The Office of Student Retention (OSR) is pleased to share that we hired our Student Success & Retention Specialist in mid-October and threw her right into the middle of our work with student journey mapping and the NACADA Conference. If you haven't already been able to connect, please welcome Neena Sabherwal back to Carlow! She previously worked with the MSW program coordinating a grant to improve placements in underserved communities. Her experience in content creation, systems implementation and optimization, and direct student experience make her an excellent fit for the Title III grant work.
She has jumped in with both feet and it feels as though she's been part of the team for much longer than a month.
Since the last newsletter, we facilitated the student journey mapping exercise focusing on the first semester of the student experience. The working group—which included staff from Enrollment Management, Student Affairs, the Hub, and the CTRL—identified student, faculty, and staff behaviors, emotions, touchpoints, and attitudes throughout the first semester. Most importantly, we identified opportunities to address certain points of confusion and gaps in the student experience. We will use these findings to guide our next wave our interventions and initiatives.
Ideally, the working group will get together again for a similar mapping journey exercise focusing on the second semester, and will dig more into experiences and concerns that may be unique to specific populations.
One specific population we are coordinating efforts for is students who have stopped-out prior to earning a degree. We have been learning more about some of the offices and individuals who have been working on this challenge, including staff from the Hub and Enrollment Management, to make sure we are effectively using the available resources to extend opportunities to these students in the most compassionate and merciful ways.
As noted in our last newsletter, 11 faculty members joined Alexis, Kate, and Neena at the NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) Conference, which met in Pittsburgh at the end of October. The team learned more about supporting adult learners in the advising process, accessing the published resources of the organization—and how to contribute our own in the future—, advising from a trauma-informed perspective, how to map the student advising experience on our own campus, and much more.
Many of the attendees are continuing to work with us in the Title III Advising & Retention Taskforce to examine the current advising experience for faculty and students, determine shared language and a set of outcomes, and build resources that will support a more consistent and effective advising experience for all. Stay tuned for updates!