| Session Title |
Presenter(s) & Institution |
Session Description |
| Unexpected Benefits from “Getting By" |
Bonnie Martin, Assistant Director of Career Services, Engineering Student Services - University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
When the pandemic turned the world upside down, we encouraged students—and ourselves—to focus on productivity (learn a new skill!), simulate in-person interactions (make sure your webcam is at eye-level faking real-life “eye contact”), and create new opportunities. All great advice in theory, but perhaps difficult in practice. When we went remote, we found temporary ways for “getting by.” In Engineering Career Services, one such example was shortening student appointment times for sheer capacity issues. This shift, and others, may sound defeatist in nature, but there were many fruitful outcomes from these changes. This presentation will unpack a few of these moments that may sound like “getting by,” and demonstrate how they still support our mission in an important way, whether it be shortened appointment times, embracing the ambiguity online interactions afford, or transitioning serious career development workshops into something entirely lighthearted in nature. |
|
Create a Master Training Notebook using OneNote |
Celeste Spier, Associate Director, Business Career Center
-University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
High-quality, comprehensive training is the first and most crucial step in providing strong advising or coaching experiences. Yet, onboarding and training is consistently a difficult task to accomplish – during a pandemic or not. Onboarding a new staff member completely virtually and transitioning to Microsoft products like Teams and OneDrive in the summer of 2020 gave the Business Career Center the perfect opportunity to rethink their onboarding and training processes for new employees. A ‘Master Staff Training Notebook’ was created using OneNote. This notebook outlines every training session that needs to occur and provides a comprehensive and clear guide for both trainer and trainee. During this session, you’ll receive an overview of OneNote, a live walkthrough of the Master Staff Training Notebook, as well as suggestions and recommendations for getting started and time for Q&A. |
| Cultivating Connections: Midland University’s Intentional Pairing Approach to Advising |
Melissa Kinsella, Student Success Program Advisor, Student Success Center
- Midland University |
The Student Success Center at Midland University utilizes intentional advisor pairing which cultivates connections between our advisors and advisees to promote a deeper sense of belonging within our Midland community. During our session we will overview how both our first year advisors and program advisors foster a connection between our advisees and the campus community, increasing retention through connection. We will introduce how First Year Advising is the cornerstone of connection for traditional first year students at Midland University. Life coach training helps us engage with students on a personal level. This relationship allows us to have intentional conversations, guiding students toward their purposes. Academic success is our main focus, but long term success is our main goal. We cultivate this by connecting our students with academic resources, empowering students to advocate for themselves both inside and outside of the classroom, and helping students to develop consistent time management skills. Melissa will outline how Program Advisors connect with students based on their majors and work with students from their sophomore year through graduation to ensure that their degree programs, majors, minors, certificates, internships, and electives foster marketability for graduate schools and career paths. From building rapport when advisees transition from first year to program advisors, to providing continued support throughout college, and to celebrating the success of graduation, program advisors build partnerships and relationships to connect with their advisees. The intentional pairing model can be applied in many ways. Midland’s unique community of 34 Varsity sports, a growing Arts department, and other academically scholarshipped areas allows us to pair first year students with advisors based on sport/activity and upperclassmen with program advisors based on major/degree program. Our advising applications and approaches provide examples for how other advisors can strategically connect with their advisees. |
| Supporting International Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic |
Tamayo Zhou, Graduate Student, Educational Administration Department; Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
International students are facing new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation will share specific things to pay attention to during advising appointments and suggestions for working with international students virtually. We will also discuss how institutions could build a community that supports international students and expands international students’ networks across campus and beyond. In the end, we hope this session will facilitate conversations about motivating international students to continue pursuing their academic and professional goals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The session will be presented with presentation slides via Zoom. A literature review will be conducted to support the presentation. A printable summary handout in pdf format will be provided at the end of the session. |
|
Asian International Students, Neo-Racism and COVID-19 |
Yi Xuen Tay, Graduate Research Assistant, Educational Administration and Biological Systems Engineering - University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Informed by current issues such as the global health crisis and political challenges, this session will highlight important findings from a literature search, to critically examine Asian international students’ experiences since the COVID-19 pandemic and United States’ increasing hostility towards China. A neo-racism lens will be applied to understand these issues, as the discrimination faced by Asian international students can often be traced back to their “skin color as well as cultural, national origin and relationships between countries” (Lee, 2007). Equity-driven recommendations and implications for practice will be discussed. |
| Spring into Success: A Holistic Approach for First-Year Students’ Academic Recovery |
Kali Sloup, Graduate Assistant, College of Education and Human Sciences
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
This session will explore an academic recovery program that holistically serves first-year students placed on academic probation. Spring into Success is a collaborative effort between students’ assigned advisors, graduate assistants, and various resources across campus. This semester-long program encourages resiliency through continued outreach and one on one communication with students. In response to COVID-19, this program has adapted a fully-virtual program for the current year. Spring into Success takes a student-centered approach to supporting well-being in and out of the classroom. The desired outcomes for this program are for students to: a) assemble a positive social support network b) establish effective academic habits c) return to good academic standing We will discuss the structure of the program, communication best practices, and data from the past year of implementation. |
|
Supporting Degree Planning Through Innovation |
Bill Watts, Associate Dean of Advising and Career Development
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
This session is focused on sharing how to use innovate new systems/tools to help students engage long term planning. In addition to the student being actively engaged in long term planning, this can also help clarify their purpose and enable them to make connections to their future career goals while making timely degree progress. Hear about lessons learned when an innovative set of tools integrating degree audits to planning and enrollment/scheduling was rolled out in the fall of 2019 at UNL. Presenters will share the context of development/implementation for Degree Planner and Enrollment Scheduler, and data related to usage and impact on students for the fall 2019 cohort. The creative ways one college advising team is adjusting to utilize these tools will be highlighted. Screen shots will be utilized to illustrate the systems. Sample videos will be shared which have been developed to help students maximize the tools. Initial plans for integrating both tools into the summer orientation advising moment will be discussed. Presenters will facilitate breakout sessions to enable attendees to share additional best practices and brainstorm new approaches to engaging students in long-term degree planning which is recognized as helping students to connect to their purpose and support them moving forward to degree completion and post-graduation success. |
| Cultivating Resilience for Nonbinary Students |
Jen Skidmore (they/she), Director of Student Development, Engineering Student Services
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
This advanced session aims to equip attendees with the knowledge needed to actively work to foster environments, structures, and practices that facilitate resilience for nonbinary students. Attendees will be asked to reconsider the dominant narrative of trans and nonbinary students as struggling and to reframe their ideas about resilience as a characteristic versus a skill and practice. In fall 2020, a focus group of nonbinary students at UNL was conducted, and highlights will be shared that will illuminate opportunities for advisors to better learn from our nonbinary student population. We will also cover recent efforts within the Nebraska University system and at UNL that are directly aimed at correcting structural barriers nonbinary and trans students face. This session is intended for individuals who have a good grasp of LGBTQIA+ vocabulary and common challenges and seek to go beyond just using pronouns in our email signatures and safe space stickers. Attendees will engage with each other in this session through breakout discussions and ample Q&A opportunities. |
| Using Instagram for Personal and Professional Development: A Student and Professionals Guide |
Kadina Koonce, Academic Advisor, Explore Center - University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Next to Facebook, Instagram has been one of the most highly used social media platforms amongst US college students. Though we generally think, “less is better” this session’s purpose will be to expand that thought and consider that when used strategically, Instagram can be used to your personal and professional advantage. This session will provide you with a road map for using Instagram to help your students engage in major and career exploration, as well as curate a feed that is goal-oriented and inspiring. You will also learn how to find and create folders for resources related to mental health, social justice, empowering/motivational content, webinars, and additional tools from diverse content creators and professionals. |
| ZOOMing into 2020: Political Experiences and Behaviors of International Students |
Meena Pannirselvam, Graduate Student, EDAD/ Graduate Assistant, OASIS
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
From the COVID-19 pandemic, the reawakening of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, to the threat to democracy following the 2020 U.S. elections, have brought about additional stress and challenges to international students. International students and the public were reminded of the vulnerability of the international student population, following the July 7 DHS rule where international students would have to depart the country if their institutions were to go fully online in the fall semester, despite a COVID-19 pandemic restricting most international travels and is unsafe to do so, that was fortunately rescinded after a powerful mobilization. Policies as such have a real impact on international students’ experiences and lives. It is important for them to be empowered, politically aware, and involved. Higher education should pay more attention to and provide adequate support for the political socialization of international students. Political socialization refers to “the process through which people learn information, norms, habits, and behaviors within a political system” (Wyant, Hurst & Reedy, 2020, p. 373). This framework posits that the identities of international students and their environments will heavily influence how they perceive and navigate politics, especially as someone who does not have the right to vote and is often viewed as a temporary guest in the country. In this presentation, we will explore the political behaviors and experiences of 2 international students since 2020, and if they have changed over the years. Resources and suggestions for advisors on how to support international students will be provided during the presentation. |
| It’s the Connection For Me: Staying Connected in a Virtual Environment, |
Nadira Ford-Robbins, UNO Health Careers Resource Center
-University of Nebraska-Omaha |
The pivot to remote work presented challenges for many organizational structures. A hard year for all, 2020 caused us to find innovative ways to maintain connection while still providing high-quality advising. The UNO Health Careers Resource Center (HCRC) Team has been commended for its model of organizational structure and business operations. HCRC team members will share their success in maintaining connection while working in a remote environment through the lens of technology, organizational culture, safe spaces, and celebrations. By sharing tactics to maintain connections, we hope other teams can replicate these means for similar success |
| POWER PARTNERSHIPS: Joining forces to increase student success and retention |
Susan Meeske, EVP of Enrollment and Student Engagement
-Hastings College |
In the ever changing world of higher education, student success and retention is among the highest concerns of administration, faculty, and staff.More importantly however, for students and their families when deciding on their higher education investment. As an institution, we decided we wanted to do better and create new strategies to try and accomplish just that. This presentation will explore the idea of joining forces to remove silos and increase student success and retention at our institution. In this session, we will discuss how we came together across campus for one common goal… increasing student success and retention. Working with Academics, Student Engagement, Admissions, and Athletics, we developed and implemented benchmarks, predictive analytics, created an early writing evaluation program, and an early alert system to increase our student retention and success and create personalized retention plans for our students. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions on our institutional work and discuss their institutional initiatives. |
| Powerful Questions to Identify Motivation |
Taylor Lofdahl, Program Coordinator, Clifton Strengths Institute
-University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
In this session, we will introduce powerful questions and activities to discover a person's motivation. We recognize that each person approaches their academic and personal lives with a unique set of talents, and our concepts will help advisors quickly identify these talents for success. We plan to facilitate three discussion-based activities meant to bring awareness to naturally reoccurring tendencies that we may not recognize in ourselves, which can become the key to unlocking success. First, we will begin with a brainstorming activity meant to eliminate mental constraints to think more freely about a given situation. Then, we’ll move to an activity aimed at establishing the big picture view of one’s current life to set strong goals for moving forward. Finally, we will provide high-value questions that can be utilized in conversation to identify talent. We will demonstrate how our activities can be easily replicated in both virtual and in-person conversations with students and peers to enhance workplace and university experience. |
| NCPA: Innovating Forward Amidst COVID-19 |
Malika Yadgarova, Senior Assistant Director for NCPA Retention,
-University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Universities had to pivot to provide an exceptional education for the scholars due to COVID-19. This rang true not only to UNL but all around the country and the world. As the Nebraska College Preparatory Academy (NCPA), we not only had to pivot our Institute of Excellence program at UNL but also at each of the high schools we serve. As NCPA welcomed the 2020 cohort the pandemic loomed with challenges and uncertainties, there were areas for innovation and creativity. For instance, we hosted the Summer Institute, a transition program for our incoming first-year scholars to learn about UNL and its resources, and also what it takes to be successful. In this session, we will invite our Trenchard Foundation Institute of Excellence (TFIOE) Peer Leaders and lead a conversation about how TFIOE used creativity, motivation, connections, and forged onward with programing during a challenging school year. TFIOE Peer Leaders will illuminate the pragmatic and emotional challenges throughout the academic year and share their strategies of being successful in an unprecedented year. |
| Getting Unstuck: Discovering Our Unconscious Commitments to Not Change |
Heath Harding |
We are often unaware that we have commitments that are holding us back from making change. No matter how SMART our goals are or how much motivation we throw at them, we get stuck. We will go through a simple four-step process that will help you get unstuck and create the future you want for yourself. Come prepared with an important goal that you like to work on, but you are struggling to make progress. |