Get Your Students Hired
I think you bring up great points. I feel the same way about our orientation programs; we need more student invovlement of both new and continuing students. Also it would be great if the topics covered in orientation were sprinkled throughout their course work in a creative way.
Dee,
The personal touch to your orientation aid in relationship building with the school. Thank you for your post.
Dr. Ron Hansen
We have several planned orientation programs for students including tours, explanation of facilities etc. Another part of the school is that all staff are asked to take students to a place or person if they need to talk to them. We're required to not just give directions but, if at all possible, to walk with them and introduce them to the financial aide person, registrar, etc. Orientation can be overwhelming for many people. Often they'll say things like 'oh yes, now I remember.' when taken to an office that got lost in all the information being given. Also gives me/us a chance to chat with them since classes are in a variety of buildings on campus. We are all asked to watch for students who may need mentoring. We have various mentors involved with study groups. They're able to tutor as well as act as a sounding board since most study groups are very small.
I would like to see more information delivered to new students regarding the certifications and credentials of the school. This applies to making students more marketable when seeking employment after graduation. I believe it would add more confidence in the student's choice of career training.
We have big orientation at our school.We cook student breakfast, have popcorn. Meet teachers, meet students.
I think one way our orientation can be improved is by introducing small groups of students who will be in the same class to each other. I think this will make them more comfortable on the first day of class and get them to school.
Including an orientation topic every week for up through the first three courses would greatly improve the orientation program. The expectation is this would help retention.
I would suggest that employees would need to attend at least one orientation meeting a year to observe and/or participate as needed.
This would help new Students see and meet the Staff but also keep employees current in the orientation process.
I feel our current orienation program needs some serious re-vamping. While pursueing my undergrad studies at a local state university, I worked for the Vice-Provost who quickly became my Informal Mentor as well. In my job on her staff I oversaw Student Orientation Logistics and Operations as well as assisted with planning. The university relied heavily on student management of this event. This process fostered "Peer Mentoring" from day one.
On my campus today, our orientation is like a military recruit processing event, the people are shuffled through the halls and processed in one large herd. The only involvement of other students is directing the flow of people traffic through the halls (down this hall to Room 109, now this way to the business office...). Additionally, no time is set aside to really foster or encourage any type of initiation of the mentoring process, other than break out sessions by program (but sometimes there might be as many as 50 in that breakout session).
I would like to see us utilize our campus student leaders to develop a Peer Mentoring program. In our program of 200 students, 5 Peer Mentors and 5 Faculty Mentors(team of 1 Peer Mentor with 1 Faculty Mentor and 40 students assigned) in a formal mentoring program would go along way towards initiating the educational process on day one in their new academic home.
The Mentoring team could each take ownership of 5-10 new students each term; responsible for welcoming the students at orientation. Sending a follow-up e-mail that week and scheduling a lunch and learn towards the end of Week 1. The Peer Mentor and Faculty mentor could utilize online resources as well to facilitate chat sessions for FAQ and other important information. While the Peer Mentors will be ever-changing (as Mentors graduate, and new student grow into Mentors) the faculty Mentor will provide consistency to the group.
There are two things that I am beginning to think are missing from our orientations. First is interaction between students. I haven't sat through an orientation in its entirety, but as far as I have seen, it is basically structured as students passively receiving information from various school officials. While the students get lots of important info this way, it's not at all interactive, so the students have little chance to build relationships with each other or teachers, administrators, etc.
The second issue I see with our orientation is that it is a single event. Following orientation, new students are thrown into their classes, often with students who have been at our school for a number of terms. I do not believe there is much, if any, follow-up with new students once the orientation day is over.
In my school, the instructor teaching the class is also the student advisor/mentor. This seems to be working. The instructors see the students academic progress as well as the attendance. The student receives attention as soon as a situation is developing. This is very effective in changing the students behavior
We have an orientation for all new students at the beginning of each term. This helps students from all programs to introduce themselves and build bonds with students in different programs.On the first day of class I have orientation for the students starting in my program.I ask them what are their expectations, fears, etc. I meet with them every few weeks to see how they are progression.
Our orientation program is too short it needs more meat. It has changed as our business modle has and in my opinion not for the better. We need more time to have the student understand the commitment of our program and not gloss over the acedemic portions of the program. Suggestions have been made but as communication is not the best those suggestions go unhear or not acted upon, both at the supervisory level and above.
I was thinking that by assigning a current student volunteer buddy, the new students always have someone they can go to for advice and maybe even make a new friend.
Awesome, I love the motivational video, that is a great visual tool to continuously inspiring. This is something we will begin working on really soon.
dan,
Excellent... I love that fact that faculty are interacting with new students at orientation. Smart move.
Dr. Larry Banks
we do some preety good orientation at our school, and teachers are a big part of it when it comes to set up the standars, and interact with them... we always try to make the student feel welcome by providing some breakfast food like danish and some coffee.
melissa,
Frankly, new students love to hear other student success stories. This would be a great move on your part.
Dr. Larry Banks
I think its a great idea to have current students and graduates speak at orientation so that the newcomers can identify with certain struggles and successes!