jazz up your orientation: two innovative approaches to

Jazz Up Your Orientation: Two Innovative Approaches to Graduate Student

Orientation

Presented by:James Black, Special Projects Coordinator, Georgia Institute of Technology

Lizzie Kerrick, Graduate Recruiter, Marquette UniversityMary Wacker, Graduate Recruiter, Marquette University

Goals and Learning Outcomes

Learn two approaches to innovative your orientation practices

Part I: Part II:

Marquette’s Fall Graduate Student

Orientation Makeover

Georgia Tech’s ExtendedOrientation Programing Groups

Goals and Learning Outcomes

Identify strengths and weaknesses in your current orientation

programming – from the student point of view

Identify creative and affordable strategies

to enhance student satisfactionand reduce student stress

PART I: FROM DRAB TO FABAN ORIENTATION MAKEOVER STORY

Marquette University Graduate School

Marquette University

� Catholic, Jesuit University

� Urban campus environment – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

� Total enrollment of 11,500

� 3200 of those are graduate and professional students

� 70 different graduate level programs

� Almost exclusively on-campus programs

� Centralized Graduate School – mostly

Why Change Now?

� January 2016 – New Graduate Dean

� Spring 2016 – Graduate Student Satisfaction Survey

� Summer 2016 - Reorganization of the Graduate School Staff

� Fall 2016 – Began to assess existing practices

And . . .

� September 2016 – launched new CRM (Slate)

The Three-Step Makeover

� BEFORE: Orientation 2016

� Makeover step 1:

� Define purpose and goals


� Identify strengths and weaknesses


� Innovate

� AFTER: Orientation 2017

� Final thoughts and takeaways

The before picture: Fall Graduate Orientation 2016

� Evening event – 4:15-7:30

� Seven speakers! 90 minutes! 123 slides! No breaks!

� Located in 1000-seat Varsity Theater

� Planned and executed by Director of Graduate School Business Services

The before picture: Orientation 2016

� Post-program survey comments.

Thought the presentation was a little long.

Some of the talks were boring or self explanatory (i.e., going through websites).

Quite long for the amount

of info.

Overall useful and

informative.

A bit of these things

were already

covered via email,

in tutorials, or are

easily accessible

online.

Everything was cool but a more

interaction between students

would have been better.

The orientation

and the talk was

very useful.

I liked the free

swag! The

refreshments were

delicious!

Makeover stage 1: Defining purpose and goals

What is the purpose of Orientation?

What are our goals?

Makeover stage 2: Identifying strengths and weaknesses

What worked?

What didn’t work?

Makeover stage 3: Innovate

Think Like the Audience

�The Right Place

�The Right Time

�The Right Stuff

The makeover: Fall Graduate Orientation 2017

� More defined timeline

� More intimate venue

� Seven better speakers! 60 minutes! Half the slides!

� More relevant content, condensed

� Meet Milwaukee

� Trivia Transitions

� Involved less staff

� GSO After Party

The after picture: Orientation 2017

� Post-program survey comments.

I thought it was great. Very well organized, succinct, and good information.

Definitely keep the prizes in

between each speaker. It

broke things up and added

some fun.

I wish I had arrived earlier to

actually speak with each of the

resource tables. 30 minutes

was not enough time mostly

because I got caught in a

conversation with another

graduate student.

Keep it efficient

and effective

Over-all, very

enjoyable!

I had a lot of fun

at orientation!

Helpful and fun

Thank you for such a wonderful

event! Orientations could be dull

and drawn out, but you succeeded

in making it succinct and enjoyable!

Final thoughts and takeaways

� Find Pathways to YES!

� “We’ve always done it this way” is not a reason

� Persist and conquer challenges

� Maximize your resources

� Collaborate

� Delegate

� Free and cheap stuff is great!

� Document your Process

� Build on success

� Share ideas

PART II: EXTEND YOUR ORIENTATION

Georgia Tech’s Grad Groups Program

Georgia Tech’s Graduate Education Landscape

� 7,000 on-campus graduate students (1/3 of total on-campus student population)

� 42% of graduate students are international students

� STEM/Computing-dominated with small liberal arts programs

� Decentralized graduate program administrative structure

� Vice-Provost for Graduate Education, but no Graduate School or College

� Office of Graduate Studies: recent growth to include more student support services

Graduate Orientation Structure at Georgia Tech

� Decentralized, distributed orientation structure

� Program-level

� Institute-level � Office of Graduate Studies

� Limited time, one-hour sessions

� Institute welcome, overview of Tech’s administrative structure

� Welcome from graduate student leadership

� Important policies (registration, assistantship requirements, mutual expectations)

� Program support staff

� Campus resources

Challenges and Sources of Stress

� Finding an advisor �Advisor-advisee relationship

� Acclimating to Atlanta (and to the US – 42% international students)

� Language and cultural differences

� Getting connected socially

� Awareness of campus resources for graduate students

� Academic rigor � Imposter Syndrome

� Housing �Affordability vs. Safety

� Finances

Challenges and Sources of Stress

� Graduate Student Experience Survey (Spring 2016) – Stress Data

� “Some of the best advice I ever received came from older graduate students.”

Grad Groups: The Why

� How can we better connect graduate students socially outside of their programs/research labs?

� How can we expose students to campus resources that they aren’t always aware of?

� How can we tap into the extensive experience of our more-seasoned graduate students?

Grad Groups:Georgia Tech’s small-group, peer-led, extended-orientation program

Grad Groups: Program Structure

� Small groups: around 15-16 first-semester graduate students led by an older graduate student “Group Leader”

� Fall 2017: 16 groups � Program Capacity: 250 students

� Summer training meetings:

� Program structure and logistics

� Campus Resources

� Building community within the group

Grad Groups: Program Structure

� Groups meet every-other week for an hour

� Meeting times aligned with campus class schedule

� Bookended with program-wide meetings/activities

� 15-20 minute interactive activity on a campus resource (led by a campus partner)

� 40-45 minutes of informal group time (led by Group Leader)

Grad Groups: Campus Partners

� Center for Career Discovery and Development

� Center for Teaching and Learning

� Counseling Center

� Student Center

� Library

� Communication Center

� Graduate Student Ombuds and Conflict Resolution

� Leadership Education and Development

� VentureLab (commercialization/entrepreneurship)

Grad Groups: Keys to Success

� Make it as easy as possible to be a Group Leader

� Program logistics handled by coordinator (space, scheduling speakers, registration)

� $500 stipend (estimated 30 hours total time commitment)

� Qualities of Group Leaders

� Diversity

� Empathy for the struggles of new graduate students (personal struggles, awareness of new-student challenges, approach of servant leadership and “giving back”)

� Campus connections and experience with group facilitation

Grad Groups: Keys to Success

� Build community early to combat attrition

� Program Kickoff: Bowling Night at Tech Rec

� Georgia Tech traditions

� Social outings

Grad Groups: The Benefits

� For students:

� Social connections

� Awareness of campus resources

� Smooth acclimation to campus

� Improves student experience

� For campus partners:

� Opportunity to interface with the elusive graduate student

� Increased awareness and utilization of resources they provide

� Graduate student feedback

Questions?

Keep in Touch! Tell us your Success Stories!

James [email protected]

Lizzie [email protected]

Mary [email protected]

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