Connecting Work and Academics

Teri Schnelle, Office of the Vice President for Student LifeLindsay Naylor, Office of the Vice President for Student Life

Meet and Greet

In groups of 2-3 share your name, department, student employee supervision and what you are hoping to gain from today’s session.

Agenda

Enhancing student success through employment The key role of supervisors Overview of IOWA GROW® process and data How do students and supervisors benefit? Strategies, tools, and resources

Outcomes

After participating in this session, you will be able to:

Articulate the purpose of IOWA GROW®. Describe three strategies you can use to facilitate

IOWA GROW® conversations. Explain one way you will apply what you have

learned today to your IOWA GROW® conversations.

Student employment is positive for the student and employer

Student employees can be challenging

It is easier for supervisors in some areas to spend time developing student employees

Small efforts can make a big difference in helping our students develop important skills for lifelong success

There can be both an immediate and long-term payoff for this investment in student development

Assumptions

Defining Student Success (UI SST, 2007)

University of Iowa students succeed when they achieve personal and institutional educational goals

Successful students develop skills and knowledge, become more mature in their thinking, assume greater responsibility for their own lives and learning, develop understanding of diversity and multiculturalism, and become effective leaders.

Student Life Marketing & Design

Where do students …

develop skills and knowledge? become more mature in their thinking? assume greater responsibility? develop understanding of diversity? become more effective?

Why focus on learning?

Kuh: Students are most successful in “seamless environments” where they can make connections between classroom and out of classroom experiences

The Division of Student Life is the largest employer of students on campus

Our mission: The Division of Student Life fosters student success by creating and promoting inclusive educationally purposeful services and activities within and beyond the classroom.

High-impact activities

High-impact activities are those that allow students to apply learning to real-life, to make connections, to reflect and to integrate learning

High-Impact Activities

Most students work at some point

Employment can be related positively to engagement with the institution not a ‘distraction’ from academic pursuits

Work can be high-impact with some additional structure from us (supervisors)

Identified outcomes (what we want them to know or be able to do)

Deliberate reflection

Making employment high-impact

“Scaffolding” — using prompts that encourage students to connect previous knowledge and experience to new experiences and knowledge

Student Life Marketing & Design

Supervisors are educators

As supervisors, you help students learn real-world skills

Many supervisors are already having conversations with their student employees

Through IOWA GROW® supervisors can help make even deeper connections between work and academics

Supervisors’ Role

Goals of IOWA GROW®

To make student employment a high-impact activity by providing structured opportunities for students to reflect on and integrate what they are learning

To help students better articulate what they have learned from their job

What is IOWA GROW®?

IOWA GROW® uses brief, structured conversations between student employees and their supervisors to help make the learning that is occurring through student employment more “visible” to the students.

The conversations focus on 4 key questions about what students are learning and how they are applying their learning.

How is this job fitting in with your academics? What are you learning here that’s helping you in school? What are you learning in class that you can apply here at work? Can you give me a couple of examples of things you’ve learned

here that you think you’ll use in your chosen profession?

IOWA GROW® data

Division of Student Life Student Employment Survey is conducted every spring

Spring 2014 survey 1,925 students surveyed 670 responses (35% response rate)

IOWA GROW® participants were determined based on their answer to the following question: “How often during the spring semester have you had

conversations with your supervisor about connections between your job and your academics?”

IOWA GROW® data

IOWA GROW® participants were significantly more likely to agree/strongly agree that their job was helping them attain the following 10 outcomes of student employment:

1 My supervisor helps me make connections between my work and my life as a student.

6 My job has helped me develop more effective time management skills.

2 My job has helped prepare me for the world of full-time employment.

3 My job has helped me improve my written communication skills.

4 I can see connections between my job and major/coursework.

7 My job has helped me improve my oral communication skills.

8 My job has helped me develop conflict resolution skills.

9 My job has helped me use critical thinking skills to form opinions and solve problems.

5 My job has helped me learn about career options. 10 My supervisor helps me make

connections between my work and my life as a student.

IOWA GROW® data

Time management

Conflict resolution

Critical thinking

Written communication

Oral communication0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

IOWA GROWNon-IOWA GROW

IOWA GROW® participants were more likely to report gaining the following skills from their jobs:

Perc

ent o

f stu

dent

s

What do students say?

“As an international

student, I am no longer

afraid of speaking

English or giving a

speech in front of

others, especially with

native speakers. My job

helps me to be more

confident and positive.”

“My time management and organizational skills were the most improved by being a student employee. Without overwhelming amounts of free time that allowed me to procrastinate, I was forced to organize my time in order to be able to get everything done.”

“Between communicating with parents on the phone, students having troubles at the desk, and even how to handle awkward and forced conversations with wayward students, I have learned how to talk to scores of people, which I feel is a crucial skill to an enriching education.”

Benefits for supervisors

When students make connections to the workplace, they are more invested

Invested employees do better work and feel more committed and responsible to you

These conversations also open the line of communication between you and your employees

What benefits have you seen from your conversations with student employees ?

Before your conversation

Think about what you want your student employees to gain from their work

“By May, I hope the students I supervise are able to….” (do more, do better, know more, know better)

What skills would you like your student employees to gain from their work?

Before your conversation

Decide on one-on-one or group conversations

Send out questions ahead of time and let students know you will discuss their responses at your meeting

Think about how you can integrate your conversation into any check-ins or one-on-ones with students

Having the conversation

Remind students this is an IOWA GROW® conversation and restate the purpose

Use the four questions to guide the conversation

Take notes to refer to during the next conversation

Conversations don’t need to be long; most are 10-15 minutes

Two per semester

Familiarize yourself with resources, included in your packet, in case students need referrals

Example conversation

Conversation strategies

Weave the questions into your conversation Use your notes to revisit topics of interest in later

conversations Find new ways to ask the same questions

What strategies have worked in your IOWA GROW conversations?

Continuing conversations

Prompt students regarding the skills you have determined they should be learning

Incorporate other questions in addition to the four

Ask students to reflect on their experiences since your last conversation

Mention at the end of the conversation that you will be discussing this again later in the semester

Facilitating group meetings

Keep groups at eight students or fewer so that everyone has a chance to speak

Make sure to provide questions beforehand so that students come ready to discuss

Encourage students to share with a partner what they are learning at work and how it connects with academics

After partners have shared, have them report back to the group on what they talked about

Managing group dynamics

Concern Strategies

One person dominates the conversation Acknowledge their contributions, but ask, “What do others think?”

Call on other individuals to speak Use a round-robin format so that each

person gets to shareA student remains silent Ask in a non-pressuring way if they

would like to share Use small-group discussions or partner

sharingA student keeps taking the conversation to a negative place

Acknowledge their frustrations and offer to follow up with them later

Move on to others who are interested in sharing

Making referrals

When a student confides in you about a personal concern, this means they trust you

As a supervisor, you don’t have to solve the problem for them, but just listen and connect them to a resource that can help

Familiarize yourself with the list of resources in your packet (page 3-4)

Continuing to support learning

Establish general outcomes for what students should learn from working in your office

Incorporate language of student learning into job postings and position descriptions

Create and use interview questions that prompt students to think about what they want to gain while working

Discuss learning outcomes during orientation/training

How can we help?

We want to know how we can support supervisors in their work with IOWA GROW®

What challenges do you encounter with IOWA GROW®? What can we do to support you in having these conversations with students?

Questions? Concerns?

If you have questions or concerns, please contact Teri Schnelle at teri-schnelle@uiowa.edu.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to all the supervisors and students who participated in IOWA GROW® during our pilot process; the core IOWA GROW® development team including: Penny Kaelber (formerly with Iowa Memorial Union), Rachelle Stewart (formerly with University Housing and Dining), and Tara Black (formerly with Student Health Service); and Cindy Seyfer and Belinda Marner who provided helpful project guidance. Special thanks to Dr. George Kuh for his support and consultation on IOWA GROW®.