How to Help Prepare Students for Post-Grad Life

Just as students are starting their higher ed journeys, many students are also finishing and graduating (this is happening every semester/term/quarter, not just in the Fall and Spring respectively). And often, we focus far more on orientation, First Year Experiences, admissions, and the early stages than those students who are preparing to move on to their life post college.

As students graduate and settle into their new role as an alum (which will be a far longer relationship), we often struggle to find methods to engage them in meaningful ways. Their first impressions of what it means to have a bond with their alma mater can be hard to undo, since they'll eventually have many more priorities and focuses for their time. 

There is a strategy that I synthesized in my head to solve both of these problems; put on mentoring programs between students approaching graduation and alum of the last five years. It allows young alums to have a positive way to give back that doesn't require money, and also helps soon-to-be graduates feel better prepared for the life that awaits them by learning from peers nearer to their own experience versus older professionals. This tends to be a lot more helpful and in general, it's nice to have someone looking out for us to guide us along our educational journey.

While this isn't a radically new idea, it can have a huge positive impact if done in the right way. Forcing mentoring pairs can be hit or miss in my experience. Relationships need to form organically. As such, we need to put on regular networking events for these groups to come together. Invite alumni speakers to come back to campus. Have alumni panels focused on different industries. Have alumni be ambassadors involved in prospective student recruitment and engaging other alum.

We obviously want our students to feel prepared for success after college, but for the higher ed professional, this can also serve a very important purpose; nurturing the desire for financial support from alumni. It is going to be a hard sell to cold call an alum and essentially beg for money. However, if you have built up some good will with meaningful involvements for these people, they'll be far more likely to give back. This applies to the current alumni, but also these soon to be alumni who are feeling supported with these positive alumni mentors in their life.

Use this as fodder to figure out the best ways to implement this sort of effort at your institution. It's objectively important, so you need to tap into this resource to prepare yourself for the future of higher ed where we will need to be increasingly self sufficient and capitalize on the human capital at our disposal.

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The Value of Student Engagement in Digital Education

We often write off online students as wanting to be anti-social and avoid people. But the reasons why people pursue digital education often deal with anything but. It can stem from work/life balance, not wanting to uproot your life to get a degree, family obligations, convenience, cost, not having to deal with commutes, and simply wanting to get the best degree from the best institution you can since you aren't limited by geography. The value of digital education is immense, so we're definitely seeing a lot of growth because of that both in terms of offerings from schools and student interest. You can learn on your own time, in your own way, at a price point you feel comfortable with.

Working for the past year and a half in digital education has been eye opening. I've learned so much about supporting students from afar and making sure they have a positive student experience. While we still have a lot to learn with the pursuit of digital education being so new, there have been some trends I've seen of what works well.

Student engagement in the digital realm takes more work when you can’t sit them all down in front of the same classroom digital displays each lesson. These students still want connections to their peers, faculty, and the institution. We can help make those interactions easier, and we can help coach students to navigate everything they want and need while they're studying with us.

What I've seen be successful is proactive communication via email and other channels with relative information about deadlines, resources, and course offerings. Also, regular check ins to make sure students know you're there for them and willing to talk about whatever they need. Some students won't need you as much, or will prefer email over calls. Regardless, I've found that it goes a long way to know someone cares and is in touching base with you, even if any conversations are short. Students regardless of whether they're on-campus or online, are going to have a lot of competing priorities, so we shouldn't take it personally if they don't talk to us all the time. That doesn't mean though we should ignore them and wait for them to come to us. A lot of what I've written before about great student support and increasing access to student support efforts holds true here with students in the digital space.

My main takeaway for you here is to maintain the same values with students online that you would with those students who happen to be in-person. Don't be afraid of reaching out. Make them feel like they're a part of your community, no matter where they are. Create opportunities for these students to meet with each other in person or connect them with on-campus students, faculty, and staff. These students are typically strongly connected to your institution's brand, that's why they sought it out to get an education from there. If they maybe happened upon your offering another way, then take it as a challenge to build the affinity in them with great service and inclusive practices. Once it all comes together, these students will be proud ambassadors all over the country (and perhaps the world) who are able to get an awesome education from your institution without disrupting their lives. 

If anyone is interested in learning more specifics of the work I do, or have cool ideas from the work they do in digital education, please connect with me! I always love talking shop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Keeping Employees Interested In Their Work

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One of the toughest challenges facing anyone who runs a business is keeping their employees interested in the role. With the day-to-day life of going to the office, a lot of people find themselves struggling to remain motivated. A good manager should be able to do everything they can to keep their employees as interested in the work as possible. But how can you make sure you are doing that? The fact is, it is something of a challenge. Nonetheless, there are some basic ways that you can ensure it happens in your business. Let’s take a look at just a few of those ways now.

Allow Open Exploration

One of the quickest ways to get people to dislike their workplace is to discourage the flow of thoughts. If your workplace is not allowing people to talk openly to one another, then this is a real concern. The ideal workplace culture is one which encourages the ongoing open exploration which brings out new ideas. If you are allowing your employees to approach their work in this open manner, you will notice some significant improvements. Above all, this should lead to some fascinating new ideas coming through about how to lead the business. You might be surprised to discover just how many great ideas your employees have.

Bring In New Ideas

Speaking of great ideas, having the willingness to bring in new ideas from outside the company is always a positive. There is a real benefit to allowing your employees to be open to new ideas, even if they are not directly related to the business itself. One great idea is to have a monthly or quarterly session where you bring in a public speaker from another field. The more dissimilar to your business type, the better, as it is the flow of ideas itself which keeps people interested. If you bring in the likes of David Icke to speak to your employees, you can be sure that they will be fascinated. What’s more, it will encourage an open discussion among the staff.

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Experiment With Procedures

All businesses develop their own specific way of doing things. This is just part of the nature of business. In many ways, it is helpful, as it means everyone knows exactly what to expect. However, it can also lead to boredom among your employees if you are not careful. If you are keen to keep your employees engaged at work, then you should not be afraid of occasionally experimenting with how things are done. If you shake things up every now and then, your staff will probably find it at least interesting. What’s more, it is only by experimenting that you can actually ensure you are always doing the right thing and in the best way possible. If you never experiment, you never discover the best way of doing something. When you do experiment, however, just be sure that you let everyone know what it is that you intend to do. If you force ideas on people without any context, they might not respond so well.

Hopefully with these tips you can reinvigorate your team to be more engaged so that you all will be able to do your best work.

Thanks for stopping by!

Positive Psychology, Social Media, and Student Affairs

* This post was originally featured on The OOHLALA Blog.

I recently took a course on positive psychology, (shout out to my professor, Dr. Colleen Georges!). The focus of positive psychology is on being happy. I’ve found that utilizing the principles of this psychology has helped me to be a more optimistic, empathetic, and grateful person in my daily life.

Positive psychology is great for improving one’s personal life but it’s also a useful application as a student affairs professional. Using the insights of this psychology you can provide students with support and help them succeed in their endeavors.

This psychology is apt for in-person interactions, however as many students spend most of their time online I’m going to talk about how to use positive psychology when engaging with students through social media.

3 Ways to Use Positive Psychology & Social Media to Engage with Students

1. Celebrate positive moments with your students

I enjoy helping to celebrate when my students share an academic or personal success. (Such as getting an internship or membership to a fraternity or sorority). A simple “like” or retweet shows that you’ve taken notice of that student’s post. It makes them feel valued and creates positive feelings.

Pay particular attention to anything related to their college experience. This helps support the value of what they’re choosing to get involved in.This can also be applied to small, simple moments your students share about the good things that happen in their day. The impact of showing that you see, hear, and celebrate the joy of your students is a great way to help spread positivity throughout your campus.

2. Share affirmative messages and quotes

Another simple way to spread positivity throughout your campus is to share brief notes with your students. If you know they have an interview or test coming up, send a quick digital message to wish them luck. You can also share quotes to help motivate and inspire your students. When students are busy and stressed with exams and finals, provide support by sharing helpful videos, articles, or photos to keep students energized.

3. Be helpful everywhere you can

A great way to spread some good energy online is to listen and be helpful to students who have questions or concerns. You’ll surprise and delight your students when you jump in with some advice or resources to solve their problems. They’re often hoping for an solution to their problem but aren’t expecting it since a lot of the time no one responds.

As a student affairs professional, you have the knowledge to get your students help. We do it all the time in person when students stop by our offices. Use that same mindset on social media and your students  will feel supported. Even if they don’t need you all the time,they’ll know an answer is only a post away.

If you commit to this digital effort, it will supplement your other work by spreading positive energy and support for your students. Employing positive psychology principles on social media is a direct connection to the work we do in person with students. We want them to feel valued, supported, and celebrated. This is just another way we can do that for our students every day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly Geek Outs - 03/11/16

Greetings!

Here is what I am geeking out about this week:

• Major Life Announcement

So many of you may have already heard through social media, but I proposed to my partner, Jenn, during our trip away (more details on that below). She said yes and we are very excited to start our lives together. We've been together for over two and a half years, and as she graduates and we job search together, I felt inspired to let her know how I felt about her and our future. I was really nervous in the moment when I asked her and forgot a lot of the things I wanted to say, but I eventually got out of my head and laid it all out to her. We're so pleased with everyone's joy about our engagement, and it was nice to hear from so many people from our lives congratulating us and wishing us well. Now, onto figuring out wedding plans!

• Spring Break Retrospective

I had a great time over the past few days with my partner taking our road trip around New England. We stopped at Portland, ME, Portsmouth, NH, and Burlington, VT. We ate good food, visited some breweries, saw five new college campuses (University of Vermont was especially cool!), and toured the Ben & Jerry's and Cabot creameries. It was an awesome time together, and I am happy to relax a bit more before work starts back up in full next week.

• New Captain America: Civil War Trailer

A new trailer dropped this week and it was amazing! We got our first glimpse of Spider-Man (I liked it!) and somewhat of how he will figure into the story. We're less than two months away from this movie coming out, and it is looking to be an intense one, with our heroes going full force at each other. I'm expecting more twists and turns to happen in this movie where anything is possible and the future of the MCU is at stake!

Thanks for stopping by!

How to Embrace Social Media as a Tool to Connect with your Students

* This post was originally featured on The Student Affairs Hub.

Social media has become pretty ubiquitous in our lives now. News is made from it and spread through it. We reference it offhand in our conversations with each other,  and we've developed new terms to describe it.

While it may be still a bit foreign to some professionals at higher education institutions, it is commonplace for our students. When given the proper attention, social media can be an effective asset in our outreach to students. It also helps to build a feeling of community on campus.

Whether you're an entry level academic advisor, hall director, or the president of an institution, you can be a powerful presence for students on social media. Your social media presence will help them feel heard, valued, and cared for.

I personally have taken a few different stances that I hope help me connect better with my students. I make my Twitter publicly available, (it's even on my business cards). I accept requests from students on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. I don't seek them out, but if they connect with me first, I make sure to accept their invitation.

Connecting with my students in this way helps me to celebrate their successes, build their network, and be more accessible to them should they need me. I've never had any issues with making myself more available rather than guarding myself behind virtual walls. No student has ever abused this. However, even if there was an instance where someone used my good will inappropriately, I'd still make myself available to all my other students who need me. I wouldn't want to let them down based on a single student who needs some educational conversations about their behavior.

Another stance I take that many professionals hopefully take as well, is that I don't have a "personal" account and a "professional" account. I just have my one Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. I really don't believe anyone should have separate accounts for stuff like that unless someone has a brand they're trying to build that they want to be separate from themselves.

I don't have strict standards about what people should or shouldn't do on their social media channels. Students just need to be comfortable with employers, friends, and family seeing whatever they post.

While someone can try to ignore social media, it is an omnipresent, constant, global influence in our lives. It is something that I view as an asset and resource. I embrace and love social media for the connections and learning that can happen through it.

By maximizing the potential of social media for sharing your story, (or your institution's), you will see success in your personal and professional efforts.

How to Help Students Engage with Academic Courses

* This post was originally featured on The Student Affairs Hub.

Classes are beginning at many colleges across the country. Students are buying their books, gathering their supplies, and trying to figure out what's the best professor to take a certain course with. The academic aspect of campus life is why students come to institutions of higher learning in the first place. They're working towards their specialized credential which will get them towards where they want to go in their life. This means that we, as student affairs folks, are poised to help our students better engage in their academics and position themselves for career success after they graduate. There are a few simple things that we can all do to aid in their engagement with their coursework.

1. Help Them Choose Stuff They're Into

The first, and perhaps most important step in this process, is helping students figure out what they want to do with themselves! While granted, college is about finding yourself, even figuring out a general direction for your student is more helpful than them just wandering aimlessly through their coursework. The pitfall they can get into if they don't know what they want to do with themselves is that they may waste valuable time (and money) on classes they don't need. This is understandably frustrating for students, and can play a big part in students just giving up, since they'll feel behind and can't surmount the high costs they're facing. We can help students through various tools to find out what they're into or would be good at, with things such as Strengths Finder, MBTI, True Colors, or the Holland assessment tool.

2. Maximize Their Schedule

Students often get frustrated when they have to take classes that don't align with their chosen majors, the dreaded "gen ed"(or general education, liberal arts, breadth requirement) courses. A smart way to get around this is to maximize the choice of each class your students take. We obviously know better that we are working towards making more well-rounded citizens of the world, but we can meet our students halfway by helping our students choose classes or involvements that satisfy multiple requirements at once. This could even help them graduate early if they're lucky! Also, a simple but useful point here is helping students figure out how they would work best in terms of scheduling their classes during each week. Do they prefer night classes? Classes that meet once a week? Having all their classes on as few days as possible? More (or less) credits? All of these help students be empowered to manage their academics, and have it work with their life and schedule.

3. Apply Their Learning to the "Real World"

Student affairs folks can help synthesize the learning our students are gaining in their courses by inquiring and applying what they're talking about in their courses to the "real world". I don't like the use of that terminology, by the way, (air quotes included) since college is the real world, it isn't outside of it. Nevertheless, we can figure out how to transfer the concepts and theory to their day to day lives. Say for example, we're working with a Resident Assistant student staff member, and they're learning about communication theory. Those concepts directly apply to their interactions with their residents and we could even task them with working in the theory into future conversations and see how it goes. I know I have regular meetings with my RAs, probably just as often, if not more than their professors so I can continue to engage my students in learning outside the classroom, that only further provides relevance to what they're reading about and getting lectures on.

These concepts will help you guide your students towards being as engaged in the classroom, as they are outside of it. Certainly direct them towards their academic advisors if you ever don't know the exact answer to anything, but these simple tips should be able to help most students no matter where they are or what they're studying.

Here's to another great academic year!

Three Campus Community Connections to Enhance the Student Experience

* This post was edited from one originally posted on The Student Affairs Hub.

As the semester rolls on, I was thinking about how colleges and universities are a unique environment where there are a multitude of offices, departments, groups, and relationships that are hard to find elsewhere. These connections can last a lifetime and make a huge difference in a student's life. While some pathways like Greek organizations may be more common, there are plenty of other avenues to make connections on campus for your students that can be just as impactful, if not more so depending on what the student is interested in. I'd like to outline some of the ones I feel would be useful to professionals out there to recommend to their students or for students to take the initiative to do themselves.

Online Groups

Meeting new people can be tough, but sites like meetup.com, Eventbrite, and/or the myriad of Facebook groups all help to organize hangouts all across the country based on common interests like hiking, gaming, reading, or any other plethora of hobbies. I've found them to be a great way to meet new people in my community that are into what I enjoy. For students, this could be helpful to find other like-minded individuals in their local area that lead to possible job or volunteer opportunities. At the very least, it is a social involvement that is bound to have local staff and faculty members (as well as alumni) present, which leads into my next points.

Alumni

The graduates of any institution end up all over the country and in all sorts of different industries. They owe a lot of their success to their time at their alma mater, and are proud of where they got their degree. I can speak for myself and say that this is all very true. I can't make myself physically available and present at my alma mater so I make sure to support them financially. The Alumni Relations offices at any institution are going to have hundreds if not thousands of local connections with passionate individuals looking to connect with current or prospective students. This is a ripe pathway to great mentoring relationships which can lead to any number of other opportunities.

Faculty

While a lot of powerful, high-impact learning happens outside the classroom, I'd be foolish if I didn't mention the importance strong relationships with faculty can play as well. Students (or at least most of them) go to college to get their degree. They do this by attending classes taught by faculty. Unfortunately, it seems nowadays the relationship in the classroom is purely transactional. Faculty are a wealth of knowledge and experience that can be transformative to a student. Their position grants them a lot of influence and power as well as access to a lot of resources and opportunities. Faculty can give students engaging experiential learning opportunities through research or a being a teaching assistant. At the very worst, faculty can serve as their own sort of mentors for the students who find themselves drawn to academia.

I encourage you to think outside the box when looking to make connections with your community. There are some tried and true options out there but there are also so many more to choose from that may better fit your students' needs. In the end, it's these important connections we make for our students that help them stay and also help them succeed at college as well as beyond.

Klout and the Curious Case of Social Media Engagement

Oh Klout, you fickle tool you, made for measuring one's total influence on social media. I recently discovered you and thought it would be cool to see what my score was. Little did I know I would become overly intrigued by your premise and the value of your numbers.

I have a moderare case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), I'll admit it. This tool doesn't help with my growing overall obsession with connectedness. Now I can see how my engagement score is going up or down based on what I'm putting out there. At best, it is helping me stay faithful to tweeting, posting, and sharing anything and everything I think others will find useful and relevant. At worst, it is making me hyper critical of what I am posting and how often I'm putting out posts, so it may not be all that bad. I just know I get frustrated when my score doesn't go up for weeks at a time. It makes me feel as though I'm doing something "wrong" on social media and I need to do "better". 

My dilemma is if I should be putting a lot of stock into this single number that is supposed to showcase my entire online presence's engagement with my networks. Perhaps I should just take it for what it's worth as a simple tool for a complex aggregation and try to do the best I can with it. 

How do you all feel about Klout? Do you even use it?