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Orientation 2020: Everything You Need to Know

Posted by: Erin Blevins | July 2, 2020 | No Comment |

For the first time ever, new student orientation at the College of Charleston will be held online for incoming students joining the Cougar family for the fall 2020 semester. Running from July 8 to Aug. 7, 2020, a total of 11 virtual orientation sessions will be held for students and families to learn more about campus resources, academic programs and student life.

Each student’s schedule will be different, based on required meetings and advising appointments. Students will receive their personalized schedules a week before their orientation in their College of Charleston email. On the day of orientation, students, in a series of online sessions via Zoom, will work with an orientation intern, meet other new students and work with an academic advisor to review academic plans and register for fall classes.

Read full article at The College Today.

under: Program Spotlight

The Center for Student Learning (CSL) earlier this spring celebrated its first-ever cohort of tutors to complete the Tutor Advancement Program (TAP).

“Part of the CSL’s mission is to provide opportunities where peer educators (such as tutors) may increase their knowledge and skills in a way that is beneficial for them in their work in the CSL and beyond,” says Abe Saunders, CSL associate director. “We want to promote student leadership and development through peer education experiences. The goal is for TAP participants to become more effective tutors. But we are also committed to helping their tutor experience benefit their academic and professional goals. Knowledge and skills that our tutors develop through this program can be invaluable to their future success.”

Read full article in the College Today.

under: Program Spotlight

Nora Krasowski featured on CofC Faces to Know

Posted by: Erin Blevins | May 6, 2020 | No Comment |

Nora Krasowski is the Lead Support Coordinator for freshman students participating in the REACH Program.

Read the full article at The College Today.

under: Staff Spotlight

Strengths Institute 2020

Posted by: Erin Blevins | April 30, 2020 | No Comment |

Faculty  and staff are invited to apply to attend the second annual Strengths Institute, Aug. 10–12, 2020.

Based on Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment and talent themes, the Strengths Institute is a highly interactive workshop designed to provide faculty and staff a foundation to understand and apply their individual strengths.  It also provides strategies to weave strengths into their instruction and interactions with students.

Read full article at the College Today

 

under: Uncategorized

The College’s Center for Student Learning (CSL) is ready to offer all of its tutoring and student support services virtually during the institution’s e-learning period due to the coronavirus pandemic. Services offered will include tutoring, supplemental instruction, peer academic coaches and study skills services.

Read full article at The College Today.

under: Uncategorized

The Center for Excellence in Peer Education (CEPE) prepares outstanding students to mentor, tutor, and assist their peers in both curricular and co-curricular settings. The Center offers resources, services, and training opportunities to the College of Charleston campus and to other college and university peer educator groups interested in improving and/or expanding their peer educator programs.

To read Knack’s spotlight visit:  https://www.joinknack.com/blog/2020/01/31/spotlight-college-of-charleston/ 

under: Program Spotlight

REACH Graduate is Delivering the Goods

Posted by: Erin Blevins | January 20, 2020 | No Comment |

Life is hard enough without having to deal with issues most of us take for granted. That’s why, since its founding in 2010, the College’s REACH Program has helped more than 100 students with intellectual or cognitive disabilities make it on their own, people like Randon Strange ’16 of Metter, Ga., who enrolled at the urging of a friend.

“It’s one of the top programs in the country, and there was nothing like it where I grew up,” says Strange, who took full advantage of all REACH had to offer. Other students helped him improve homework and test results, while REACH staff taught him how to manage things that made him uncomfortable, like eye contact.

The program also arranged internships for him. “Randon started out with an internship in the MUSC mailroom, then he tried a computer repair internship, but he kept going back to mail services,” says Edie Cusack ’90, executive director of the REACH Program.

Upon his graduation, Strange’s passion for mail services led him to apply to be a mail services postal courier at the College. He got the job and, while it was a tough decision to stay in Charleston, he knew he had the tools he needed to succeed.

Read full article in The College Today.

under: Program Spotlight, Staff Spotlight

Karen Hauschild named NACADA Regional Chair

Posted by: Erin Blevins | October 30, 2019 | No Comment |

photo of Karen HauschildAt its annual conference, Oct. 20–23, 2019, the NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising (NACADA) welcomed Karen Hauschild, director of the College of Charleston’s Academic Advising and Planning Center, as its Mid-South Region 3 chair. Hauschild will serve in this position until October 2021.

Read the full article at The College Today.

under: Uncategorized

CSL Tutors Save the Day! a New Training Program

Posted by: Erin Blevins | September 19, 2019 | No Comment |

In the context of higher education, Chickering & Ehrmann (1996) wrote, “Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.”

In that spirit, the Center for Student Learning adopted a new medium for our tutor training program this Fall. After one hour of lecture-style information provided for our tutors on topics ranging from privacy/ethics to effective communication to submitting timesheets, more than sixty of our new tutors were broken into groups and charged with the task of saving the College of Charleston from a significant weather event. The only way for our tutors to save the campus from extensive flooding was to use the knowledge they gained from new tutor training to solve riddles and decode puzzles that would open boxes with combination locks. Each box they opened represented a key campus location and provided new clues and challenges that would eventually lead them to securing the last location on campus – the CSL!

The project-based learning technique we used is a form of an escape room where participants are “locked” into a room and must “break out” in a pre-determined amount of time. Escape rooms and break-out activities have been popular in educational settings in the last few years and something that the College of Charleston is working to implement more regularly in classrooms. Jared Seay, Research Librarian and Media Services Coordinator, was awarded a grant from the Innovative Teaching and Learning in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Small Grants Program. Jared’s mission is to transform learning into “immersive scenarios,” as he calls them, that allow students to interact with course content through platforms such as escape rooms, break-out boxes, role play, and megagames. We reached out to Jared to learn how we could make this work for our tutor training, and he was instrumental in its success!  Developing the break-out scenario took a great deal of time and effort, but we think it paid off! The tutors were excited, engaged, and enjoyed the experience. The CSL plans to incorporate additional immersive scenarios into our ongoing training programs later this Fall!

Written by Abe Saunders, CSL

References:
Chickering, Arthur W. and Ehrmann Stephen C. (1996), “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” AAHE Bulletin, October, pp. 3-6

under: Program Spotlight, Uncategorized

AEX Step Challenge grows

Posted by: Erin Blevins | August 29, 2019 | No Comment |

This year marks the 4th installment of the AEX Step Challenge and thanks to the article, “Staff, Faculty Step it up for Health” in the College Today, participation has exploded to 92 participants representing 49 different departments across campus. Participants have been divided into 6 different flights so that they are competing against others who get approximately the same number of steps each week.  In addition to recording and submitting steps, they also participate in a variety of monthly health challenges.

Thanks to Michelle Futrell, Director, Center for Academic Performance and Persistence, for managing this Challenge!

under: Uncategorized

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