The Convocation Ceremony Marks the End of Transition Week and the Beginning of Fall Classes!

Tonight was our final night of Transition Week and the night before our first day of class. This is always a magical experience for me because this event includes all of the FITC (first-time in college) freshmen at our university at one time in one place.

*I will blog about the Transition Week experience soon! Look forward to some great pictures!

This year, the event included speeches from the President, the Provost, and the VP for Student Services. EVERYONE (all faculty and staff attendees) is in their graduation regalia and all of the students have matching shirts. Truly an amazing ceremony.

I always anticipate the President and the Provost's speeches, because the speeches remind me of the actual graduation experience that many of these FTIC attendees will experience in four years.

The Provost always assigns the students their first homework task in our Academic Success Rally. This task requires the students to write five goals that they would like to achieve within the next four years. Then, the students are required to send an e-mail to the Provost. She categorizes the responses and highlights certain responses for all of the students to hear. The students' responses are never the same and I always sit in the ceremony in anticipation of her speech.

After the speeches are delivered, the students and other attendees always watch a sentimental video about the freshmen experience and the subsequent experiences the students will have until their senior year.

Then, the students walk in silence to the next aspect of the event, the candle lighting! Each student receives a candle (along with an explanation of the tradition) and then all attendees participate in a group photo for the incoming class that features their lit candles.

I am definitely fortunate to be part of the students's lives this year.

Sincerely - @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