College as a Course Theme
It can be difficult, especially at the two-year level, to get students involved in college life. To address this I recommend a themed writing course: the theme of “college.”
The goal is to get them immersed in the ocean of resources available to them. My school, Yuba College, does something at the end of each year called a “Graduation Survey Summary,” which is meant to gauge students’ opinions and perceptions of their on-campus experiences [what classes they liked, what resources they used, what they think could be better, etc]. One part of the survey asks them about the resources of the campus. A common answer is “never used service” – we get this for things like the College Success Center, Open Computer Labs, and the Cafeteria.
On top of that, our Career and Transfer Center, Childcare Center, EOP&S, the Writing Language and Development Center, CalWORKS, DSPS, and Veteran Services were excluded from the survey altogether because less than half the students in the survey had used them.
When do we have students on campus? During the mandatory first-year writing courses. What would be the best way to get these students substantial immersion in college life? In these courses. Hence the themed first-year writing course of “college.”
This principle is part of the Puente Project I am involved with. Puente is a statewide program housed at UC Berkeley designed to recruit educationally-disadvantaged students to come to their local community college, where they receive counseling and writing instruction, engage in after-school activities, get paired with mentors, and visit multiple university campuses, with a goal of transferring to a four-year university [the program has grown to have a presence in other states, at the middle and high school levels as well].
Statewide data going back forty years shows that student success [passing the class], retention [enrolling the next semester], graduation, and transfer numbers are stronger here than just about every demographic.
Here’s a chart on retention [CCC means California Community Colleges]:
Here’s one on transferring to a university:
We’re talking about students with some of the biggest obstacles to attainment, and some of the best numbers. How/why? One of the biggest things, in my opinion, is the immersion in college life that they get.
At the two-year level, immersion is especially important, since you feel like a gap grows between the four-year students, who are likely full-time, on much larger campuses, and [in their first year] living on campus. They are constantly immersed, in ways you could almost call a lifestyle, in the resources of college. Meanwhile a two-year student is likely to leave their life to come to school, be part-time, drive to the parking lot or get a ride or take the bus, walk to class, attend class, walk back to the parking lot, and go back home and that, outside of random visits to administration, is the extent of their immersion in our campus.
As the saying goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” I was a caterer, sports editor of the school paper, and Black Studies minor as an undergraduate. None of those things were on my radar when I entered college; I found out about them on campus.
What follows are a few ideas of things you could do in a course like this.
1. Opening the Semester / Diagnostics
I usually will give a series of diagnostics to see where they are coming from in terms of their attitudes toward school, their personal, academic and career goals, and their level of preparation. Often I’ll assign them throughout the semester.
Some files are in the “Activities” link – “Diagnostics,” “Mentors,” “Outside Connections,” “Student Voices,” “What You Read,” and “Writing Practices”
In the “Guidelines” link – “Importance of Study Rubric,” “Learning Pact,” “Random Reading Strategies,” and “Six Success Factors for Community College Students”
In the “Prompts” link – “High School Vs. College,” “Job Search Article,” “Literacies,” “Knowledge,” “Make a Difference in the World,” “Manifesto,” “Museum Curation,” “Personal Responses,” “Places,” and “Soft Skills” in the file “Mondo Mega List of Essay Prompts”
As a representative example of what you might get, in one course, the first week of class I asked students to write on how they felt about college; what their motivations were, their perceptions, their readiness, their support, what they hoped to get out of it. I kept it very general and open.
Here’s some of what came back:
“I was never told you are going to college. I simply saw the ways my parents struggled, and I knew college was my only option.”
“My family isn’t really involved with my education.”
“I want to be a good example to my family, especially my little sister…I was the first one in my family to attend college, so I really had no one to ask for advice.”
“My parents never really asked about my grades at school or how I was doing.”
“Because I am Hispanic some people think I will be a construction worker or work in the fields.”
“My father is not the best mentor in school but in the real world he’s the best mentor I could ever have.”
“I never really had mentors, just one high school teacher.”
“College is very difficult but it’s totally worth it.”
These things, at the outset, will get students negotiating their status as college students, and help them clarify their own goals, motivations, obstacles, and level of preparation, and can generally serve as a starting point that establishes a basic framework for the course theme.
You see the range of responses, the challenges, the lack of support and even discouragement many of them experience. And nearly all of these students were in their first semester, which is by far when you lose most of the 60% of students nationwide who do not graduate. These responses might underscore the need to familiarize the student with college, with the campus, and in the classroom give them tasks that they can manage. Fostering a sense of belonging but also familiarity is crucial at this vulnerable time.
I also show them a slide show titled “Course Layout,” which shows them the hard and soft skills of the class and how they will be brought into a symbiotic relationship with the four essays.
I also have a slide show titled “What School Should Be,” which shows them structure for how soft skills will be part of the course.
2. Campus Resources
The first week, I do a slideshow with links to campus resources and services, and give students an oral summary of what these things are. Below are brief descriptions of what I typically show students.
For an online class I post a document with links and have students look at them on their own.
After this, I have students free write on services that they think would apply to them or someone they know.
1. Child care
2. Student clubs
3. The student newspaper
4. Bus services
5. CALWorks [run by the state – offers cash and food assistance, foster care, and housing assistance]
6. Career Center
7. Student Success Center [tutoring]
8. Community Education [non-credit courses, driver education, and youth camps]
9. Counseling
10. Student grievances
11. Health clinic
12. Veterans services
13. Upward Bound [a bridge program for underserved students just out of high school]
14. CTE Transitions [Career and Technical Education; a program to help high school students get college credit for high school coursework]
15. EOP&S [support services for low-income students]
16. Financial aid
17. Food pantry
18. Writing Language and Development Center
Texts
“How to Find Free College Admissions Resources” – usnews.com
“The Most Underutilized Campus Resources You Should Use” – awesomecollegelife101.blogspot.com
– Both are kind of general, but get students thinking a little more about all that might be available to them; for two-year students, they give a sneak preview of what campus life at the four-year level is like, and how to get in.
3. Campus Activities and Events
This can be things ranging from performance arts to sporting events to college information day to the aforementioned campus resources to graduation to orientation to high school outreach to classroom visits by groups and organizations from throughout the community.
One exercise, and this can be an accompaniment to a writing class for an entire semester, is called the “Campus Activities Project”, which can be found in the “Activities” tab. This exercise has been repurposed from my time in the First Year Experience program at Sierra College. The goal of that program was to “keep them on campus.” You will see in this project guidance for how students can in a structured way attend a series of events, and respond to prompts that have them reflect on what they attended, how it related to the college mission, the personal value they found, and what organizers of the event maybe could have done better.
Another activity, “Outdoor Activity” [also in the “Activities” tab], is geared toward getting that two-year student out and about on campus. This is a useful exercise when you feel the class is getting a little stagnant; they like being able to take some time to get out of the room and walk around.
Texts
https://scc.losrios.edu/campus-life/calendar-and-events
– A good example of a school offering a detailed, frequently updated list of events.
“The ‘College Experience’ Isn’t Missing at Community College” – oklahoman.com
– A breakdown of involvement in campus life that can be a starting point for in-class activities, writing assignments, and discussions.
“The Benefits of Campus Involvement” – collegiateparent.com
– Similar to above, and relatively brief, but a basic introduction that might be more suited to the four-year level.
4. Testimonials
One good source is YouTube and the search “Student Testimonials College.” You will find a LOT of results to share with students.
People talk about managing the college workload, exploring a campus, internships, the ins and outs of college life, transferring, financial aid, and transitioning into the job market. Most web searches will return a huge amount of results that are similar.
I recommend testimonials from not just students, but teachers, administrators, counselors, and even people in the workforce who can discuss the skills they value. The file “Job Search Exercise,” in the “Activities” tab, and “Soft Skills” from Mondo-Mega List of Writing Prompts (33 Topics)” in the “Prompts” tab, are good for this one.
There usually is an abundance of people who will visit the class, like reps from four-year colleges, tutors, counselors, librarians, club presidents, and others. Students can be encouraged to reflect on the advice they are being given, and what they have learned from someone who has gone through the matriculation process, or has more familiarity with the college environment than they do.
A lot of students do not have people in their families or social circles who are familiar with college – also, many are so overwhelmed with school and off-campus work/personal obligations that they are not actively seeking out these types of guides and mentors.
Good activities for this section are “High School Vs. College” and “Student Voices” to be found in the “Prompts” and “Activities” sections, respectively.
5. The Benefits
I usually emphasize short web articles on the benefits of having a degree [their status as a degree-holder] as well as the time spent in college [their learning], combined with the personal/professional goals of students. It is easy to find articles on the advantages of a degree.
Sometimes the articles can be daunting because they show the more degrees you have, the more money you make, and for a first-year student, seeing that 6-8 years of college or more might be in front of them can overwhelm. I still think it’s helpful to use them as starting points to consider the value of a degree in the workforce – how much, you might ask them, is education a path to a specific career? What else is it? What should you major in if you don’t know what you want to do? Or study? Are you here for something non-academic? Which courses do you think you shouldn’t have to take?
I ask students their career and personal objectives, and have them discuss how their time in college is developing them. For those who don’t know what they want to do, a focus on valued job skills and life soft skills can take priority [see “Soft Skills” in the “Mondo Mega List of Essay Prompts”]. I’ve heard it said that college prepares students for jobs that don’t exist yet. This can be a good mantra for the undecided student.
Another aspect of the “benefits” of college is discounts available to college students. This can make for interesting research or collaborative projects; things like discounts on Amazon, local price breaks for students, free subscriptions and books, discounts at their current school, even reduced phone bills. I put one on Canvas and roll it over every semester, asking students to add to it.
6. Campus Tours
Whether physical or virtual, tours are helpful for even four-year students to see how other colleges are different from theirs [research institutions, state schools, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, technical colleges]. Where I teach, we are an hour south of Chico State, a little less than that north of UC Davis and Sacramento State. It’s a big production visiting one of these schools. Technology now makes more virtual tours possible, which students can now do synchronously or asynchronously in most places.
7. The Transition From High School
This is likely a better option late in the fall or even spring semester, when they’ve had a chance to experience college a little. I’d also note that people don’t always follow a “high school-to-college” trajectory, which can complicate this.
“High School VS. College” is an exercise, as the title obviously indicates, designed to have students reflect on the differences between high school and college; for those who have been away so long it’s hard to remember, I offer students the option of comparing college to “your time away from school,” maybe “the last year of your life.”
Another exercise is to show information on bridge programs for high school students, and have them write on what they’d recommend these programs do, or even give their own testimonial aimed at high school students.
Final projects can be collaborative essays done in groups, or individual reflections on what they have learned. The “Campus Project” document I mentioned above does a good job of guiding them through this.