Student Food Pantries on Colleges Campuses - A Potential Solution for Food Insecurity Among Our Students

Last year, I visited another university in Texas for one purpose, but I left with a completely different idea. When I visited, I was introduced to a student who wanted to start a food pantry on campus for students who experience food insecurity throughout the week.

Here are two approaches to "food pantries" on campus.

- Start a campus garden (maintained by student organizations/staff/faculty)

- Develop an in-house food pantry for students.

Montgomery Country Community College (MCCC) is developing such a program. Their Stock Up for Success Program is described here - http://ambler.patch.com/groups/schools/p/mccc-campus-pantry-takes-aim-at-student-food-insecurity

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

12th Annual Depression on College Campuses Conference - March 2014

I am always looking for great resources focused on college student wellness (including depression). Here's a great resource for higher education professions (faculty and staff) who would like to learn more about resources to help their students and research focused on college student depression.

http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201402/depression-college-campuses-fostering-student-success-mar-12

Sincerely,

J. Edwards - @drjtedwardsTSU

Linking First-Year Undergraduate Students with Relevant Campus Resources #Retention #FYS

Recently, Noel-Levitz (http://blog.noellevitz.com/) posted an article on their blog titled, "Linking College Students with Relevant Retention Resources Throughout the First Year". This article REALLY stood out to me this year because I taught one of the First-Year experience courses at my university.

I was excited about this opportunity, because I have not taught an FYS course since I worked at Sam Houston State University. I loved teaching the course there and I still stay in contact with the students.

This year, I learned A LOT about our first-year students in the academic environment. In fact, I think this was a great effort for retaining our students in their individual academic colleges (and ultimately at the university). For example, I learned that first-year students do not know how to use technology for academic reasons, but they CAN LEARN how to do so.

I established a Facebook group for the first-year student enrolled in my class. At first, the students were VERY reluctant to join the group, but as the semester persisted, the students were able to help each other answer questions related to the course (and also to study material). In addition, we had several snow days in a row this week and the students were able to post pictures and ask questions about rescheduling their examinations.

Now, back to the article...Brandi Phillips highlighted several ways to link first-year college students with relevant college resources. These include:

- use assessment data to adjust intervention and retention strategies during the first-year

- engage first-year students in career planning

- build a bridge to the second term and beyond

Read the entire article here:

http://blog.noellevitz.com/2013/11/18/linking-students-relevant-resources-year/?utm_source=Strategies11212013&utm_campaign=optin&utm_medium=email

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Neat #HigherEd Retention Idea! - TRANSformations Kick Off Event for Transfer Student Success

TRANSformations for Transfer Student Success

University: University of South Carolina - Columbia

Department - Transfer and Special Student Population Services

Each semester, the University of South Carolina - Columbia sponsors an event titled, "TRANSformations" for their incoming transfer students. During their kickoff event, the office provides the following activities for their students:

- A review of the entire semester (fall, spring)

- A "Pin It" activity for transfer students to pin the location of the university/college from which they transferred to a large map of South Carolina and the United States.

- "Transfer Student Bingo" Team Builder

-  Transfer Student Panel

-  Overview of services available for transfer students.

In the future, the university might offer a "t-shirt swap" and "transfer mentors".

Neat ideas! 

My thoughts...

This program sounds spectacular! I would probably invite the library and other academic support services to present during the event as well. In addition, if we implemented a similar academic program at our university, I would probably suggest monthly workshops for students during their transfer semester (with food of course)!

Overall, neat program!

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU