the fact is that the biggest part is that most are just going to do enough to get by
Mentorship--we have the mentors and we have the students, now to get them together...that has been a challenge...
Clubs--active and vibrant clubs--always a challenge to involve a constantly evolving student body...
Community Involvement--our schools must be considered important to the community...merging the desires of students for participation and the needs of the community for assistance...a good challenge.
Our school has baking clubs, student counsils, blue steel, iron chefs events, a wonderful catering & buffet class that opens it's door to showcase students work & to feed students, which gives them a chance to see what they have to look forward too and mingle while waiting.
We could try some sort of organized event to raise funding for transportation for field trips for students to cooking stores or restaurants & bakeries, since many are on tight budgets or don't have their own transportation.
1. School Advisory Board with both students and faculty combined.
2. More volunteer groups with faculty and student involvment.
3. Fundraisers using student-made baked goods that fund things like field trips, specailty cookware, books...
4. Off Campus outings that transportation to and from school provides, to places like Sporting Events, Museums, Cooking Stores, restaurants...
5. "Night Out with a Chef Instructor"
Excellent. Student success seminars help. The key is to form direct and individual student relationships, too. Think about that. What would happen if the student felt he or she could talk and trust staff?
Dr.B
We try to establish a warm and welcoming environment for our students.We have developed methods to Identify students who are “at risk†and meet one on one to work with these students. We offer academic support services such as a tutoring center, learning center,and math lab. We encourage students to use these resources daily. We provide skills workshops where an instructor is on hand to assist students in areas they need improvement. We offer student success seminars utilizing industry experts from different disciplines in the industry. We offer career planning courses and workshops. We provide mandatory College Success and Career Success courses. All these are student involement activities that have assisted in our school retention program.
Perfect. Mentors and models help. Calls help... The key is, "do you have a trusting relationship with students?" A solid relationship motivates students to stay the course.
Dr. B
We have mentors for new students, success seminars that specifically target new students, courses designed for the beginning student that must be taken at the onset of their education, good conversations with students at the new student orientation, calls from faculty and staff if a day absent seeing if there is something we can assist them with. Development of students feeling a part of their education is of utmost importance.
Nice... this should help you to connect and build relationships. And, a relationship equals trust. When students trust you, they tend to stay.
Dr. B
We are a culinary school and have recently started a club called Iron Toque. Ostensibly this is a group of elite students who are hungry for experience. The idea is to gain hours through volunteer time, and one-time catering events. When a student reached 50 hours, they become an "Iron Toque" with a special pin for their lanyard. This also has a ulterior reasoning. Many of our students excel in culinary classes but not in academics. This gives recognition to excellent practitioners and leads to higher student esteem.
Thanks for sharing. Building relationships through the entire program is the key to retention. A relationship equates to trust. Sounds like your school is doing all it can to create opportunities to build relationships.
Dr. B
Our graduations have improved by selecting a nice location and including all attendees in the reception. We always provide a luncheon for the graduating Seniors on their last day. In this economy with reduced budgets trying to implement less costly student appreciation ideas like gas cards, movie tickets, and refreshments during exam week may create more bonding experiences with students and faculty.
Nice. Do all that you can to build relationships wtih students. This is the way to improve retention.
Dr. B
We start with an orientation and break into three key phase development. We have job fairs three times a year and work toward the education, professionalism, growth of the students. We help them interview and give class on proper techniques.
I work at a beauty school and one of the ways we get students involved is we hold at the end of the months an award ceremony for the students. We have the instructors put together a list of the students in each course for best attendance, student of the month, best haircuts, blow drys etc...and we also pick 1 student in the entire school for student of the month. We give them certificates and little trophies, pins, gift cards, etc...
Being online is a challenge. I started an online newsletter to bring students together on a casual basis. I am currently working on a mentoring program and student clubs. The difficulty is working in an asychronis environment. Students will rarely enter a chat or discussion because they lack the time to do it. The characteristic of online that sells our program the most is flexibility, however the flexiblility is the biggest hinderance of bringing student together. One of the things they kick and scream about the most is having to do a project together!
After completing the course I am assessing in my mind the best way to apply what I have learned to the online environment. While all of the concepts are indeed good ones, what we are struggling with now is how to put the concepts to work online. I have recently developed a resource program to assist students who are new to the online world with additional skills training and support. This program not only seeks to deliver soft-skills training to the student, but foster a safety-net in the beginning which allows the student to transition from either being out of school for a while or being in a ground school and now going in to an online world. The program was quite successful in the pilot. Additionally we complete a comprehensive online orientaion prior to the start of class which inludes everything a student may need such as online tutorials, policies and more. The take-aways from this class I am trying to apply online-now are the mentoring program and some type of student club. I have requested any feedback or best practices out there but I think in the online world this may be few and far between. As I continue to learn more about retention I hope to pilot more program in the online world as we continue to grwo.
We are in need of this very badly our students are not feeling like the organzation cares about them so our retention sufers
Three times a year have all the instructors put on a feed for the students. Instructors cook and serve. They could wear an apron with our logo and slogan......no charge to the students
Several times a year the students can attend a pro baseball game at no charge if their grades are at a certain level
Is the mentoring program working for you? Mentoring is a powerful tool to develop relationships. And, relationships equate to retention.
Dr. B
