Academic Life Webinar

Good evening welcome my name is Celia Cook Huffman. I am a professor of peace and conflict studies at Juniata College. I also serve as an assistant provost and my job this evening is to talk to you about academic life at Juniata College. So I want to just first say Welcome to everyone. We have a really kind of far flung group, so we have some island people from Saint Lucia. We have some international folks coming all the way it's from Vietnam and some folks from across the US so Welcome to the web and R.

I have a presentation of slide so I'll walk through those slides with you this evening. We also have oppurtunity to fit in the chat where you can ask questions. Feel free to pop those in any at any point where monitoring them as we go so I can answer them at any point along the wave if I start to pump ahead and you want to go back to something again. Just give us a little nudge in the chat box and we will we will do that. So we want to make sure that even though it feels a little one way here in terms of how I get to talk about what's going on in June yet. We do want to make sure that we get your question.

Answered and that you don't leave with questions lingering until please. Make sure that you jump in at any point and we will look really look forward to engaging with you this evening so the agenda for our web and R.

I want to talk with you about the liberal arts at Juniata College. What that looks like broadly speaking how we envision that happening here, then I'm going to talk specifically about the curriculum itself a little bit more and give you kind of a general picture of what students and families can expect in the first both in the first year when you arrive on campus as well as what the four year curriculum looks like a Juniata. I want to talk about other bits and pieces around the academic program that I think is important, and interesting to family members as you think about how you?

Engage with how we engage with your students and how you support them as they begin their college journey and then talk about also the kinds of ways in which we will be there partners along that academic path while they're with us at shooting out of college and again questions at anytime, please, please jump in.

So I start with this quote because I think that it's really important to think about what's the purpose of beginning your academic journey with us at Juniata College and I've been saying to folks as we've been getting students ready to begin this fall that this fall will be my 30th fall semester at Juniata College. So I have been here awhile. I've primarily been on the faculty. But I've done administrative work for about the last 4 years doing that work I've had an opportunity to engage with students through.

Variety of different pieces of the campus again working primarily with academic success initiatives at the moment in our quest offices, which I'll talk about a little bit more at the end closer to the end of the web and R but I love. I love lots of things about working in Juniata College, a little lots of things about working with students. But when I think about why? What's our engagement right? What do we think about the educational journey? What does it mean to be here.

And really when we think about what we want to make sure that we're doing with students during their time with us at Juniata College is how are we preparing them for a lifelong journey of learning we know that students are going to probably have somewhere between 3:00 and 7:00 jobs in their lifetime very different. Perhaps then parents or grandparents experiences of work. We know that we're preparing them for a future of work that jobs are going to be exist that don't exist now where we can imagine some kinds of work that will be engaged in.

But some of those kinds of work that you were going to be engaged in and throughout your life don't even exist yet and So what we understand that then part of our job is to really make sure that we are preparing you to be creative. Problem solvers critical thinkers who now how to build knowledge and to use that knowledge for the kinds of challenges that are going to emerge in our world, so that you are really prepared not just for your first job or that third job at that 7th job or that 12 job wherever your lives may take you.

And I think sometimes folks will say to students well. You know wait till you get to the real World College isn't the real world, but I really want to push back on that as we welcome you to Juniata and the fallen to say for the next 4 years. This is your real world. This is your life and so.

Getting you know, getting ready for that process thinking about how do you how do you dive in? How do we make sure that on our end we're creating the space the atmosphere of the opportunities that so that you can really embrace that journey fully understand that the next 4 years. Your work really is about coming to know who you are, and who you are as a learner, discovering yourself, discovering the journey of what it means to be. You and who you want to become use. Our tagline right think about who you are.

And that really is the work that we want to do with you over the next 4 years or so while you're with us at Juniata College.

And in that framework then really guides how we think about the liberal liberal arts and what that means for us here at Juniata.

I'm I know this slide is a little packed with text and will have a variety of opportunities when folks arrive on campus to talk about our institutional learning outcomes or for us. These are really our commitment to our students. When we say we graduated June Yeti and what does that mean to us what do we promising you as students at his family members that we want our students to be able to do once they leave and when we think about the college journey.

We know that college is really doing several things right. Obviously it is helping stuns build an area of expertise in a special kind of knowledge. It's also a process of self discovery as I was just saying it's an opportunity for students to come figure out who am I. What are my strengths? What are my passions? What are the goals that will write really drive my choices in the world and it's also a chance to think about who are you going to be as a civic as a civic person who we know that throughout your life times, you will be a member of many different communities and so.

One of the things that college would is is to help students think about and help us all think about what does it mean to be engaged citizens? What are the kinds of ways in which we want to interact and help build the communities that we will be part of through our lifetime.

And so as we thought about our institutional learning outcomes, and when our commitment to our graduates. Are we really think about those all of those goals and all of the ways that we know students will grow and change during their time with us at June yeah, and so we yes. We want students to build specific and all knowledge and skills in a variety of areas. We want students to develop a sense of intellectual engagement. We want you to be critical thinkers who really can ask and answer good questions and I think again as we think about the world. That's opening up before us right? That ability to ask good questions is a skill that we really want students to be able.

To develop we understand that we live in a complex world and that while in the academic world. We sometimes divide up knowledge into little pockets that we call disciplines. The intersection of those disciplines is really important, and so thinking about what does it mean to be able to think Interdisciplinary Lee? How do we make sure that students have a capacity to talk talk across different kinds of ways of knowing and I'll talk about that a little bit more later on as well. But we want to make sure that students have an opportunity to build depth.

In an area of knowledge, but we also want to make sure that students have capacity to think and talk and work with others who have different kinds of expertise and to be able to make sure that they can partner well with them as they again build communities and develop new Dalit and engage with others in their work wives.

We want of course, students to be ethical actors and the world. We want students to grapple with what are your core values? What are the beliefs that guide you? How do they influence your choices and who you will be in how you show up in the world and then again, we know that you're going to be a member of a variety of different communities. And so we want you to think about how do you know and understand someone who is different from you? How do we know and understand people who are similar to us when we think about the kinds of relationships that we want to build again as engaged.

And community members or collaborate apartment partners and a workgroup or maybe sharing household right so how do we think about all those different kinds of communities that will be part of and who who is the self? Who's the best self that we want to live in 2 and bring to those communities and so those are the sort of really broad institutional learning outcomes that we have the commitment that we have to ask in US students to partner with us and engage in thinking about how you might ask and answer questions in all of those areas.

Those broad institutional learning institution of learning outcomes, then really help us as faculty and as an institution to think about well? What does that mean in terms of the curriculum? How does that shape specific programmes areas of study and particular classes so, so those broad learning outcomes really shaped than all the other things that we do in the academic world at Juniata so our curriculum specifically.

There's really 3 broad components to the curriculum so the 1st is the program of emphasis in this for each student at some points typically towards the end of the sophomore year. Students will declare an interest in a program of emphasis and this is the place where we want students to build depth of knowledge. When you graduate with a degree. You'll be able to say my degree is in peace and conflict studies or communication or biology or biochemistry or art and that what that means is you have a knowledge and a depth of expertise.

And skills that allow you to work and build knowledge in that particular area.

The second piece of the curriculum is the Juniata curriculum or the general education curriculum and this is a piece of the curriculum that's designed to give breath to students experience. We want to sue be able to think about engaging again in that interdisciplinary interdisciplinary ways of thinking so thinking about what are other aspects of the world that we want you to think about sometimes those are uhm courses that are well removed from your area of expertise that are going to provide you an opportunity to think and explore ideas and concepts that are very different from that.

Area of expertise, sometimes those are courses that will add a creative edge. Or maybe some interesting aspects to the depth of knowledge of the area of the Poe and then they're also courses that will help you to be really career ready that they develop the kinds of skills that we know all employers are looking for in their employees. The ability to be a great writer to have confidence in speaking in front of others to be a good listener to be able to hear? What others are thinking and saying into build collaboration out of that shared.

Communication.

We know that people need to be good problem solvers, they need to be able to work well with diverse groups. You want to be able to be critical thinkers to be able to take it to analyze information into use information and data and careful and critical ways. And again back to thinking about what does it mean to be ethnic ethnic ethically sorry ethically engaged in the work that you do so that's the Juniata curriculum really adding that that breath as well as those skills that are going to benefit you across all of your courses and areas of study.

And then electives, we want students to take courses that just are there because it's maybe an area something that you love that just interested because it's but interest? Maybe those are courses where your haven't ever. You've always wanted to try clay and to try pottery, but you've never had an opportunity or perhaps you love singing and so that's going to be something that you do, we have students who write love math and so even though they may see themselves working in a different area that that math that that using that math part of their brain is something that gives them.

A lot of joy and so those maybe courses that students take in their electives. And so again thinking about what might challenge me? What do I want to do do more of an or more know more about what kinds of things again are fun. For me or just bring me sort of a lot of joy in life. Those are the kinds of course, is that we want students to take as electives.

Really, opportunity to explore yourself and to challenge yourself in those in those courses so really basic things right 120 credits to graduate we try to make sure that POE's are somewhat small so 45 to 63 credits in a program of emphasis. That leaves students opportunity to do both general elective courses as well as elective courses and into advisor system so I'll come back and talk about that a little bit more as well. Later, but all students when they arrive on campus will be assigned an academic advisor and a mentor who will help.

Guide you through this curriculum talk again about more specifics, and what really details of the requirements look like and make sure that you are creating a path to academic success that works for you, that meets your personal and professional goals and that gets you to graduation in a timely manner.

So that's the sort of big broad strokes of the curriculum just say a couple of other things about the program of emphasis. It's one of my favorite things about Juniata College. My own work in peace and conflict. Studies really isn't into this interdisciplinary field of study and so I'm still students and families. The story that when I was in school. I went to a sister school Manchester College. I also did it sort of individualized program of study, but the kind of the level of paperwork that I had to do to be able to substitute courses was pretty phenomenal.

So one of the things I love about Juniata College is this notion this belief that we have that's really fundamental in Corda, who we are that we see our part students as a partner in the design of their educational journey. Our system is really created around the idea that students are going to be involved in making decisions about the courses that they take that they are a partner again. In designing what that journey should look like and specifically what courses it should include as well as what kinds of Co curricular opportunities internships.

Step study abroad undergraduate research one of those other kinds of learning by doing activities that students want to build into their program of emphasis.

And and again. How do we make sure that students have opportunities to really again think about and make sure that their Co creating with us as academics and as faculty mentor an mentors that curricular an academic experience that will really best meet their needs and ensure that they graduate with the knowledge and skills that you want to have when you leave us really preparing you for that next step. After College.

I know this is a really busy slide and it's.

It's probably really hard to read I I included, though, because for me, I like.

Again, this notion that that knowledge is inter inter intersects that there's not 1 right pathway for any of our students to as they come into college and so you may come in as exploratory and really not be sure, where you want to go. You may come in with a clear sense of an outcome like I really want to be in politics. I really want to be an advocate sometimes students will say as we begin this conversation. I really want to help people, but I'm not really sure what that looks like.

And so one of the ways that we try to help students ask and answer questions about what do you want your academic pathway to look like is to think about it academic areas of study in terms of clusters so if you think about yourself as someone who I'm really interested in communication. I'm interested in human development. We can help you say OK. Here's the kinds of courses that you might think about taking in the areas. The disciplines and the ways of thinking and knowing about the world that you might want to incorporate into a program of study around that.

I'm really interested in science and technology, we would say well. Think about these kinds of courses again. Maybe you really have a clear path to a specific job or kind of skill set that you want to make sure you have. But then we can say OK well. In addition, think about how these courses might enhance those skills and allow you to build depth in the area that you're interested in so the clusters are part of helping students really think about How do I make sure I take full advantage of the flexibility of the program of emphasis.

How do I make sure that I really have the resources I need to be really engaged as a student partner in that process and making decisions about what I want my program of study to look like and how do we as faculty make sure that we're giving you I'm really good guidance so that you can make make your way through the curriculum in a way that really again makes sense for you and meets those personal and professional goals.

I'll say a little bit more as well about the general education curriculum.

Because I think it's helpful again for students to have kind of a broad sense of what that looks like and we're pretty excited about the curriculum in the way that we've designed it as a faculty so all students are going to have a first year experience as you come on to campus in the fall. You will have a composition course on a foundation course that all students will take so it gives you gives us as a faculty a chance to introduce you to college life and to give everybody at kind of shared foundation for their launch into the specifics or the differences that will come as you proceed down your academic journey.

And composition we know that writing is going to be fundamental across your academic journey and across many of the courses that you take during your time with us and so that we want to again make sure that we really lay that foundation well and then will also have a second set of courses in the spring. A seminar course. Another foundation course again to continue to build those skills and make sure that we're helping you transition into college and all of the new things that that's going to bring into your life. The curriculum then really has 2 big pieces to it. So one is ways of knowing and again this is about the fact that we understand.

That.

We often divide how we create knowledge up into different disciplines and that students are going to experience an engage with those different ways of knowing as they work on their program of emphasis and in particular.

What we want to do with this curriculum is make sure that students again have facility and ability to think across those different ways of knowing even if it's not your area of specialization in a complex and interconnected world. We want you to be able to understand what does it mean to grapple with the problem from a political science view or a psychology view? How is that same problem looked at differently. If we start from looking at it from a perspective from a biologist how might a physicist right even different from a biologist in terms of how they might ask.

Answer questions about a particular problem, so those ways of knowing courses are going to introduce students to how different ways of approaching knowledge building help us to see and understand problems in different ways give us ability to really look at and deal with complex problems and again build our ability as individuals to work across those different disciplines and engage with one another as we as we emerge into our work world lives.

The second big piece of the curriculum again is about self in the world knowing as I said, before that, you're going to be members of different communities throughout their life. We want you to think about what it means to be who you want to be in those communities. We want you understand what it means to engage with diverse communities. I might want to explore different communities in come to know them in different kinds of ways, so again. We have a set up courses that ask you to think about yourself in the world and to engage with and learn about other communities. Perhaps the ones that you grew up in those courses are enhanced by our connection courses, which are interdisciplinary team top courses, which again.

Really ask students to engage very directly in those interdisciplinary kinds of conversations and ways of thinking about the world and then of course, our Co curricular experiences, which I'll talk about again a bit more about in the next slide. But how do we give students opportunities to learn by doing? Which again is really central unimportant to who. We are as Judy audience and how we think about and making sure that that students are well educated. When they leave us and that all ties together in the capstone experience and capstones are integrated into students programs of emphasis.

They may look different depending on what area of study. You you land in and complete your degree in for some students they might look like student teaching.

And for some students that might be an internship for other programs that might be a course that since that offer students opportunity to synthesize experiences. It might be an honors research project, so a variety of different ways in which students will then be able to in that senior year think about all of their educational pieces of their educational journey and tie them together in that capstone experience.

One of the things I think we do extraordinarily well at Juniata College is experiential learning. We have been doing study abroad for incredibly long time, we have deep partnerships in.

With educational institutions around the world deep number of our students will study abroad for a semester or for a year. We also have short term study abroad programs that students can engage in. We do community engaged learning so students will have opportunities to do service and the community. They might have opportunity to build community partnerships. So we have a course that's called I for I sometimes forget the name of it. So it's a program. It's a course where students innovations for industry. Thank you. I fry, but it's a course where students will partner with a local business that has a need around.

Data and technology often maybe they need web page is updated. Maybe they need help with their social media and students will help build identified that project and develop the project or the product for them as part of that course already talked a little bit about the capstone, but again, it's a place where students often have opportunities to engage in that learning by doing process by going into building knowledge through research doing research, perhaps with a faculty member.

In the lab it may be an opportunity to present that research at a conference or again. We have students who will publish that research with their faculty member in journals or other kinds of publications by the time they graduate internship students do internships all across their time at Juniata College. They from the time that they first arrive on campus. They might be doing an internship on campus internships in the local community. We have students who will do internships in their home communities as well as we have students will do international internships.

Those internships provide a lot of different kinds of opportunities again for students to take what they're learning in the classroom to apply that knowledge to practice using that knowledge to then say well? How do I refine that knowledge or what do I know differently because I've had an opportunity to use it and then they bring those experiences back to the classroom as well.

So one of the stories. I love to talk about is a student of ours.

From Rwanda, she came to us just graduated so she's been with us. The last 4 years and she I think is a great example of how students make their way through different aspects of our Co curricular and bring them together as part of their educational journey, so she came to us from Rwanda Wanda 25 years ago, had one of the most devastating genocides on the planet and our student at the time was 2 years old.

So she came to Juniata study after her first year, she went back home and did an internship with an organization that worked with Windows women who are widowed families were killed during the genocide.

That really again was very I think interesting and challenging and dynamic for her in part because she really learned about the genocide from a historical perspective from a political perspective and an added to her understanding of it, which up until that point had really been through her own personal lived experience really important way to know it. But this really contributed to different ways of knowing and understanding what happened in the genocide her second summer internship, she did in Israel.

Because she wanted to understand how other communities who lived through and suffered through a genocide had dealt with the consequences of that? What did reconciliation and healing look like? What kinds of what were the ways that other communities had learned to do or concealing reconciliation and healing trauma recovery work, she took that knowledge back to Rwanda after her junior year so her 3rd summer.

Went back to the same internship site and this time, she created a workshop for the women that she had met on that first internship journey and was a workshop that was designed to help them with trauma recovery healing.

Reconciliation and forgiveness, it had a variety of different components built into it. Some of it was around economic development as well as knowledge about how to do kind of healing work and forgiveness? What those terms mean how you might explore them into the woman could explore them in terms of their own experiences. She also collected data about. That process at about reconciliation looked like for those women in particular. In the context of Rwanda. She brought that data back and it was part of her senior capstone project was too.

Look at that data combine it with the literature on reconciliation and what we know about reconciliation look like and then to present that data at our public presentation. Dayton wants us. Lots of students on campus are liberal arts and symposium and lots of students on campus present their research and it was. She did it. She did a beautiful job. But she also contributed new knowledge to the field. She gave us an understanding about reconciliation that doesn't show up in the literature and hadn't shown up in the literature before she did her work and her research with those women.

In Rwanda, so very powerful. I think example of how the different kinds of experiential learning can leave together in a journey.

It wasn't something that she planned before she came as she took classes and thought about what she became interested in. She really focused on questions around reconciliation. She used that to weave the pathway from her classes to these experiential learning opportunities and then back to the classroom and then back to the world of that. She was interested in and the questions that she was interested in to really ask great questions and build new knowledge with us as part of that journey so again. I tell her story in part to help students and families think about you don't have to know where you want to go with this journey, but to know that those opportunities are.

Out there and can be an amazing part of the educational experience that you will have while you're with this at Juniata.

I want to say just a couple of things about the faculty and then I'm going to sort of transition a little bit into thinking not just about the curriculum, but what is the overall when you think about your academic experience in your academic life at Juniata? What are some of the things that you might expect to experience and how again? How do we think about making sure that we're here as your partners in that journey and helping you navigate not just what happens in the classroom. But all over the ways in which we hope and want you to be academically successful.

Our faculty.

Are really interested in the whole student so we understand that? We have diverse learners that not all students learn the same. That part of what we do well as an institution because we're small because we get to know one another because we have opportunities to engage with our students inside the classroom and outside the classroom that that really gives us the ability to know our students to make sure that we're designing learning experiences, which are inclusive a variety of different kinds of diverse learners.

We are faculty will have very high expectations of who you are as a learner and what we expect you to do in the classroom. But we were also there to provide the advising and mentoring to make sure that you are then successful as students on that journey. We're not going to sort of push you off the Cliff or into the deep end, without support structures and networks in place to make sure that you can be successful in that process.

You can also expect that your faculty will be interested in students well being and so we are a community that again gets to know each it gets to know one another were faculty will know your name and so we want to make sure that students. I say this knowing that sometimes it's not what happens right. But we want students to get enough sleep. I'm going to eat. But we want to make sure that you're taking breaks and getting exercise that again. We know that we're educating the whole person and that well being is a fundamental aspect of being academically, successful so as a community. We know that we're designing and creating successful.

Learning environments and that includes what we do in the classroom. Those opportunities we create. We have for learning outside the classroom, but also those unstructured opportunities that students have where learning is often taking place in dormitories in late night conversations on long walks in the Woods. Or maybe why your kayaking down the River that those are also a piece of the learning experience that we really value and may want to make sure that students take full advantage of while there with us here at Juniata.

I love working in a college environment because I think that this sort of time of life for students as you arrive on campuses is exciting. It is developmentally probably one of the most. I think bias like gas right. But one of the most interesting times of life for who we are as humans that it is an opportunity when really momentous changes happen right. You're moving from being somewhat dependent to being more independent you're thinking about who you have been and how your shaped by that communities in which you've been raised.

Really also grappling with who do I want to be and How do I take responsibility? How to become a self advocate? How do I decide to make decisions for myself about who I want to be and become in the world.

Those are exciting and amazing and interesting journeys, they can also be a little anxiety, producing sometimes they can be a little terrifying and we understand that right that those transitions come with all kinds of thoughts and feelings and so we want to make sure that as we think about academic success. We are also helping students navigate these many kinds of transitions that they will be engaged in this part of their just life as college students at Juniata College and that knowing that traversing those transitions.

Successfully is important if students are going to be academically successful so we want to help students explore their curiosity.

I'm going to help students navigate how they build relationships and friendships. We want to help students think about what does it mean to grow intellectually and really talk about this? A little bit in the next slide as well, but really use that muscle that is your brain and challenge it to grow and we really want to help students think about purpose invocation? What's the why that drives you as you make choices about how you're going to spend your time? What classes you're going to take what other experiences. You want to engage in while you were at Juniata.

And one of the ways sorry we capture this and really think about it is.

I gotta make tenacity, so this for us is a really kind of big framework that helps us to think about what does it mean for students to be academically successful and here's what we know from the research that for students to be academically successful, it's really helpful. If they have a growth mindset if US students understand that effort is part of what matters your ability to master material or to be successful in gaining new knowledge is about efforts and work and that your brain like any other muscle grows with challenging.

Efforts are part of what we're going to encourage you to do while you're a junior colleges to challenger rain to do things that are hard because that is what enhances your intellectual capacity in their intellectual abilities and we all have the ability to grow that muscle that is our brain.

We know that academic success is tide to you, becoming a Junie Addie and you need to make this place your home, we want you to make this place your home again. One of my favorite things about welcoming welcoming you to campus is knowing that we're not going to be the same after you leave us and that's amazing right you will change as you will make us better. We want you to change us and make this better and so we want you to become really this we want this for this to be a sense of home for you in a space in a place that you make your own.

It's also OK to know that that's going to take some time right and sometimes it can be a bumpy road. We will help you think about that. And when it feels like family folks from home will help you think about that and what those transitions and navigating those experiences looks like it's OK. It's OK if it takes a little bit of time. We also wanted to be successful for you and then having success is also about knowing that all of us are going to hit hit moments of bumps or challenges as we as we become as we delve into new knowledge and new areas.

As we grapple with concepts and ideas and knowledge that we have not come into contact with before and so part of being academic successful is knowing how to ask for help. It's knowing that there are lots of resources out here that will are ready to be your partner in that an academic journey. It's about being able to pivot and say, Oh, I've had. This study strategy that worked really well and now ascendance not serving me well. That's OK. We all hit that moment when what we need is a new adaptive strategy.

I am and again, I'm talk a little bit more admitted about the kinds of resources that we have available to make sure that we're helping you navigate those transitions and not just to say, Oh, I hit a bump. It does, that pay well. Where's the challenge? What is what we're for you in this particular moment? Can we offer some different kinds of resources or a different way of thinking or.

Engaging with your work so that you can be successful. How can we give you some new skills and tools that will allow you then to be successful with whatever it is that you're grappling with in that particular moment, so again knowing that it's important to think about. I am going to hit challenges. That's going to be OK being able to be flexible and to adapt those new strategies as part of what it means to be academically successful as you again as you navigate this journey.

Partners in the journey quest question understand Explorer, sweet seek transform. We are an integrated academic success initiative on campus. We do have a right. We provide a variety of services and partnering for students. Some of that is academic coaching again, helping you think about and identify where you are on your academic journey. What your next steps might look like Accessibility, and accommodations happens through our office is a quest. We work with career development and career exploration. Whether that's what are my strengths? What are my interests or Hey? I'm ready to work on my resume or my cover letter so I?

All throughout students academic journey work on those kind of career readiness and career development questions. We do, we run the tutoring through our office so if you want to be a tutor or if at some point you need tutoring with the class. You tutoring is free. You have access all students have access to that on campus and so we can help you find a tutor?

And we run a lot of different kinds of varieties of workshops on learning strategies and study skills. One of the things we like to say about questions that were there for when you have a challenge or when you're ready to identify your next challenge. So will also connect you to intern ships. We can connect you and help you think about it next Explorer. Those experiential learning opportunities and really help you think about again when you're ready for that next challenge. What might that look like and how can we help connect you to the resources that will let you add that piece to your academic journey?

I always give a pitch for our librarians are librarians are fabulous resources again. We hope that you engage with them and spend a lot of time in the library working on a project writing a paper finding resources. Sometimes the hardest part is getting started on a project is to figure out what's the right question that I need to ask so that I can find the resource that need librarians are fantastic people to help you narrow down that question. Maybe you have it narrowed down and you're having trouble finding the right resources ask your ask your librarian.

Maybe you're trying to assess which other the most reliable or appropriate resources for the project. You're working on again librarians are fabulous resource so they are there and ready and fabulous partners as part of your academic journey journey to help ensure your academic success.

I talked earlier about 2:00 advisors that every student will have an academic advisor academic advisors will help students identify their academic pathway? What are their career goals ensuring that they take the right classes and that they again construct a clear academic pathway that allows them to graduate in a timely manner and then then that their meeting. All the graduation requirements of Juniata College. Mentors are really support persons who will help students again think more deeply about sort of the big picture questions. But what are my passions? What motivates me? What do I care about how might those things guide different kinds of choices that I make it college?

They can help students explore the different kinds of opportunities that might enhance what's happening in the classroom and again really help students think about what does it mean to be a self advocate and How do I develop my self advocacy and skills as part of my academic journey?

Uhm I don't know, do we have people popping up with questions sorry?

Damn, it.

To see if we have any.

Feel like I'm talking a lot, alright so.

So we don't have any questions, yet so I'm sort of getting to the end of my talk and I feel like I've been talking for a very long time, so again. I want to make sure the time that you have opportunity to ask questions and then we get those answered while we have opportunity to be together, so again please. Feel free to fill those into the chat at any point and will check them to make sure that they are there just a few more kinds of specifics. I think sometimes for family members this is particularly helpful.

And again for student still have this as part of your orientation when you arrive on campus in the fall as students. Get ready to register for classes. We will help them make sure that they have a variety of courses in that first semester as they get started so students will have some programs of emphasis or Poe courses as I said, before they'll have the composition and Foundation. Of course to get them started in general education and then they have an opportunity to take a juice. Some elective so 12 credits minimally right particular for students who might be athletes. We want to make sure that they have 12.

But it's for the semester students often take take between sort of 12 and 16 credits at for semester and we try to not we heard students not to do more than that just to make sure that you get a solid foundation.

But that were also saving time for those other opportunities that we want you to engage in that you're making friends that you're joining clubs that you're having opportunities to do self care and making sure that your again getting enough sleep or eating well, taking having time for long walks and enjoying the beautiful part of the country that we will be in his fall hits us this as you arrive on campus.

So that's that would be really the those initial.

Parts of orientation to make sure we get students registered for courses in the fall right. I'm going to go to classes so I can read questions.

So Advisors and so we have a question how can I can, we talk a little bit more about how advisors and mentors are assigned so I will go back to that slide so typically the academic advisor is someone who is in the students indicated area of interest. So if it's a student has said Oh. Here's my program of emphasis. This is what I'm interested in will assign an academic advisor in that area if you are exploratory.

I'm real excited assign you an advisor to work with you as an exploratory student so it. You don't again students don't have to have had that made that make that decision before they arrive on campus and then mentors are usually someone who's a bit while removed so if you have a faculty member in a science area will probably give you a mentor in a different area, or vice versa, so that we're making sure that we're giving you meet people from different parts of campus. You might have different areas of expertise and different interests that you can connect with and that they can help you think.

You can use right to help you think about the ways in which you might engage with the genetic community.

Great question.

I'll get back to my other sides, but again, please. Please jump in for family members. We know we have some family members on the chat with a sore on the web and are with us tonight and we want to make sure that family members again have an opportunity to think about the transitions that are happening for you as well.

As we have a daughter, who's on campus will be a sophomore, so I haven't had to do all of these transitions because she's so close, but thinking about how to how do we as families let go? How do we encourage independence and self advocacy in our students in our young people? How do we help them step into the challenge that they have decided to engage with us. They join us at Juniata College so again the family members are really fundamental component in terms of helping students explore? What is that they hope to do at Juniata College both in terms of their social?

Lives and who they want to be here as citizens. Members of the genetic community. If you will, but also what are those academic and professional goals but they might have?

You know ask them questions about academic life and social transitions help them back to that academic and tenacity. Where are they struggling? What are they excited about things that are that are most fun for them other things that are worrying them right encourage them to be in conversation with you about them, encourage them to be in conversations with their academic advisors and mentors about those things as well right so that we are engaging students in lots of space is about those kinds of transitions and what they're working on as they begin to make their own decisions.

Uhm I think college for us as as an institution right is a place for students to have and celebrate successes. It's also an opportunity to make mistakes. We know that sometimes the best learning comes when it goes wrong right goes all wrong and sometimes really we learn the most from those moments and so part of college life as we think about our classrooms in our academic experiences is giving students space to make those mistakes and to fail safely with community who's going to ask them to think about what do we learn from that? What do we know about what we might do differently?

Next time or what's what in that mistake was revealing about whatever concept or idea. We might be thinking about talking about so knowing that mistakes are great and they're fine and it's part of what we do together as a community and that what we want to do is help students to develop some resilience in some tenacity about how they deal with those challenges as they again grow personally and professionally as they move down that academic journey.

Um couple other pieces. I think for parents so we have the family educational rights and Privacy Act right so it's a federal law that purp that protects students in the privacy of student educational records. So things like grades are students. Private records and so we don't share those openly with families. We encourage you to ask your students about their grades and how things are going if if you have questions if you have concerns. If you're worried about how your student might be doing you can reach out to us and quest and we can.

Being conversations were not trying to say to families. You can't be in conversation with us about those things faculty members are not going to give you their students grades your students can give you those but we in quest for going to partner with your students were also I'm going to partner with families to make sure that we're helping engage you questions that you may have or if you have questions or concerns about how your student is doing the Dean of students office is also a great resource of making sure that you are part of those conversations as you need to be as family members.

One of the things we really try to pay attention to over the course of your students journey is what is are they doing in terms of academic progress so we not we don't just look at their grades and their GPA we check on them, each semester. We talked we actually check on them early in a semester as well as at mid term in a semester to make sure that they're doing well in their courses. And if they're having challenges if they haven't reached out to us. We will reach out to them to check on them again. This is a lot of information, but we also want to make sure that.

That families and students are aware right so 2.0 to graduate to make sure that we're keeping students on time to graduate. We're going to try to encourage students to complete at least 24 credits a semester. Some semesters will be more than that to make sure that they graduated in 4 years again academic advisors and mentors or will be helping to make sure that we're keeping track of these kinds of numbers so that we make sure that your student is progressing Indiana.

Timely manner through through their academic journey at Juniata College. Grades are issued at the end of each semester. They will have students have grades throughout a course. Sometimes that can vary a lot and we know that this is really different than High School, where students are often getting grades every week and sometimes they were posted in a place where students could check them every week, so that's really can be very different than the college experience where you just get a great at the end of the semester.

When things will help students do is to read a syllabus.

So every course will have a syllabus, but will help students read that so they kind of understood they can understand what are the expectations of a particular course?

What kinds of assignments are required? How will those assignments be waited and how will that impact their grade? How did they set up a schedule so that they make sure they're getting assignments turned in on time we help them navigate all the again. All of those pieces so that we make sure that they are being have the tools and the resources ready that they need to succeed in those classes each semester.

Uhm I think I already talked about this actually right that it's OK to make mistakes.

I think one of the things we've talked about throughout orientations with families and students as they come to campus is what does it mean to ask for help? I think for some students that's really easy for some students that's not easy. It can be really challenging one of the questions. I often invite students to think about is who's your team right. So who's your team. It hit home who's your support network? How many how much of that team or how many members of that team will be continued to be available for you, while you're at college you're going to develop a new team.

While you're at college so thinking about you know who is it easy for you to ask for help from who is it challenging for you to ask for help from how can we make sure that as a community we're developing a team that will help you manage and navigate those stressful moments think about competing priorities.

Um navigating challenges with roommates as they may arrive arise occasionally again. Lots of choices are going to face students as they come to campus so how do you navigate those and make good decisions for yourselves at students and that might be faculty members again your advisors it might be peers. You will have if you're doing inbound. We hope everyone is doing inbound so you'll have an inbound leader and you'll have some folks from the community that you meet during that process. Those folks may become members of your team, so again. We really want to help families and students really think about.

Creating that network and building that network as you arrive on campus and then again throughout your time at Juniata and I'm just looking to see encourage people to ask questions if you have them.

You can put them in the questions section or in the chat section.

Just the last couple of slides as you think about getting ready in arriving on campus. A list of things that you want to make sure that you are prepared prepared with so making sure that you have the textbooks and materials that you need for each class.

That you've looked at the syllabus.

So you know when classes meeting and where their meeting thinking about study time so again will help we have one of these will work with students on is creating a schedule and making sure that they're building in the study time that they need.

So that they are managing their time wisely. I often encourage students in the in the world of technology that academic institutions. Maybe we're a little behind and so we still use email to communicate with students. So we're going to encourage students to check their email regularly regularly that's how faculty will often communicate with students and so to make sure that they're not missing out on updates or changes that might happen in this semester. All faculty will have posted office hours. Those are times that they were in their office with their doors.

Open welcome students to come so we encourage students to visit instructors. During their office hours and get to know them. In that way. Ask questions as a faculty member. Most important thing I think that's helpful for me is for students to ask questions. Sometimes we forget what other folks don't know when I've been teaching a subject for 30 years. I forget sometimes what it feels like when you're the new person in that conversation so asking questions is really critical.

In terms of helping us as faculty make sure that we're getting you. The information and the resources that you need. We look forward to engaging with you to meeting you and getting to know you is a new person in our community. We hope that you're excited about all the new people and experiences that you're going to make the new friends that you're going to make as well.

And we will just a quick note in the end. I think for families. We do try to post the final exam schedule within the first couple of weeks of the semester, so that for folks who are coming from far away if you need to make travel arrangements for holidays or breaks to get back home. Students will have those dates and they can make sure that they are booking. Those those trips for after final exams are finished and they really completely done with the semester.

Again, just a quick note to families if you are worried. Please call the Dean of students office requests. You can help follow up with any concerns or questions. You have about your student again.

We know that we're partnering with you as well as the student in terms of their academic success journey again. We just we look forward to meeting you and being in conversation, and partnering with you as as we welcome your student to our community, so again. I'm going to stop there in terms of the formal part of the or the more formal part of the presentation and see if other folks if there are questions I can answer.

So one of the questions is how does the class selection process work so you can go on to the website and you'll have Jenny at emails already right so you could look at the class schedule so there's like if you have really specific questions. I'm happy if you want to email me or we can Skype individually with students to kind of walk you through this. But there's a schedule that lists all the classes that are available in the fall semester when you arrive on campus for orientation. You'll have an opportunity to work with your orientation leader to talk about what am I interested in.

What are my academic goals? Do I have career goals and what kind of course is my take at the beginning of my academic life at Juniata College that student orientation leader will help students come up with a broad selections. Of course, a selection of courses and then on the following morning. I think this is true for the last orientation as well. You'll meet with a faculty advisor who will again talk with you about your specific goals are what courses makes sense for you to take in that for semester and will get you registered for those those courses, so that you have an opportunity to look at those courses really broadly and talk with some peers about what those.

Options look like and then meet with a faculty advisor who will help you choose specific courses.

So another question about a student who is really successful in high school and and parents wondering about what's that transition look like if you haven't been a good study. I shouldn't say it that way study strategies often look different in college right and so maybe maybe in college. You didn't have to study or sorry in high school. You didn't have to study very much again. Maybe this study strategies that you use in high school you get into a class and you're like wow. This isn't working, the way that it has historically.

For me.

So questions about right? How do we help? How do we help students navigate those transitions. So there's a variety of different options on campus that students can take advantage of many courses or some courses on campus will have study sessions or group, tutoring sessions or group study skills sessions right that are available. So all students could take advantage of those so you can drop into those study sessions and interact with peers to talk with them about well. What study strategies do they use perhaps there's a peer mentor or teaching assistant a student who's already taken the class?

And been successful who can offer tips and strategies about how to study best for that particular course or manage the materials in a particular course.

As I said faculty all have office hours and so again faculty love when students come to office hours and they are a great resource for helping students with tips and strategies about how to study for their course or how it feeds more practice materials. They can give you those kinds of things you can get a tutor if you think you need some specific 1 on one time you can ask for a tutor for a specific course quest offers study strategies. We have a course called pathways to success that a student can enroll in that engages them in a conversation about all kinds of study strategies.

For note taking to studying for tests to how to read a text in college, which can be really again. Different maybe from a high school experience so you can enroll in the course or you can visit question will connect you with an academic coat who again will help you think about well kind of where are sticking points or finding that talent and help you develop some strategies and skills to navigate it?

So lots of ways in which we can help students navigate those transitions from how they studied and worked in high school to what that might look like in college.

Other questions out there.

That I can answer.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us if there are any other questions again, silly to Kaufman. If you have follow-up questions. You can Google me on the website and find my email and my phone number, I'm happy.

To be in conversation, if that's helpful or if you think of a question tomorrow and you want to follow up send me a quick email and I'm happy to continue to be in conversation. I really look forward to meeting you all as you come to campus in August. I think I said, this earlier, but it's a powerful moment for us as we welcome a new class to Juniata. We know that you were going to make us a different place in a better place. And so we're really excited to meet you to engage with you to become to welcome you to be Juliet in.

Juniata ends with us on campus.