Author Archives: Josh Kohnert (@JoshKohnert)

May 17 2012
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Admissions, Professional Development, Student Affairs, Uncategorized

Teaching the Successes to College

The third post in my initial series is a conclusion to the First Year Experience.  I so far have introduced thoughts about New Student Orientation, and Welcome Week.  This third part is about what happens when the school year starts.   Many universities, including my own institution, provides a class for students to take in the first semester.  This class, which I am going to call First Year Seminar, is supposed to teach students the successes to being a college student.

Some of these successes are topics like note taking, studying, and how to do research.  And while these topics are sometimes not the favorites of the students in the classroom, they are necessary.   I have helped to teach a couple of these seminars.  Following up with my students in later years, the biggest thing they have said was how beneficial covering topics like that were.  They said that college is a huge step from high school.  At the same time, it was these students that gave me the most problems in the classroom on days like this.

So the bigger questions is: does teaching success skills like the one’s mentioned above need to be so painful for students in the class?  Looking back and now looking forward as a hopeful professional in this area of higher education, I know now that the answer is no.

Creativity in lessons can go very far when working with students.  Half of the battle in most cases is trying to have he students buy in to the importance.  One solution among many, is to incorporate their other classes into this seminar class.  Another is the style of class.  Having a theme or a key issues that the class has to solve over the course of the semester can help when addressing different lessons over the course of the semester.

One thing that I think that every instructor would hate to hear is that their class was not beneficial.  When discussing retention at any level, one of the questions that may come up is, “Are our students prepared to succeed?”  This preparedness starts their first year.  Between learning about the university and making friends in the first two programs,  First Year Seminar brings it home with preparedness to get it done in the classroom.

What at your university helps get students prepared?

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Apr 26 2012
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Retention

Welcome Week – Picking up Where Orientation Left Off?

Welcome week, an opportunity for students to move into their residence halls, buy their books and supplies for the next semester, and just get themselves acclimated to the university.

But it is really the tip of the iceberg.

Welcome Week, or at least at my institution “Fall Welcome,” is a time for celebration!  ”Congratulations!  You are a Bronco!  Welcome to Western Michigan University!”  It also is somewhat viewed as the kick-off to the rest of a student’s collegiate career.  Whether it is 4, 5, or 6 years, it all starts the week before the fall semester in your first year.  There is a wide variety of ice breaking events and information sessions for an entire week.  Everything we would hope a student would want to know is somewhere throughout the week.

But what do we really hope a student gets out of a “Fall Welcome”?

The excitement of a new year is really great.  At the same time, our excitement as members of different departments on campus can inherently hinder the start of a student’s time.  We all want our students to know we exist, but do we have to do it all at the same time?  Or, is it more important to be unified in welcoming the new class into the family?

Reflecting quickly on my own experience, which was not that long ago in the real scheme of things, I felt like my mind was on overload.   While it was exciting to see all the different organizations that I could get involved in, I was also learning about the different services.  In the meantime, I was still trying to figure out what my ID card could do for me and why I should always have it on me.

Again, what do we really hope students get out of a Fall Welcome?   This is not a hate on welcome weeks post, but rather the opposite of that.  It is a conversation starter on a program that I personally hold dear to my heart.  I am not the leader I am without the experience I had, but that is a different conversation.

  • What is working at your institution, what do your weeks look like?
  • Are they even weeks? Days? Day?
  • Who do you have involved in the program?

I know a future post will be the influence student leaders have in this crazy equation and how they are so very essential to this kind of program.

Mar 05 2012
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EM, Retention, Uncategorized

New Student Orientation – A Welcome to a New World

Oh the beginning of summer. High School seniors are getting ready to graduate and move on towards achieving their life goals. Many include going to college, and the first step at most Colleges and Universities is new student orientation. My experience with new student orientation is the smallest of our First Year Experience program, but the importance and the lessons I learned were just as significant. I not only participated in new student orientation as an incoming first year student, but I also had the privilege of being a Orientation Student Leader (OSL).

As an OSL, I was prepared for a month of pure insanity. We ended the semester at the end of April and the first weekend in May began our month leadership class. We, a staff of 36 OSLs and 4 student coordinators, moved into one of our residence halls to begin preparing for orientation. Every morning would consist of workouts at our Rec Center. Each day would cover a wide variety of topics and field trips around campus that would ultimately teach us about ourselves, leading groups of students, and knowledge of the University. Each evening and weekend we spent bonding and getting to know each other through “Deep Meaningful Conversations.” It was truly an experience that greatly shaped who I am as a Student Affairs Professional in Higher Education.

Orientation is a time to begin the connection between the students and the University. It is a time where departments begin to show the support services they offer to students. It is also a time for the students to begin making networks with other students, their student leader, faculty, and staff. Although it is a very chaotic couple of days for the student, the student walks away with a sense of belonging and feeling that they are a welcomed member of the University.

For more insight about the Orientation program at Western Michigan University click here. The purpose of this post is to give small highlights to the program I was a part of to ultimately start a discussion about Orientation. If you have questions, comments, or stories of programs of your own, please feel free to comment below. Please also feel free to connect with me on Twitter @JoshKohnert

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Feb 13 2012
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EM, Retention

First Year Experience – The Transition to College

Hello Everyone!  I am beyond excited to talk with you.  This is not only my first post with #EMchat, but really my first time talking as a professional.   For the next couple of months, I am going to be contributing to this website about the subject of transitioning to college.  I find a lot of professionals have that area that they gravitate towards and develop a strong passion.  Mine happens to be First Year Experience.  Before I dive into what I will be talking about in the next few posts, I guess I should briefly share where this passion came from and where I am headed.

I started college as a traditional student back in 2006.  I had an excellent experience going through First Year Experience. As a student, the program made me want to get involved.  Over the next 6 years to the present day, I have pursued as many experiences at the university in the area of First Year Experience.  I was the orientation leader, the welcome week leader, the student instructor in the seminar course, and eventually, the student coordinator for two of the programs.  I student taught and while I loved teaching high school, I found myself having a passion for empowering the students to be successful in their life over the subject of math.  Fast forward to today, I am currently a Graduate Assistant in Career and Student Employment Services, but I love First Year Experience so much that I am doing my practicum for my Master’s Degree with First Year Seminar.

First Year Experience at Western Michigan University includes three separate programs that work together to begin student success in college.  They are New Student Orientation, Fall Welcome (Welcome Week), and finally First Year Seminar.  My posts in the future will touch on what I found to be successful towards engaging students and becoming a advocate for student success both as a student leader level and as a student coordinator.  I even hope to recap my practicum experience as I move even closer towards being a better professional.

That sets the stage for what is headed your way.  I would love to get in contact with you and begin having discussions about anything really.  All you have to do is follow me on Twitter (@joshkohnert).  I will warn you ahead of time, I do tweet about my life both personal and professional because one thing I think is important to being an advocate is that you are genuine.  So come meet the real me and look forward to my input on a very important program in a college student’s life.

Thank You!

~Josh Kohnert~

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