in case you’d like to read it: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opinion/sunday/graduation-rates-wayne-state.html
My Two Cents
During our last meeting, I jotted down a few ideas. As these were more specific to me and the PTW program, Iāve noted only a couple general points below.
- Base āstudent successā initiatives on recent research finding with our student population that is conducted by educational research experts. Self-reported data from students is a good start, but more robust studies would be extremely useful.
- Have an actual “open door” policy. Based on my visit to the Biomedical Informatics program offices in the new Academic Complex, being able to meet with faculty there is antithetical to the purported āopen doorā policy.
Our Stories – Reflection
I participated in my first SRC meeting last week and had the opportunity to learn a bit more about the new student experience by reading through a number of Our Stories. I shared them with a colleague and we spoke about the importance of tying the college experience to career interests/exploration as early as possible. We also spoke about the need to reinforce this link throughout their education at City Tech (both inside and outside of the classroom), especially as interests may change over time.
Thoughts on Student College Ready Course before Freshman Year
Hi all & Happy Spring!
I attended the Online Learning Committee’s (OLAC) Ā presentation to the department chairs today and one issue that was raised during the meeting was getting student prepared to take online courses before they do. I thought that this dovetails with our discussions about getting students ready for City Tech overall and I thought it would be ideal if students had their first taste of online learning in a online course they would take in July or August before the first day of classes. This would replace the in-person class that the college used to offer and that no longer is offered due to lack of resources.
This Ā online course could make use of a virtual tour of the campus building either animated or in video form and a range of other resources. I think members of the OLAC Ā committee, many of whom have years of doing online courses here at City Tech could be involved in this initiative. Ā Just some thoughts for our next meeting.
