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Strengthening the Student Experience

MFYC'12: September 28, 2012

at Northern Illinois University


Educators committed to student success are continuously looking for ways to improve the college experience. What can we do to better engage students' curiosity and interest in learning? How can we make choices for academic programs and student services that increase students' chances for success? What factors matter most in planning for the success of new students?

This regional one-day drive-in conference provides a forum for academic and student affair professionals to share ideas, resources, and engaging pedagogy to enhance their instruction of first-year students.

  • As my individual session evaluations indicated, I was very please with the sessions I attended: interesting, professionally prepared, and provocative in implications for NIU's first year student experience.

     

  • It was excellent to have an overview of the theories that govern our practice- and an insight into why it is our practices that govern our theories
  • Very good insight into the first year student and good ideas of how to better serve students.
  • The keynote speaker's talk was engaging, insightful, and challenging, yet also filled with practical ideas for improving NIU's first year student experience.
  • Inspiring, challenging, and informative. I have been quoting him to staff regularly since the presentation.
  • It provided a number of good ideas and examples for activities that we as a college can undertake as part of our first-year program.
  • It was nice to meet others from Illinois and talk more about our experiences/learn from each other.
  • The keynotes were wonderful - thank you for bringing-in such fabulous speakers! The applicability of the information to my classes now and to the FYE program we have on our campus. It generated lots of food for thought and has resulted in implementation of some newly gained ideas. Thank you for that!
  • I brought 4 people with me. 1 Student affairs and 2 faculty. We had a great time away developing great relationships for the FYE Program. Workshop wise we enjoyed the First -Year Convocation workshop and the Elin CC presentation on their use of an LMS system.
  • When I saw that it was a 1 day, very inexpensive conference located close by, I immediately contacted several other staff from our school. Fast, close and cheap....and it had 2 of the Big Names in first year experiences....I Had to be there!