Leveraging Your Student Affairs and Academic Support Strengths to Build Community in Meaningful Ways Through First-Year Seminar Instruction

The first-year seminar is a high-impact practice that can be used to deepen academic engagement, student connections, collaborative learning, and critical reflection and self-discovery. Student affairs, academic support, and student success professionals bring significant strengths that can be used to create a community within these courses in meaningful ways. In this session, panelists will explore how they have intentionally leveraged their strengths to build community actors as seminar inst.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Describe how the first-year seminar impacts student success and persistence.
2. Identify at least 1 strength of their role in student affairs and academic support that can assist in intentionally building community in a first-year seminar course.
3. Articulate their role in building community with other first-year seminar instructors on their campuses with an intentional focus on building community in FYS courses.

Brett Bruner, Assistant Vice President for Student Success & Persistence

Karen McCullough, Director of Career Services

Megan Wyett Lennon, Associate Chief Student Affairs Officer

Dana Tribble, Assistant Professor of Student Affairs Administration

Jennifer Granger Sullivan, Director of Experiential Learning/Co-Director of First Year Seminar

Ben Moran, Tutoring Coordinator