At our school the orientation was held in the AM and then the first day of class was held right after.This was a little confusing to the students and I believe not much was accomplished.
I love the word "realistic." This is so important to retention strategies.
Dr. B
I think it is critical to make sure your orientation covers more than just where your bathrooms and classrooms are. Orientation needs to be the initial step that students take towards their success but better yet they have to know this.
Orientation programs have should achieve two key goals…
First, the students should be provided the key information needed to be successful as a new student in the program (including tours, introductions to faculty and staff, etc…) as well as a realistic preview of their day to day life as a student and reminders of a any critical dates or rules.
Second, the orientation program should make the new student feel like “part of the team†as quickly as possible; students who feel as though they belong will perform better and are much less likely to drop out. These students can also be excellent recruiters of future students.
At our school, it could be helpful if we have a pannel of current students engage the new students in a question and answer session where some of the "what is student life like...or how do you balance your life" questions can be asked. Also, it would also be helpful if there were some sort of motivational speaker were present to encourage them in their desire to go to school. This could be the mentor or some other person who would continue to motivate and encourage the students througout their program.
sounds to me you have what is too many times missing: a personal interest and passion to see the students succeed.
Love it. Create excitement and cause fascination. Sounds like you are doing the right things.
Dr. B
Orientation is very important in our school. We must create excitement with the students, to show them that they have chosen a very good career and motivate them to stay in the program and not dropping at the first occasion.
I would like to see more opportunities for students to interact with faculty members and Student Ambassadors during orientation.
Ice-breakers are great. The key is to get them excited about their future career. Show them that they made the right decision to come to your school... becuase you care.
Dr. B
I have only been part of one orientation at my school. There were a lot of good points as well as points that I feel could use improvement.
I feel since its a culinary school maybe having food prepared by students or things to eat are key. Who doesn't like to eat? LOL...I feel having food makes it a more relaxed atmosphere and maybe seem more like a social.
Maybe having an ice-breaker at the beginning would be good. I did like the part of the orientation where the admissions reps introduced some of the staff and faculty on hand that day.
Perfect... upbeat and positive, I like that. Now, try to link to their future careers. This will keep the vision alive.
Dr. B
Orientation is in itself an icebreaker. We have every key director present (DOA, CD, DOE, FAD, DCS) along with Extern Coord and Program directors and faculty if they are not teaching. In addition we bring in students (potential mentors perhaps) that share their experiences. We keep the info sharing upbeat and as the DOE my portion is probably the area that can scare potential students the most...so I immediately put them at ease while still stressing attendance and accountability. We want them to have the info but not be intimated.
Mentoring or advising is a key tool to retaining students. Why? You establish relationships.
Dr. B
First immense yourself in the school programs and culture (of course you have to love what you are doing). Everyone in the organization is part of the process.
I think the best idea is to have mentors established from day 1 and have them present themselves to students in an informal gathering.
If this is done starting at orientation; along with a hotline service, I think this would hopefully translate into greater retention.
If individuals who really care to do this focused on opportunities to help students, I believe that an environment of trust would evolve into positive retention.
You are so right. I love your attitude and suggest that what you are doing makes a difference.
Dr. B
Orientations can be extremely effective if done correctly. We do a wonderful orientation for students, but the one thing we need to work on is having motivating speakers talking to our potential students. The worst thing is getting someone up in front of 50 or so new students and boring them out of their mind. This may cause the student to think that all of their classes are going to be this bad. Dynamic speakers really get students excited about their field.
We have a program called jump start that works very well. One thing it does is teach the new students do identify major obstacles that they may have, discuss them with the other students and staff and develop plans to over come them.
I am not sure we can do anything to improve our process it works great.
Historically, our orientation has been held the Friday before the students' first class day. To begin with, I would love to see our school create a bit of space (even just a week) between the orientation and first class day to give students time to let the information sink in, better preparing them for day one of classes in a less hurried manner, giving them an extra week to make necessary arrangements to accomodate their new life as a student, and even providing a little more time and information with which to determine whether they are making the right decision for themselves by enrolling in the program.
Another change I would make would be focusing the orientation more on best practices for success and less on policy, rules, etc. This type of information could be spread out over the first couple of weeks in mini-orientations or even email blasts.
