The Supporting Student Success research team began this blog 10 years ago!! This milestone provides a great opportunity to reflect on what the team and the research project has achieved but also to look forward to what this blog could do.
I have long thought that this blog could be a place where student affairs and services practitioners globally share the tremendous work they do to support students in realizing their academic and personal goals. Some of the greatest moments in publishing have been we’ve gone “live” on story about supporting the mental health needs of racialized and minoritized postsecondary students in Canada, promoting postsecondary education to secondary students in rural Australia, or sharing about a one-stop-shop that meets student needs in Mexico.
It’s what the blog has become, albeit intermittently. We only publish when we have posts to share. Which raises the question, should it be what we do in the future? Are there other new things we should try? We want to hear from you.
Please take a moment to leave a comment or reply. If you have something you would like to write about specifically, please share your idea on this short Googleform.
I can’t stress it enough; we really want to hear from you.
Until we have a schedule for upcoming posts, I’d like to share a piece I wrote recently for the Success Prints blog. In the spirit of this post’s title, I went to mountain biking camp this summer where I tried all sorts of new things.
While I was there, I realized one of the most powerful learning experiences I could have was being a student again. My bike was my teacher. My coaches and the others in our group were good company along the way. If you’ve ever wondered the connections between being an adult at summer camp and being a first-year college/university student, I invite you to check out the blog post here.
Tricia Seifert is a student success innovator, researcher, writer, and speaker. She is Principal Investigator on the Supporting Student Success project and curates this blog. She is on the Adult & Higher Education faculty at Montana State University and collaborates with students and colleagues in Canada and around the world on student success initiatives, including using games and play to promote student learning and development.
The old adage goes, April showers bring May flowers. Spring brings thoughts of renewal in so many ways. As academics, May typically signals the end of an academic year. As learners there is new hope in credentials earned and a future to pursue. As I reflect on my time wearing both of these hats, I recognize the strength of my conviction, the hope I have stems not only from my why, which I share below, but also from the community I surround myself with — virtually or physically. As you enter the next season, take time to connect with your network, renew the relationships that may have taken a hit because you didn’t have the same shared experience of a pilgrimage to your favorite conference to connect around. Schedule the virtual coffee or happy hour, participate in the Twitter chat, rediscover the power of a hand written note. As you think about those inciting incidents that drew you to higher education, take time to connect with those who have been by your side on your journey.
Below is an article originally shared in EdSurge, a higher education news publication, which shares a bit of my story — it reveals the core of my why for pursuing and persisting through higher education. The call to action is simple, yet deeply reflective; think about why it is you do what you do. Why do you persist when the road gets rocky? I welcome your feedback and look forward to seeing your whys on twitter with #MyWhyEdu.
Higher education is heading into the eye of the tornado. Many of us are planning for academic continuity while the debris of the COVID-19 pandemic is swirling around us. There are regulatory matters to consider. The health and safety of our colleagues and our students to put at the forefront. A long-overdue spotlight on equity, diversity and inclusion shining on all of our operations. It can all feel overwhelming, like we’re all going to get swept away in the storm.Now, more than ever, as educators and institutions, we need to recenter ourselves on our why—not on how we get through this or when this storm will be over. In education, we are really good at focusing on what and how and when, at solving the problems before us. But we tend to get lost on the why because it is personal and squishy—there’s no empirical evidence you can cite, no scholarship to drive your formulation.
In 2008, through some fabulous colleagues, I discovered TED Talks, which led me to leadership guru Simon Sinek. His earliest TED Talk inspired me to start thinking about my why. Why am I in education? Why did I spend nearly 13 percent (yes, I calculated it) of my life working on a doctorate? Why do I keep going when seemingly faced with brick wall after brick wall? That’s what I’m going to share with you, in hopes of helping you stay firmly planted in your why, to help you weather the storm and all of us come out the other side stronger.
My why is multifaceted. It has roots, but they grow in wild directions as my life changes. I invite you to come with me on the journey my why has taken, as it has grown from seed to sapling to sturdy tree.
My why begins before I had ever heard of Sinek. In 2008, I was recruited to run a grant with the purpose of connecting adult learners with data to inform their college choices so they didn’t need to depend on marketing hype from lead generation websites. In creating that website, I recognized my passion for education lies in missed opportunities I saw in my own life.
While I was growing up, my dad had a good job as a radiology tech and then hospital administrator. He achieved this with a technical degree and lots of continuing education. But he always wanted to pursue a degree in computer science—he loved technology. We even had one of those Apple II computers in the living room and then an upgrade to a PC that could connect to the internet through the lovely screech—beeedddooooo boop—of AOL.
However, at that time, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, his options were limited to exiting the workforce to pursue his dream of a bachelor’s of computer science or taking night or weekend classes and missing out on time spent being a dad. He tried the latter option, but in the end, being a dad and a husband, a provider for our family, won. It’s not that he didn’t have the talent or the drive, he just chose to focus on his family. If online education had been around then, he might have had a different story. Helping learners achieve their educational dreams without sacrificing their family life is my passion. It is the root of my why.
Morrison and her parents, Pat and Sandy Koerner, after her hooding ceremony at Montana State University in 2018. Courtesy of Cali Morrison.
When I began exploring my why, an additional inspiration from my childhood bubbled to the top. My motivation for continuing my education beyond my bachelor’s comes from the inspiration of two women. First, as an impressionable middle schooler, I watched my mom pursue her goal of a master’s in the language she loves, Spanish, and the Latin American culture she inculcates and admires. She attended her classes and was a great graduate teaching assistant, teaching introductory classes to a broad array of students.
Back in the days when tests were mimeographed (some of you also remember the smell of that purple ink!) and there were no adaptive engines to score them, I was the grader. I saw the camaraderie my mom had with the other students in her program. I witnessed the difference it made when she would go translate through the Red Cross for a Hispanic family who spoke no English. Thus, another branch in the roots of my why: to be like my mom and to provide opportunities for other young girls to have that kind of mom, one who pursues her educational goals. After all, research has shown that learners whose mothers have earned a college credential are more likely to attain one themselves (Atwell, et al, 2007; Yakaboski, 2010).
The second woman who contributed to my passion for continued education is my Tootie, my “other mother.” I witnessed Tootie take her enthusiasm for educating people around the world about disease prevention and roll it into a doctorate in education. (I’ll interrupt this story for a brief PSA: Wash your hands, people! It’s the easiest way to stop the spread of disease!)
Tootie graduated and was hooded the day her son and I attended our senior prom. She raced back from her hooding ceremony to take pictures and wish us well as we went to the big dance. When following a tenure-track route didn’t work out, and her life situation didn’t allow her to pursue more practical work in public health after her postdoc at the Centers for Disease Control, Tootie’s strong educational background and drive to succeed allowed her to pivot. She built a health care screening company to help medical and wellness practices ensure a competent and safe workforce. From the example of her life, my why stems into providing the educational grounding to allow our learners to continue to develop and pivot throughout their time in the workforce.
Morrison with Thomas and Henrietta “Tootie” Williams in 2010. Courtesy of Cali Morrison.
My why grew its trunk in the years my daughters were born. I am here to help improve higher education so when these two tiny humans embark on their own lifelong learning journey, they have options that will help them integrate their thirst for knowledge (and as my Alexa will confirm, they are FULL of questions!) with their lives and work. Notice I didn’t say balance, or blend. Part of my why is helping these little ladies, and all their contemporaries, realize that learning is not separate from the rest of our lives but as normal and necessary as brushing your teeth (though, Alexa will also confirm they would not brush if she did not remind them day and night!).
Bryce and Portia Morrison on election day 2020, reminding us all to do our civic duty. Courtesy of Cali Morrison.
The final component of my why has blossomed more than I could have imagined since I returned to a higher education institution from the nonprofit world. My students are my why. There’s Joseph, who balanced building the prior learning assessment portfolio for his last class before his capstone with end-of-deployment awards, SITREPs and other duties related to the changing of the guard in Iraq. There’s Chyanne, who worked as an EMT while pursuing her emergency management degree and then parlayed that into a new position in emergency management for her local hospital. And countless others who are working to keep us safe and improve our lives.
The individual lives I change, and the ripple effects down to their future students and the troops they command and the people they save from the ever-increasing wildfires—those are the branches and leaves on the tree of my why. They keep me reaching, through regulatory and technological challenges, to find the best way to achieve their learning goals. My why is helping learners integrate learning throughout their lives in ways that meet their educational dreams and provide resilience in their careers without sacrificing the other elements of their lives.
Thank you for investigating my why with me. But now the tables are going to turn, and I’m going to ask YOU to think about your why. Why did you take that first job in higher education? Why did you pursue your degrees? Why do you get up every morning and commute or log on to your campus? When the committee meetings drag on, why do you stay motivated?
Now is the time to break out those crayons, pens, pencils or markers to craft your why statement. Reflect on your lived experiences, how they contribute to that why. Then WRITE IT DOWN! I cannot stress that enough! So when the whats and the hows have taken over your day, you can glance down and remember why you’re here in the first place.
What’s keeping you rooted in higher education? Share your answer on Twitter with the hashtag #MyWhyEdu and tag Morrison too: @calimorrison.
Dr. Cali M.K. Morrison, CPC is interim dean, Center for Professional & Continuing Education at American Public University System. She earned her Ed.D. in higher education administration at Montana State University. Previously Cali was assistant director, communications and analysis at the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET). Cali has presented at various conferences on the future of credentials, competency-based education, and accountability in higher education. Cali lives in Belgrade, MT with her custom homebuilder hubby, two daughters, and dogs where she is active in the community, especially with One Valley Community Foundation, Montana Science Center, & Thrive.
Throughout its history, higher education has sought to introduce students to the perspectives of a global citizenship. The last few decades have seen students’ opportunities to experience these perspectives dramatically increase, as social media, technology, and world travel have all accelerated. To effectively educate students through a global lens requires institutions confront issues of inequity.
North American higher education has mainly considered inequities related to LGBTQIA, racial, and gender identities. Religious, secular, and spiritual identities have remained largely absent from conversations. This next decade of the 21st century offers a timely opportunity for higher education to reconsider its approach to this often-misunderstood area of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Making Practices Equitable
As readers, you might immediately notice the use of the nomenclature “religious, secular, and spiritual identities (RSSIs).” This terminology, broader than previously used terms such as “religious diversity,” “interfaith,” or “multifaith,” has slowly found its way into U.S. higher education after the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (2017) advanced this language. We as authors encourage reconsideration of outdated terms and a movement toward the inclusive “RSSIs.” This language intentionally demonstrates the complexity of identities as well as the breadth of diversity in beliefs and practices which requires the provision of equitable and supportive systems.
Beyond language, of course, RSSI equity must be addressed through institutional policies and practices, as well as research and theory development. In the practice realm in the United States and Canada, the aforementioned “interfaith” has dominated the creation of dialogue and discussion programming to be engaged in by students, staff, and faculty, as well as civically minded activities such as building homes and cleaning up public areas.
Despite good intentions, without careful consideration, interfaith dialogue and discussion programming may unintentionally tokenize minoritized religious identities.
This is largely due to the Christian framework through which these activities may be created and implemented. The interfaith movement in the United States has too often failed to move the needle of RSSI equity. When considering this type of practice on campus, higher education professionals should examine if and how privileged religious traditions may dominate these activities. If the majority religion controls the form and features of these events, it is much more likely that missteps will occur, leading toward further distortion and “othering” of marginalized identities.
This othering effect can also occur through data collection. For example, surveys of student RSSIs may limit individuals from claiming the particularities of their identities. If we as higher education professionals create surveys that neglect religious minorities or cause them to feel misunderstood, we have created harm. In the chart below, we present data rom The Freshman Survey, a well-respected U.S. national survey which occurs each fall (A profile of freshmen at 4-year colleges, Fall 2017, 2019). In this sample from the 2017 survey, all categories on the left represent identities within the Christian religious community. On the right, non-Christian identities are broken down into general categories and broad religious identities. In an equitable setting, these latter identities would be particularized by denomination, in the same way Christianity is, so that respondents would be able to select their particular communities of practice. In addition, the categories of Agnostic, Atheist, and None fail to provide information about the religious cultures in which students were raised; likely, many if not most of them were raised as Christians or within a Christian culture. Categorizing them otherwise skews the survey results in ways many readers would not realize (Edwards, 2018).
Religious preference of first-year students at 4-year colleges, Fall 2017
A Critical Framework for RSSI Equity
The aforementioned items are but two of the many areas of RSSI equity that should be in consideration for the field of higher education. To provide a broader and more comprehensive perspective, critical theories must be developed to inform the policies, practices, and research within the field. The goal of critical theories is to be “concerned in particular with issues of power and justice and the ways that the economy; matters of race, class, and gender; ideologies; discourses; education; religion and other social institutions; and cultural dynamics interact to construct a social system” (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2002, p. 90). Understandings of other types of oppression led to the development of other critical theories, most famously critical race theory. These issues of power and justice also exist around RSSIs, but no critical theory had ever satisfactorily addressed this before.
Critical Religious Pluralism Theory
Newly developed by the second author of this column, Critical Religious Pluralism Theory (CRPT; Small, 2020) aims to address RSSIs utilizing this necessary critical lens. The goal of CRPT “is to acknowledge the central roles of religious privilege, oppression, hegemony, and marginalization in maintaining inequality between Christians and non-Christians in the United States (as analyzed through the medium of higher education)” (p. 11).
In short, CRPT aims for total social transformation to ensure a just and equitable society for all RSSIs.
In the interim, there are many steps that the field of higher education can take toward its own transformation.
CRPT offers a framework of seven tenets:
CRPT declares that the subordination of non-Christian (including nonreligious) individuals to Christian individuals has been built into the society of the United States, as well as institutionalized on college campuses.
CRPT critically examines the intertwined nature of religion and culture, and embraces an intersectional analysis of religious identity with race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, immigration status, socioeconomic class, and all other forms of social identity.
CRPT exposes Christian privilege and Christian hegemony in society, as well as the related concept of the false neutral of secularism.
At the individual level, CRPT advocates for a pluralistic inclusion of all religious, secular, and spiritual identities, recognizing the liberatory potential of these identities upon individuals’ lives.
At the institutional level, CRPT advocates for the field of higher education to utilize a religiously pluralistic lens in all areas of research, policy, and practice, accounting for power, privilege, marginalization, and oppression.
At the systemic level, CRPT advocates for religious pluralism as the means for resolving religious conflict in the United States.
CRPT prioritizes the voices of individuals with minoritized religious identities and those with pluralistic commitments in the work toward social transformation. (Small, 2020, p. 62)
In order to make the seven tenets of CRPT usable by scholars and practitioners, each has been converted into a guideline. For example, guideline 5, which relates to institutional levels of change, asks:
Does the piece of research, policy, or professional practice in question advocate at the institutional level for the field of higher education to utilize a religiously pluralistic lens in all areas of research, policy, and practice, accounting for power, privilege, marginalization, and oppression? (Small, 2020, p. 68)
The following is an example of a policy that succeeds at putting this type of thinking into practice. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, there is a specific committee dedicated to responding to and arranging religious accommodation requests. Called the Religious Accommodations Advisory Committee, it eliminates the need for students to directly request accommodation from their professors. It also places the effort required to organize the logistics of an accommodation on a separate group, rather than on the student or on the professor. This policy connects to Guideline 5 of CRPT, because it acknowledges that the existing systems on most college campuses place the needs of non-Christians underneath those of Christians. Christians automatically have their holidays off from school, but non-Christians do not. This policy works to rectify that. It is also proactive, not relying on minoritized individuals to ask for accommodation. Finally, the committee is made up of individuals from varied RSSIs, allowing for a greater understanding of different minoritized voices.
Making Your Own Work Equitable
Critical theories like CRPT, institutional practices like the Religious Accommodations Advisory Committee, and inclusive language like “RSSIs” are all elements of making higher education equitable for students of all religious, secular, and spiritual backgrounds. We encourage each reader to consider your own institutional or organizational policies, practices, and research studies to consider ways they could be made more equitable asking the question:
How can you reconsider your own institutional or organizational policies, practices, and research studies, in order to make them more equitable?
Dr. J. Cody Nielsen is Founder and Executive Director of Convergence on Campus and Director of the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice at Dickinson College.
Dr. Jenny L. Small is Associate Director for Education and Content of Convergence on Campus.
References
Allocco, A. L., Claussen, G. D., & Pennington, B. K. (2018). Constructing interreligious studies: Thinking critically about interfaith studies and the interfaith movement. In E. Patel, J. H. Peace, & N. J. Silverman (Eds.), Interreligious/interfaith studies: Defining a new field (pp. 36-48). Beacon Press.
Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. (2017). Campus Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Programs. Author.
Edwards, S. (2018). Distinguishing between belief and culture: A critical perspective on religious identity. Journal of College and Character, 19(3), 201-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2018.1481097
Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. (2002). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In Y. Zou & E. T. Trueba (Eds.), Ethnography and schools: Qualitative approaches to the study of education (pp. 87-138). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
McCarthy, K. (2018). (Inter)religious studies: Making a home in the secular academy. In E. Patel, J. H. Peace, & N. J. Silverman (Eds.), Interreligious/interfaith studies: Defining a new field (pp. 2-15). Beacon Press.
By Tricia Seifert, Associate Professor of Adult & Higher Education at Montana State University
Everyone had a story that connected them to rural students. Maybe they were from a rural place themselves, having moved to a bigger community where less sky was in view between buildings and confronting a public transit system with pent up tears and frustration. Or maybe they had stood at the crossroads in a small community during a recruiting trip and saw with fresh eyes how big their campus must feel to students whose town has nine buildings along Main Street.
This was the start to the excellent Rural Student Success Unconference hosted by the University of Georgia, March 19-20, 2021. Higher education leaders, faculty and staff members, college counselors, and college access advocates met virtually to discuss obstacles and opportunities to support rural students’ success.
There was empathy and understanding for students, whose hometowns are often referred to as the middle of ‘nowhere’, that they indeed come from ‘somewhere’ special. It might be in the clarity of the cicadas’ song on a summer night or literally watching the storm come in from across the vast plain. Students from rural communities bring unique experiences and strengths to their postsecondary education. As Dr. Nicholas Hillman from the University of Wisconsin stated in his keynote kicking off the unconference, “Rural areas are often looked at in a deficit-based way and we need to see rural areas as asset-based. Place matters.”
Students’ Strengths
Growing up on a farm or ranch, far from town, rural students often bring an incredible resourcefulness to postsecondary study. They have often perfected how to make do with what is available. Like MacGyver from the 1980s TV show, they have figured out how to use a single tool for three purposes.
Going to a movie (a 100 mile roundtrip drive) may be quite the outing. Amusement and recreation is often what is available at home. The night sky can be pretty awesome television or a large tree and its expansive branches might be the perfect place to climb and imagine new worlds.
Looking toward the Crazy Mountains from outside Lewistown, Montana (population 5,729)
Students from rural communities, who have gone away to college (and nearly all have done so because of the paucity of postsecondary options close to home)1, are leaders in their communities. In a small school, they were involved in sports and music and science fair and FFA. To field a sports team or have a choir, everyone in the school takes part. Rural students are used to getting involved, pitching in, and leading.
Recognizing rural students’ assets, higher education policy makers and leaders need not presume to know what is best for them. Again, Dr. Hillman called out elitist paternalism in his conference keynote address. The opportunity is to ask students directly what would be helpful in supporting their success. This conference tweet from Dr. Matt Newlin says it all.
The conversation might need to be an invitation for students to name and claim the strengths they bring to the college experience. It may continue with students identifying how they leverage their strengths of hard work, resourcefulness, and leadership within their campus community and toward their success.
Community Assets
Extrapolating from the students to their home communities, land grant institutions (like my home university, Montana State) have the opportunity and obligation to build relationships with rural communities that serve relevant community needs, respect ways of knowing and being, and demonstrate reciprocity and responsibility. For a thorough description of the 4Rs, please read the excellent piece by Kirkness & Barnhardt (1991)2 and more contemporary articles by Pidgeon (2014)3 and Wimmer (2016)4.
The 4Rs (respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility) provide the pillars upon which to meaningfully collaborate and create with indigenous communities (and I believe other communities that historically have been marginalized and colonized). When engagement is grounded in this fashion, it uncenters elite paternalism. Rather, it invites a critical perspective of working with not for the community. It centers the communities’ knowledge and culture, which Dr. Darris Means called higher education leaders to do in his conference keynote. This requires an anti-racist approach to listening to rural communities of color (Black communities across the southern USA, Latino communities from the wide-ranging diaspora, and Indigenous nations), learning from these communities’ experiences, and supporting their leadership toward a community-envisioned future.
This work with communities takes time and commitment. It cannot be fly-by-night or episodic. It requires a long-game view as Dr. Maria Lunes-Torres spoke to in the conference’s closing keynote. Earning the trust of the communities with whom we work takes (and should take) time. Weaving opportunities, like the Rural Student Success Initiative, into the fabric of a community is a process. The goal is that the community recognizes its contribution and the institution’s commitment to the initiative. The long-game view is also evident in the ALL Georgia program, a multi-faceted operational commitment housed in the Division of Academic Enhancement at the University of Georgia.
These initiatives exemplify in words, actions, AND funding what can happen when higher education leaders and stakeholders support rural students and their communities not just today but tomorrow as well.
Opportunities, Resources & Events
Are you interested in how you or your organization can better support rural students and communities? Great works is being done in the rural education front.
Do you know of other conferences, books, articles, people to follow on Twitter who focus on rural education issues? Please leave a comment. Let’s crowdsource a compendium of international resources.
References
1 Hillman, N. W. (2016). Geography of college opportunity: The case of education deserts. American Educational Research Journal, 53(4), 987-1021.
2 Kirkness, V. J., & Barnhardt, R. (1991). First Nations and higher education: The four R’s—Respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility. Journal of American Indian Education, 1-15.
3 Pidgeon, M. (2014). Moving beyond good intentions: Indigenizing higher education in British Columbia universities through institutional responsibility and accountability. Journal of American Indian Education, 7-28.
4 Wimmer, R. J. (2016). The “4 Rs Revisited,” again: Aboriginal education in Canada and implications for leadership in higher education. In Assembling and Governing the Higher Education Institution (pp. 257-270). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
By: Frederick (Rick) Ezekiel, PhD, Director of Equitable Learning, Health and Wellness, Centennial College, Toronto, Canada
SUMMARY
Postsecondary educators have been increasingly focused on supporting positive student mental health over the past decades. Postsecondary institutions are uniquely positioned to support a demographic of students who experience the greatest risk of first onset of mental illness as a result of the developmental trajectory of many common mental illnesses (within the 16-24 age window; Jones, 2013). Additionally, poor mental health and toxic stress have a detrimental impact on learning and academic performance. My research seeks to understand disparities in mental health outcomes among students with marginalized sociodemographic identities in Canada, and the relationship between mental health and learning with marginalized communities. Through this work, I identified that marginalized sociodemographic groups experience languishing mental health at rates 1.6 – 3.4 times that of their peers. Additionally, much of the difference in academic performance among students with marginalized sociodemographic identities was statistically explained by disparities in mental health. As we expand our focus on enhancing student mental health, we must critically examine sociocultural factors influencing disparities in mental health outcomes among postsecondary students. Of equal importance, we must examine institutional actions which could begin to address the systemic barriers and mechanisms through which these inequities emerge.
Background
Stress, Mental Health and Learning
Stress is a natural part of the human condition, and can be performance enhancing at low to moderate levels. Stress is more likely to be experienced as positive or performance enhancing when we have sufficient control over a situation, perceive a reasonable ability to overcome the stressor, and have access to positive psychosocial supports and safe environments. However, at chronic and severe levels, stress can become maladaptive and lead to reduced performance outcomes, including in postsecondary learning environments.
Visualization based on definitions of positive stress, tolerable stress, and toxic stress from the US National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.
The stress response mobilizes the sympathetic nervous system, leading to the well known fight, flight or freeze response. This response has had adaptive value over the course of human evolution, when stressors often involved reacting to immediate threats to our survival. However, the stress response undermines and utilizes limited executive cognitive functions which are necessary for learning and the demonstration of what one has learned, which can result in reduced academic performance at toxic levels (Owens et al., 2008).
Stress and Mental Health in Marginalized Sociodemographic Groups
Marginalized sociodemographic groups navigate more barriers and challenges (stressors) within our society, and postsecondary education institutions. Minority stress theory, coined by Ilan Meyer (2003), articulates empirically supported findings where marginalized sociodemographic groups experience increased risk for distress due to more frequent and deleterious experiences of discrimination, harassment, systemic oppression / barriers, stigmatization and social isolation. Common examples in postsecondary contexts include: transgender students who are misgendered by a faculty member in front of the class, ‘outing’ them and contributing to broader othering impacts; racialized students seeing racial slurs, racist graffiti, or racist posters on campus, and not seeing their identities reflected in their faculty, staff or educational leaders; students with disabilities experiencing repeated events or information that are not accessible, leading to exclusion and needing to repeatedly ask for accommodations to participate in campus life; and gay, lesbian, queer, bi-sexual, questioning students coming out to family and friends, sometimes facing rejection or unsupportive reactions from loved ones.
A key goal of my research involved examining the influence of minority stress on mental health and learning within a large sample of postsecondary education students in Canada. Marginalized and disadvantaged sociodemographic groups within myresearchincluded sexual minorities (students who do not identify as heterosexual), students who identify as transgender or gender non-binary, female-identified individuals, racial and ethnic minorities (students who identify as non-white), Indigenous students, students with disabilities, and students with diagnosed psychiatric conditions.
Risk and Resilience Within Marginalized Learners: A Strengths-Based Approach
I leveraged a strengths-based approach to understanding mental health and learning within marginalized communities in this research. Part of this approach involves positioning the deficits driving disparity within the societal and institutional systems that perpetuate systemic oppression, and NOT within the individual learners or communities who hold marginalized identities. Additionally, it is crucial to recognize the strength and resilience that marginalized learners bring into the postsecondary learning environment, having overcome significant barriers and stressors over the course of their development to make it to college or university in the first place.
Significant work has examined community-specific resilience factors which serve as protective factors within marginalized communities. These community resilience factors include:
Community connection and support (Wexler et al., 2009; Kirmayer et al., 2011)
Acknowledgement of and collective meaning making related to experiences with discrimination or oppression, and galvanized purpose toward collective action (French et al., 2020; Kirmayer et al., 2011; Meyer, 2015)
Human rights protections and equitable legal recognition / protections for identity representation and full inclusion; and,
Cultural identity, connection to language & land within Indigenous communities (Kirmayer et al., 2011).
The Mental Health Continuum (Keyes, 2003) is a measure of mental health from positive psychology, which captures processes contributing to wellbeing that might be impacted by marginalization or othering, as well as factors that might confer community resilience such as those described above. Additionally, the measure is informed by the dual continuum of mental health, acknowledging that learners can experience flourishing or languishing mental health coupled with both a presence or absence of mental illness (MacKean et al., 2011). For these reasons, I selected this as the measure of choice utilized within my research.
Research Findings
Conceptual Model Summarizing Research Findings
Integrating my research findings, the conceptual model above has guided my research questions and analysis, to investigate relationships between holding a marginalized identity, mental health, and academic performance in postsecondary students. It provides a simple and overarching conceptual explanation of the research findings below.
The research findings presented below draw from analysis of the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) 2016 Canadian Reference group, which included 42,642 students from 42 postsecondary institutions (colleges and universities) across Canada (ACHA, 2016; Ezekiel, In Press).
Mental Health Among Marginalized Sociodemographic Groups
Overall findings – my research demonstrated that:
Postsecondary learners with marginalized sociodemographic identities experienced languishing mental health at 1.6-3.4 times the frequency of peers not marginalized on the same binary; and,
Disparities in mental health statistically explained much of the measurable differences in academic performance among learners with marginalized identities
A note for my fellow quantitative researchers / data nerds: These findings identified that mental health partially or fully statistically mediated the relationship between identifying with a marginalized sociodemographic group and reduced academic performance within a structural equation model.
Disparities in Languishing Mental Health by Sociodemographic Group
Within this sample, students holding a marginalized identity experienced languishing mental health at rates 1.6-3.4 times those of their peers who were not marginalized on the same binary. The chart below highlights proportions of group members identified as having languishing mental health within each identity binary. The green bars show the proportion of Individuals identifying with the dominant norm (e.g. cisgender; white; or not having a diagnosed psychiatric condition) who had languishing mental health, and the blue bars show the proportion of individuals who held marginalized identities within the binary who had languishing mental health (e.g. transgender; racialized; or having a diagnosed psychiatric condition). This visualizes significant mental health disparities, with members of marginalized sociodemographic groups experiencing languishing mental health at greater frequencies.
Note: chi-squared analysis confirmed that all frequency differences in mental health reported below were statistically significant at thresholds of p < 0.001.
Important in reviewing these findings from a strengths-based perspective is to recognize that while there were significant and large disparities in the proportion of students experiencing languishing mental health among students with marginalized identities, there were also significant numbers of individuals with marginalized identities experiencing flourishing mental health. We must interpret these disparities as reflective of systemic and deleterious stressors uniquely impacting marginalized communities (e.g. systemic and overt racism on and off campus, barriers to access and inclusion in the learning environment and campus life among students with disabilities, homophobia and transphobia on campus and in broader communities), rather than reflective of deficits within individuals who hold marginalized identities (an attribution that is not supported by the empirical neurodevelopmental or psychological research in this space).
Additionally, students identifying with marginalized sociodemographic groups reported different, and more stressors as ‘traumatic or very difficult to handle’ relative to the overall sample, underscoring the notion of increased frequency of experiencing deleterious stressors among marginalized communities in alignment with predictions from minority stress theory.
Number of stressors reported as ‘traumatic or very difficult to handle’ within the last 12 months among students with marginalized sociodemographic identities compared to the total sample.
Impacts of Intersectionality
The concept of intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the interactive effects of holding multiple marginalized identities, often leading to disparities and experiences with oppression that are more severe and complex than additive effects of disparity across two binaries. In examining whether holding multiple marginalized identities led to additive stress and reduced mental health, I identified a significant, negative correlation between the number of marginalized identities a student held, and their mental health (r (33,885) = -.194, p < 0.001). In other words, students who held more marginalized identities tended to report lower mental health.
For the purposes of this blog, I’ve summarized research findings at a very high-level. All summary statistics or narrative findings reported above were supported by robust quantitative analysis, and results that were statistically significant at rigorous thresholds. Detailed statistics and additional information on methodology can be reviewed within my complete dissertation (available on request, or through the University of Toronto thesis repository in summer 2021).
There are significant limitations and cautions to utilizing quantitative approaches to understand experiences of marginalized communities who have low representation within a given population and sample. To this end, I attempted to disaggregate data to ensure disparities were not ‘averaged out’ due to low representation. However, survey tools and quantitative analyses still wash out unique experiences of minority voices as they are normalized against experiences of the majority population. For example, the list of stressors reported as ‘traumatic or very difficult to handle’ included common experiences such as academic difficulties, career related issues, interpersonal conflict, financial difficulties, sleep difficulties and chronic health issues. They did not, however, included stressors unique to marginalized communities that could impact overall wellbeing (e.g. navigating a gender transition or being regularly misgendered among transgender students; seeing racial slurs on campus, in social media, and through other avenues, or participating in advocacy for racial justice among racialized learners; and navigating an often ongoing coming out process among sexual minorities, including fear of and experiences with family and friend rejections). In this way, quantitative research can reinforce a ‘tyranny of the majority’ by erasing experiences of minority voices.
It is imperative that we recognize these limitations, seek to leverage mixed methods approaches to more deeply understand experiences of individuals with marginalized identities, and develop representative and inclusive quantitative research tools to better understand experiences of learners with marginalized identities. Additionally, we as educators and student affairs practitioners must deeply engage the voices of learners with marginalized identities, and ensure those voices are guiding our actions to begin to reduce the disparities highlighted in my research above.
Implications and Promising Institutional Actions
My research findings further underscore that postsecondary institutions have a moral and educational imperative to create conditions where all learners have the opportunity to thrive, particularly those experiencing heightened stress as a result from marginalization or developmental vulnerabilities.
Recognizing the significant disparities identified in mental health among learners with marginalized identities and subsequent impacts on learning, it is imperative that postsecondary education institutions engage in multi-level action at the research, policy and practice levels to mitigate the undue barriers and stressors driving these outcomes. The graphic below summarizes promising priorities for institutional action to promote wellbeing, equity and learning among marginalized sociodemographic groups in postsecondary education.
As we continue to examine strategies to enhance mental health within our postsecondary communities, it is critical that we take a proportionate universality approach – focusing on universal actions enhancing wellbeing and learning for all, with proportionately more intensive supports and efforts focused on those experiencing the greatest risk due to marginalization. I will highlight some of my own reflections on promising areas for institutional action based on my policy and practice work within higher education.
Mitigating Barriers
Most postsecondary education institutions in North America are guided by legislation focused on access for learners with disabilities, as well as human rights law offering legal protection against discrimination on protected grounds. While these are critical in establishing foundational rights and protections, they more often assist in guiding against overt oppression, whereas many of the barriers and stressors captured under minority stress theory focus on day-to-day, insidious, and deleterious experiences of othering and exclusion from the dominant norms within postsecondary institutions. The process of accommodation itself is often onerous, time consuming, and stigmatizing, involving some degree of ‘outing’ of a student to access the support needed to access learning.
For example, students with learning disabilities are asked to engage with multiple professionals through very time consuming and often clunky processes (often starting with meeting with an accessible learning advisor / counsellor, followed by third party psychoeducational assessment with external providers often associated with financial and administrative burdens, followed by follow-up meetings with the psychologist and accessible learning advisor) to support their need for accommodation, when often the most pressing need is more time. This creates an ironic paradox when our institutional processes add additional stress, time, and cognitive demands for students with disabilities when their most important need is often time and attention to engage with learning.
To continue to mitigate stressors unduly impacting marginalized learners, it is critical that institutions continue to work to deeply embed universal and inclusive design for learning within the curriculum, co-curriculum, and professional service environment (Meyer & Rose, 2002). Additionally, investing in culturally safe, relevant, and responsive mental health services meeting the unique needs of marginalized learners will be critical to address these challenges. Some examples include:
Universal: focus on just-in-time service delivery models, eliminating wait lists and barriers to engagement in mental health services when students demonstrate readiness to engage;
Proportional and targeted: dedicated, culturally relevant wellbeing for Indigenous learners in connection with community; establishment of subject matter expertise and inclusion of professionals with lived experience on medical and mental health care teams (e.g. transgender care teams, sexual violence and trauma-informed care expertise, competency in offering mental health supports for LGBQ students).
Building Community and Visibility
Within my research and the broader literature, sense of belonging has been identified as a promising protective factor mediating the negative relationship between stress and academic performance. Creating spaces for collective meaning making, connection, and gathering can be critical in supporting minority community resilience on postsecondary campuses. This can include institutionally (faculty / staff) supported student groups (e.g. cultural and racial or ethnic community groups; LGBTQ2S+ spaces and organizing groups; physical spaces for Indigenous students, faculty and staff; peer mentorship opportunities and programming supporting unique needs of students with disabilities).
Additionally, it is critical that institutions promote visibility (authentically, and with voices of marginalized community members at the forefront) at the broader institutional level. Consider the topics covered in lectures, representation among high-profile speakers and panels, physical spaces, art, architecture, landscaping. Within student affairs, representation in programming offered (e.g. orientation programming) is a critical opportunity to demonstrate the degree to which students from marginalized communities see themselves, their identities, their cultures and values represented within the organizational fabric during transition into college and university.
Shifting Cultures: Broad Awareness
As learning institutions, we have a significant opportunity to increase knowledge related to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) among our student, faculty and staff populations, to the benefit of our wider communities. Recognizing limitations of curricular content related to colonization, EDI, and anti-oppression in the K-12 system, institutions have an opportunity to expand student awareness of systemic factors contributing to inequities at multiple levels within our society. As institutions seek to build and implement anti-oppression training programs, promising practices include:
Hiring curriculum developers and trainers who have lived experience and subject matter expertise and compensate them fairly;
Focusing on co-construction models, ensuring that students and employees with marginalized identities are actively involved with and driving the content of the training; and,
Training individuals in positions of influence first, to realize broader benefits of knowledge and skills within the organization (e.g. student leaders, administrative leaders).
Institutional Commitment
It is critical that institutions ensure EDI issues are identified as priorities at the highest levels of the organization. EDI and anti-oppression should be identified as core values of the organization, and key priorities across strategic planning frameworks. Additionally, anti-oppression rubrics or intentional review structures should be embedded within organizational policy review frameworks, ensuring that EDI and anti-oppression are top of mind as administrators review organizational policies (whether they be focused on grading, facilities, or employee recruitment and compensation).
Increasing Representation
Critical to the success of all the priorities and actions identified above involves increasing representation of marginalized communities who are under-represented within student, faculty and staff populations, and ensuring their active inclusion within the institutional fabric and at decision making tables. Increasing representation among underrepresented groups should be identified as a priority in faculty, staff, and senior administration recruitment and hiring processes. Additionally, expanding access and representation among students should be critical considerations in domestic and international recruitment strategies.
Across employee and student groups, institutions must focus on authentically building relationships with marginalized communities through their recruitment efforts. Investing back in marginalized communities through services, mentorship programs, participatory action research, and educational and learning opportunities grounded in articulated community needs can be effective strategies to increase authentic relationships with marginalized and underrepresented communities. Additionally, institutions must consider barriers resulting from systemic oppression within our broader societies preventing access, including significant socioeconomic disparities. Educational access and financial means might be significant factors at play for capable prospective students and employees. Building pathways to study and employment, with necessary financial supports, mentorship, education and credential upgrading, and access opportunities are critical to combatting broader oppressive structures at play that could influence underrepresentation within postsecondary institutions.
Conclusions
Student affairs practitioners and educators have become increasingly aware of student mental health and the impacts of mental health on learning. Additionally, conversations about equity, diversity and inclusion have become more salient in many institutions stemming from long overdue social movements and broader societal conversations. A core goal of my research was to demonstrate utilizing a large, empirical research design the impacts of marginalization on wellbeing and learning among postsecondary students in Canada. I hope these data, coupled with promising practices for action, spark ongoing investigation and action among educators in the postsecondary sector, ensuring we work against perpetuating the insidious oppressive structures within our broader societies. With intention and effort, we have the capacity as educators and institutions to become equity-promoting tools for the students and communities we serve, which has and will continue to be the motivating goal of this work.
Rick Ezekiel (he/him) is the Director of Equitable Learning, Health and Wellness at Centennial College (Toronto, Canada), and completed his PhD at The University of Toronto (OISE) in December 2020. At the centre of Rick’s professional and scholarly work is a core passion to enhance the role education can play in promoting equitable lifespan development outcomes for learners within our broader communities and society. Rick is a cisgender, queer man of European (settler) ancestry, respectfully and gratefully doing research and work within the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty Region.
References
American College Health Association (2016). National College Health Assessment II: CanadianReference Group Executive Summary Spring 2016. Hanover, MD: American College Health Association.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. doi:10.2307/1229039
Crenshaw, K. W. (2017). On intersectionality: Essential writings. The New Press.
Ezekiel, F. (In Press). Mental Health and Academic Performance in Postsecondary Education: Sociodemographic Risk Factors and Links to Childhood Adversity, PhD Thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
French, B. H., Lewis, J. A., Mosley, D. V., Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Chen, G. A., & Neville, H. A. (2020). Toward a psychological framework of radical healing in communities of color. The Counseling Psychologist, 48(1), 14-46.
Jones, P. B. (2013). Adult mental health disorders and their age at onset. British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(54), 5–10. http://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.119164
Kirmayer, L. J., Dandeneau, S., Marshall, E., Phillips, M. K., & Williamson, K. J. (2011). Rethinking resilience from indigenous perspectives. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(2), 84-91.
Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations: Conceptual Issues and Research Evidence. Psychol Bull., 129(5), 674–697. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2011.07.011.Innate
Owens, M., Stevenson, J., Norgate, R., & Hadwin, J. A. (2008). Processing efficiency theory in children: working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 21(4), 417–30. http://doi.org/10.1080/10615800701847823
Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach. (2013). Vancouver, BC.
Wexler, L. M., DiFluvio, G., & Burke, T. K. (2009). Resilience and marginalized youth: Making a case for personal and collective meaning-making as part of resilience research in public health. Social Science and Medicine, 69(4), 565–570. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.06.022
Yerkes, R., & Dodson, J. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459–482.
Copyright Acknowledgment
High-level research findings shared in this blog are produced pre-publication (with submission to peer-reviewed journals underway). Please seek written permission before reproducing these data or images (fezekiel1@gmail.com), and if referencing this work, in addition to this blog post, please reference my dissertation (Ezekiel, In Press)as the original source of these research findings.
The American College Health Association – National College Health Assessment II – Canadian Reference Group survey tool is copyrighted material by the American College Health Association (ACHA). The National College Health Assessment raw data referenced in this blog, were used in my original research with permission based on a formal request to the ACHA, who provided that data for the purposes of my dissertation research. The opinions, findings, and conclusions presented/reported in this post are those of the author, and are in no way meant to represent the corporate opinions, views, or policies of the ACHA. The ACHA does not warrant nor assume any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented in this article/presentation.
In response to the impact of COVID-19 on incoming students’ transition to Ryerson University, a dedicated cross-departmental project team was convened to create an online preparatory program. In just two months, while still performing their regular job functions in the new online environment, the Get Ryerson Ready team researched, developed, designed, and launched a robust, innovative, multi-disciplinary, and award-winning transition curriculum to support the success and well-being of the incoming class of 2020.
The Context
In April 2020, leadership in the Office of the Vice Provost, Students (OVPS)1 at Ryerson University met to discuss the development of summer bridging courses to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on the experience of incoming students. Recognizing the incomplete final semester for high school students and a fully online learning environment at Ryerson projected for the Fall 2020 term, a project team was created with staff from Student Life & Learning Support, Athletics & Recreation, and Student Wellbeing, with assistance from the Registrar’s Office, Student Affairs Storytelling, and Computing & Communication Services. In just two months, the team researched, developed, and launched a robust multi-disciplinary, holistic transition curriculum for the incoming class of 2020 and Get Ryerson Ready was launched. This team has since won Ryerson’s 2021 Julia Hanigsberg Make Your Mark Staff Award for Client Service in recognition of their extraordinary efforts to support student success!
The program’s objectives were to deliver programming that:
addressed knowledge and skills gaps;
connected new students to campus resources, community values and standards, staff, faculty members, and their peers;
created a sense of community and belonging;
familiarised new students with online platforms and tools they need to know as Ryerson students,
built students’ confidence in their ability to learn and engage online;
provided multiple methods of delivery and access to learning resources; and
was equitable and inclusive overall, addressing the specific transition needs of students from equity-deserving backgrounds.
What We Did
Get Ryerson Ready launched on July 3, 2020 and featured five key modules with intentionally designed curriculum that addressed the challenges potentially faced by incoming students:
Ryerson’s Learning Management System, Desire2Learn (D2L), was used as a host for a majority of Get Ryerson Ready programming. This provided participants with opportunities to interact with an interface and content that illustrated what they would experience with their university-level online courses.
The Get Ryerson Ready landing page in D2L.
Students were also encouraged to join and engage with peers, staff and faculty via online message boards, hosted on the PeopleGrove platform by the Tri-Mentoring Program (Ryerson’s peer-to-peer mentoring program).
A few of the groups offered through the online message boards on the PeopleGrove platform
View of the Study Ready module “What to Expect: University Academics” in D2L
The Get Ryerson Ready team considered every aspect of the program through an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) lens, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of Black-identified students. The Community Ready module specifically and intentionally focused on welcoming and supporting students from a variety of equity-deserving groups, including students who identify as: 2SLGTBQ+, Black, Filipinx, Indigenous, Latinx, Lusophone, Mature, and/or Muslim women, plus women in STEM and students living with a disability.
View of Community Ready module “What to Expect: A Student Experience” panel in D2L
As a way to encourage participation, virtual “badges” were distributed for the completion of asynchronous modules, attendance at events, and engagement with elements of online platforms (e.g. message boards). As the participants collected badges, they were entered into draws for prizes, including Amazon gift cards and four grand prizes of iPads.
The team also nimbly responded to problems such as:
creating content for a high-quality and engaging website to be used for recruiting purposes, before completing the design of the new program, which was accomplished with help from the communications and storytelling teams in Student Affairs and the Registrar’s Office;
manually uploading 13,003 incoming students’ profiles into D2L, even though they had not yet matriculated, which was done with the help of the Registrar’s Office and Computing & Communication Services;
using a variety of technologies in new and more in-depth ways in order for programming to be delivered online, which required a lot of quick self-instruction while simultaneously planning content.
Platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Instagram, YouTube, PeopleGrove, Bitbolide, Rise 360 and Articulate Storyline were used to run activities for both synchronous and asynchronous content, as well as for D2L course management and the badging system. Zoom and Google Meet were used for social gatherings, mini-lectures, tutorials, and drop-in hours. Wellness Ready hosted sessions on Instagram Live and YouTube. Interactive and engaging asynchronous lessons for Study Ready and Writing Ready used Articulate Storyline, and the Bitbolide platform was used for Math Ready lessons.
View of Writing Ready module “Runway to University Writing” Articulate module on D2L
View of Math Ready module using the BitBolide platform
It is worth noting that the Get Ryerson Ready team created this program while they all grappled with the personal and professional ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and diligently ensured that their day-to-day work also shifted to the new online environment.
What We Observed
Between July and September 2020, 13,003 students had access to the Get Ryerson Ready course shell on D2L, and 2,552 students (a 19.6% engagement rate) actively engaged with content presented through a series of synchronous and asynchronous delivery methods.
Given the limitations of our assessment platform at the time as well as the short amount of planning time to launch Get Ryerson Ready, it was not possible to get permission nor to create a process to include embedded data about incoming students from the Registrar’s Office in the pre- and post-surveys. Only two demographic questions were asked in an effort to keep the surveys short and encourage high completion rates. As such, we knew which faculties the participants came from as well as their entry point into Ryerson. The data indicates that participants represented an evenly distributed mix from all six faculties that offer undergraduate programs and, not surprisingly, the majority of participants came directly from high school.
By September 2020, Get Ryerson Ready:
introduced new students to the D2L platform months before their first classes began;
actively engaged participants with content for an average time of 24 minutes, 54 seconds;
awarded 3,806 badges for participation;
engaged faculty members from across the University through the mini-lecture programming, which in turn provided them with opportunities to practice their online lecturing skills before the academic year began;
helped our Admissions & Recruitment team illustrate Ryerson’s standards of care, innovation, and adaptability to almost 23,000 prospective students at a crucial time in a recruitment cycle under the unknown influence COVID-192.
What We Learned
Key overall findings from our pre- and post-surveys3 include:
The majority of students felt more prepared, more confident and clearer about their academic and community responsibilities as Ryerson students as a result of participating in Get Ryerson Ready.
As a result of participating inthe program, students reported an overall decrease in concern in areas including attendance of online lectures, comprehending course material, and accessing both student and academic support.
Over 50% of students surveyed raised concerns about being able to socialize with peers and connect with the Ryerson community even after participating in Get Ryerson Ready.
Students’ anecdotal feedback indicates that they found Get Ryerson Ready to be a helpful bridge into university and the fully online learning environment, allowing them to mentally prepare for their courses, socially connect with other incoming students, and learn about resources.
“I have never really felt engaged during remote learning – today I really appreciated having the time after class to reconvene and chat and socialize.”
“All the resources for the different subjects allowed me to review knowledge and be mentally prepared for my courses.”
“I loved how the course was structured. I found the different courses provided on D2L really helpful as well, especially the ones that detailed the different supports available to students.”
“The writing tips helped me get a better understanding of how to better write a university grade paper.”
“I want to personally thank you. It was both helpful to get ready and receive incentive for that. Good idea.”
More detailed findings from each of the five modules also proved to be helpful.
Community Ready
Events and activities focused on transition and academics (e.g. finding communities, student experience panels) gained more traction and had higher attendance numbers than social events (e.g. games nights, talent shows, and DIY activities). This is the opposite of what was observed when most orientation and transition offerings were in-person during pre-COVID times.
Students were highly engaged and participatory during the Q & A portions of events, often running two to three times longer than what was allotted.
Math Ready
Based on students’ anecdotal feedback, they found the instructional videos very easy to follow and they wanted more opportunities to practice than what was offered.
Study Ready
Students attended mini-lectures that did not necessarily correspond to their academic programs, expressed interest in and curiosity about lecture topics outside of their field of study, and asked about elective options.
After the mini-lectures, professors reported students reaching out, in response to invitations they made during their mini-lecture, with questions about courses and programs.
Wellness Ready
By focusing on the student experience and the other facets of well-being, including the connection between regular activity and academic performance, we welcomed more students to online classes, programs, and spaces offered by Athletics & Recreation.
Writing Ready
Kahoot quizzes following lectures and modules were valuable for encouraging student engagement and cementing learning, however, these were not necessarily valuable for assessment purposes.
While the percentage of correct responses to Kahoot quizzes indicates that learning outcomes were met generally, there were discrepancies between these outcomes and the aspects of writing that students continued to struggle with in their essay contest submissions.
Planning for 2021
Program planning for Get Ryerson Ready 2021 is underway. Consultation with key stakeholders in all Faculties aims to enhance programming for individualized needs and interests and to increase the overall engagement of students across academic programs. The assessment plan for 2021’s program will include a check-in with participants at the midpoint and end of their first academic year at Ryerson, designed to inform the impact of Get Ryerson Ready on student persistence and retention. Given that over 50% of respondents raised concerns about being able to socialize with peers and connect with the Ryerson community, there will be a research focus in the planning phase on supporting community engagement and connection in online environments.
Discussions with the team about the data pulled from a variety of sources (e.g. surveys, quiz scores, submitted assignments, D2L analytics, and observations) were rich and led to an abundance of recommendations for future iterations of Get Ryerson Ready. Ideas put forward for 2021 include, but aren’t limited to: increasing data collection functionality on existing platforms, adding asynchronous modules while reducing the length for more targeted learning outcomes, pre-recording fitness classes to increase reach and accessibility, and adding co-facilitators to synchronous content to further facilitate conversation and answer questions.
In Conclusion
The essence of this program was a quick pivot to ensure Ryerson University met the new urgent and emerging needs of our incoming students during a time of uncertainty in a fully online service and learning environment. Get Ryerson Ready was student-centred, learner-focused, research- and praxis-informed, responsive, and relevant. It responded effectively and creatively to the context of learning, well-being, and community building in a fully online environment, all within the first months of the COVID-19 lockdown in Toronto. We are proud of our award-winning accomplishments and excited to build on the successes of the program as we continue to improve how we meet the transitional needs of new students at Ryerson.
Endnotes
1 This included the Registrar, the Executive Director, Student Affairs, and the Director, Student Life & Learning Support.
2 Between late June and late July 2020, 22,834 prospective students opened the Admissions & Recruitment team’s emails promoting Get Ryerson Ready, which was an open rate more than 1.5 times higher than the higher education industry average (source: MailChimp).
3 811 students responded to the Get Ryerson Ready pre-survey and 668 responded to our post-survey. due to the limitations in the assessment platform, it is not possible to prove that those who filled out the pre- and post-surveys were the same participants.
Bios
Rachel Barreca (she/her), B.A., M.A., is a settler Canadian student affairs pro who currently works on the Dish With One Spoon treaty lands as the Manager, Strategic Initiatives in Ryerson Student Affairs. She has been supporting successful student transitions into higher education since 1994.
Kait Taylor-Asquini (she/her), B.A., M.A., is the Director, Student Life & Learning Support in Student Affairs at Ryerson. A member of the Ryerson community since 2004, she has experienced the growth and evolution of the student experience at Ryerson as both a student and staff member.
Upon graduation, today’s students are facing a unique problem: the job market is full of positions designated as “entry-level,” but many of those positions actually require several years’ worth of experience. This catch-22 is a frustrating obstacle for new graduates. After cultivating so many important skills throughout their academic studies, they now find themselves stuck when applying to jobs.
To add to the problem, the pandemic has undoubtedly shaken up the job market. In a survey by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, 48% of employers expected that full recovery of the college labor market will take two to three years, and 15% felt it will take even longer.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to help students navigate the intimidating landscape of job hunting around graduation time. So, how can academic and professional staff help when preparing students for their job search? Here are several actionable tips and pieces of advice to share with your students.
Create a Presentation for Your Dream Company.
Encourage students to go the extra mile when they find a company they really connect with. Creating a presentation or pitch deck for that company could be something students either a)don’t know they can do or b) simply have never thought about, but it can be a great way to get positive attention from recruiters.
By conducting research, students can create a competitive analysis or simply suggest areas of improvement for a specific department in their custom presentation. They can submit the presentation along with their application materials. Remind students, however, that this extra work is probably worth saving for just a handful of companies they really care about.
Network Online.
Unfortunately, face-to-face networking isn’t very feasible right now, so students will need to make even stronger use of social platforms. However, filling out online applications may not be enough to land those highly competitive jobs.
Thankfully, there are many online resources for students to tap into. It’s worth going over LinkedIn How-To’s and teaching students to market themselves professionally on social media. When they begin their job search, encourage them to reach out to recruiters with personalized messages online.
Use Digital Resources to Learn the Ins and Outs of the Industry.
Students with a lack of industry experience may find it difficult to come across as well-versed and knowledgeable during interviews. However, you can share online resources to encourage them to learn about their chosen field. Here are some resources to share:
These resources may help students soak up some of the knowledge they need to appear more confident when filling out those applications and speaking to hiring managers.
TED Talks relating to the specific industry the student is interested in
Podcasts by industry experts
Blogs written by thought leaders in the field
News sites with the latest industry updates
Volunteer or Intern Virtually. In their College Students Helping America Report, the Corporation for National & Community Service found that 60% of hiring managers see volunteering as a valuable asset when making hiring decisions. It’s safe to say that volunteering won’t hurt on a resume. Similarly, interning in a specific industry can help students gain some of the experience they need for an entry-level position.
With many in-person volunteer and intern opportunities on hold during the pandemic, students may not know that there are still great virtual opportunities out there. For example, they can tutor younger students online or assist a nonprofit organization with marketing and research. Many companies have also begun to offer remote internships so students can work from home.
Show off Academic Work in a Portfolio.
Even with limited work experience, anyone can benefit from creating an online portfolio or website. A polished portfolio will show recruiters that a student takes initiative and is excited to put their skills to use at their new job.
Students can populate their portfolios with college projects and writing samples. Assignments such as graphic design or marketing work for a fake brand are perfect for displaying on portfolio sites. An online portfolio is also a great way for students to exhibit their transferable skills. For example, displaying an impressive analytical essay written for a class demonstrates critical thinking and communication skills.
It may be worth dedicating a class to creating work portfolios using Wix or another free website builder.
Develop New Skills with Online Courses.
Taking online courses, such as those on LinkedIn Learning or other platforms, can help students gain even more industry knowledge and teach them technical skills, such as specific software, needed to apply to some entry-level jobs.
2020 was a tough year for new graduates, and 2021 will continue to present a challenge for those looking to launch their careers. Academic staff can help support their students in this difficult time by providing these resources and pieces of advice for self-advocating and standing out on applications. For more tips, check out JobHero.
Hana Rehman is a content creator who develops helpful and compelling stories. Her passion for digital marketing and creative writing has led her to cover unique topics ranging from business to lifestyle.
We know you are doing amazing work helping students achieve their academic, professional, and personal goals. The Supporting Student Success blog is looking for guest bloggers for 2021. There is simply no better time than the present to share how you are supporting student success with colleagues from around the world.
Blog posts range from 750-2000 words. Excellent posts begin by stating the problem, challenge, or opportunity. They then share what was done to address the problem, rise to the challenge, or seize on the opportunity. When possible, posts conclude with how the response was received. These are the data (numeric or narrative) that convey students’, staff or faculty members’ experience.
Pictures are worth a thousand words. We encourage guest bloggers to provide figures, tables, infographics, or other images that help tell the story.
Nearly 4000 student affairs and services and higher education staff and faculty follow the blog. Your post is an important point of connection and may lead to an international collaboration. Don’t delay; pitch your post today. We look forward to hearing from you!
When I was a kid, I dreamt of traveling the world. I remember friends from a youth organization (4-H) hosting an exchange student from Japan. I was in grade 4 and I wanted to learn all about this student’s life back home and how it compared to her experience in the US. When I was in high school, I begged my parents to become a host family. And then a year later, I begged them to be an exchange student myself. I was abroad with the American Field Service (AFS) as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange in Germany in 1990-1991, the year of Germany’s reunification. In a sentence, the experience changed my life.
I have always been curious about how the every day experience may differ in another context, in another country. Maybe you have this same curiosity. Do you find yourself wondering: How does higher education operate in China? What does student affairs work look like in the Philippines? How do higher education institutions support student success in Mexico?
If you have these questions, then I have the virtual voyage for you. Set sail, from the comfort of your own couch, and join me as we go around the globe to learn about pathways to student affairs and services careers. ACPA – College Student Educators International and IASAS (International Association of Student Affairs and Services) have partnered in offering this awesome “Around the Globe” webinar series. Register today for the event Tuesday, October 27 (10 am EDT / 2 pm GMT). https://iasas.global/webinars/
It was early in 2017 when our Student Life department received the approval we had been waiting for – we were embarking on a journey to make the University of Guelph-Humber a CliftonStrengths campus and I was tasked with leading the project. I was both excited to lead a project I was passionate about and nervous about how it would all come together. This project was particularly important to me because of the impact CliftonStrengths had made in my life and how the tool was being used to support post-secondary students’ development.
In 2012, I signed up for a professional development workshop and discovered my Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Communication, Woo, Consistency, Discipline, and Includer. At first these were mostly made up words with definitions that were new to me but as a I learned more, I understood how useful this tool could be. Discovering my CliftonStrengths improved the way I saw myself, elevated my study habits, enhanced the way I approached my work, and gave me a common language to use when advising students. Out of all the “personality assessments” I have taken, CliftonStrengths resonates with me most because of the personalized results and their seemingly infinite combinations – the odds that someone will have the exact same Top 5 results in the exact same order is 1 in 33 million (Leibbrandt, 2013).
What is CliftonStrengths?
You may be asking what is CliftonStrengths (CS) and how does it help students? Donald Clifton’s decades of research rooted in positive psychology led to the creation of the CS assessment. When people complete the assessment, they receive a report describing their Top 5 talents (out of 34) with tips for investing in them in order to develop them into strengths.
“CliftonStrengths provided me with the resources necessary to reflect on what I am naturally talented at and put those reflections into actions in ways I never imagined possible. This program gave me confidence in my unique set of strengths and gave me actionable guidance about how I can incorporate these “superpowers” into my academic, professional, and personal lives.”
CliftonStrengths at the University of Guelph-Humber
For those unfamiliar with the University of Guelph-Humber (UofGH), we are located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and are a joint venture between two Ontario post-secondary institutions – the University of Guelph (U of G) and Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (Humber). Our students graduate with both a U of G honours degree and Humber diploma in only four years. We currently offer seven focused programs at the undergraduate level and have an enrollment of 4,818 (University of Guelph-Humber, 2020).
When we started our CS program at UofGH in 2017, our target audience was first-year students and student leaders. The goal was every student would receive an access code by the 2020-21 academic year. Over the past few years, we have developed a program that is woven into our curricular and co-curricular programming. Here are some of our successes, challenges, and the lessons learned along the way.
Successes
Champions: I cannot say enough about the value of people who believed in what we were doing and acted as an ambassador for our CS program. Whether it was senior administrators adding their Top 5 strengths in their email signature, staff asking about a student’s strengths during an advising session, faculty who invited me to present in their classes, or student leaders who shared their story of how their strengths helped them succeed, they all contributed to building awareness and elevating the value of our CS program.
“CliftonStrengths has provided valuable language and perspective to use when engaging with students and staff in various interactions, including training, check-ins, and delegation of tasks. With student staff, I’ve shifted the focus of my annual check-ins to include discussion of their top 5 strengths and encourage students to reflect on how their strengths contribute to their performance in their role and any identified areas of improvement.”
– Jessica Pilfold, Student Life Coordinator
Weaving: My approach for launching this program was to connect it to existing structures by weaving it into our Orientation program, training for student leaders, and our curriculum. All new students participated in an Introduction to Strengths Workshop during their Orientation program. Afterwards, they were invited to participate in three additional workshops – Groups & Teams, Strengths-Based Resiliency, and Leading with Strengths. For further incentive, each workshop could be added to their Co-Curricular Record (CCR); a formal record recognizing skill development beyond the curriculum. I also worked with faculty to build custom workshops for their courses. One of our longest standing collaborations is in a third-year Kinesiology course, where I co-present workshops with a Career Services Coordinator demonstrating how students can apply their strengths to a job in their field. Then the students are required to further reflect on their strengths for a career map assignment.
Liana presenting a workshop to students.
“My job at the University allows me to work with students in career exploration from the very beginning of ‘what is a career?’ My CliftonStrengths (Developer, Communication, Maximizer, Arranger, Positivity) have greatly assisted me in finding my ideal career calling by utilizing my talents to assist students in exploring their career aspirations, using positive, organized and optimistic views. Students regularly comment on feeling relieved, more informed and having a better idea on where to begin their career journey.”
– Sandra Fazio, Career Services Coordinator for Justice, Psychology, & Kinesiology
Challenges
Training: Gallup, the company who administers the CS assessment, provides training for using the tool. I was part of a team of four UofGH staff who attended a week-long training. The training gave us in-depth insight and prepared us to be coaches, however it did not provide guidance for launching a CS program at a post-secondary institution. This led me to create a UofGH interdepartmental committee to develop a program to meet the needs of our students. I also leveraged my network of Student Affairs Professionals across Canada and the United States to learn best practices from their CS programs.
Branding: After the first year of the program, we surveyed students who did not complete the CS assessment to determine why. The results indicated a gap in awareness and understanding of the value of the tool. This led to a greater focus on promotions: creating a logo, using the tagline: Unleash Your Strengths, creating customized posters for key campus partners, and hiring a CliftonStrengths Program Ambassador (CSPA) to assist with promotions and manage a volunteer team. The CSPA and volunteers played a key role in peer-to-peer interactions. All these branding efforts led to greater awareness of our CS program amongst students.
Poster designed for Academic Advisors’ offices.
Moving Forward
After three years and four intakes of UofGH students, I am pleased to report the program continues to grow and support our students in their journey to reach their academic, personal, and professional goals. For the 2020-21 academic year, my focus is two-fold; to build upon our existing curriculum integration and to explore a peer coaching model. Given the pandemic, I am also working to convert all in-person workshops to a virtual format. Furthermore, I am focusing on adding more content to our website to share the resources the CSPA and volunteer team would normally distribute when promoting the program on campus. The current circumstances presented an opportunity to rework and improve our workshops and resources for students. Now more than ever, Dweck’s (2006) message of a growth mindset is key to instill in our students.
“CliftonStrengths is an incredible test, it opened my eyes to who I am as a person. It highlighted and presented insights on 5 strengths that I truly never considered. After having a coaching call with Liana Acri, she and I were able to narrow professions that would best suit my strengths and ways I can improve my overall life academically and personally with the traits the test presented.”
– Nishanth Puvanendran, Business student
Are you using CS for yourself or with your students? Let’s connect! I’m always happy to chat about strengths, sharing resources, facilitating workshops, having coaching conversations, our CS program at UofGH, etc. Reach out on LinkedIn or email me at strengths@guelphhumber.ca. What other tools and programs do you use to support students? I would love to learn about them.
Liana Acri (she/her), M.Ed., B.B.A, is a Student Life Coordinator at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and her Top 5 strengths are Communication, Woo, Consistency, Discipline, and Includer.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
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