Ready or not, first-year college students will be moving into their dorms and soon to begin fall classes, this summer as universities revise and rethink their undergraduate programs and success programs as student needs grow and change.
There are now an estimated 7,100 freshmen and first-year students on Virginia Tech’s campus of green and neo-Gothic architecture, according to preliminary university data released before classes begin next week.
Jayden Minick, 18, of Harrisonburg, said he has visited Blacksburg since he was a baby and is the son of a Virginia Tech graduate. He moved into one of the on-campus dorms earlier this week, and said Thursday that he feels hopeful about the college years ahead of him.
“I’m sure there will be some challenges along the way, but I think I should be able to handle it,” Minick said. “I love my partner so far. It looks great.”
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In fact, he says, he’s looking forward to hockey games and “the broader experience of having some freedom and getting better in life.”
“I would say I feel ready,” Minick said. “I think mentally I’m ready to be on my own and the curriculum and all that stuff.”
In the year With schooling in 2020 cut short by coronavirus-related closures and further disrupted by the pandemic this year and last, Minnick described his high school education as “probably a little too lax.”
“Especially 2020, that was my junior year, I felt like I missed some key things that I should have learned,” Minick said. But, “the next year, my senior year, I was really able to take advantage of it.
With engineering aspirations, Minnick enrolled in community college courses as a high school senior and got an internship, he said, “to expand what I learned.”
“I felt like I was held back in my youth, maybe I wasn’t given enough preparation to move on,” Minnick said. But I felt my senior year was very important in preparing me.
Peers have made similar comments about their high school experience in the age of the coronavirus. Because of the epidemic of neglect in high school, Minnick said he had friends who expressed concern about meeting assignment deadlines and attending classes regularly.
“It made sense to give people a break after Covid,” Minnick said. But also, maybe a little too much rest.
That’s why Virginia Tech is paying particular attention to the needs of its incoming students, said Rachel Holloway, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs.
“The transition to college is never easy, but … these students are facing such a strange situation,” Holloway said. “We’re really looking at that whole area of coming to college, not just that academic performance and preparation part.”
That’s a focus Virginia Tech has always had, she said, but disruptions in recent years have overshadowed the university’s approach. Ensuring student success requires efforts from all directions, including counselors, teachers, housing, and other departments.
“It’s really everyone on campus,” Holloway said.
“We try to get the student to the point where they feel like they can’t be successful,” Holloway continued. “For the most part, sometimes we have to build up their confidence, because it’s a big transition.”
In-person attendance at the school’s summer academy bridge programs will almost double in 2021 and 2022, compared to summer courses hosted in 2020, Holloway said. During the outbreak, student appointments with faculty advisors increased significantly, he said.
“We’re also looking specifically at the last two years, following up on the first year and establishing summer as a real opportunity for students,” Holloway said. Science, English and other general subjects. “We are encouraging students to work with their advisors to see if they can use it next summer or help them move forward in their careers in general.”
She said the growth and change between first-year students and future graduates is remarkable. Seeing that progress and their transition to graduation is how she evaluates the school’s success.
“The youth of the commonwealth have not had an easy few years,” Holloway said. “We want the next few years to be as positive and productive as we can make them.”
for all’ Hollins University’s new Office of Student Success is restructured from the former Office of Student Affairs to emphasize all aspects of achievement, safety and ownership, said Michael Gettings, professor of philosophy and associate vice president.
“It’s a holistic way of thinking about what students need to succeed,” Gettings said. “Can you write good papers?” It’s more than that. or ‘Can you do problem sets in the chemistry lab?’
The results of a college survey last year indicated that freshmen in 2021 compared to freshman college students before the pandemic had more book knowledge but lacked soft skills such as time management, multitasking, focus and attention, he said.
“In short, what we’ve seen us lose during Covid is not academic skills or knowledge, but more the challenges that Covid has brought upon itself,” said Gettings. “The impact on families, the impact on finances for some families and then the impact on mental health. Those are things that students are still carrying with them, and we’re responding.”
Overall, those and other barriers have made it difficult for some incoming students to adjust to college, the director said, adding that creating a sense of community for students is critical to their well-being, not only academically, but also in other areas of their college. Life and future.
“My mission is to look and see how I can make sure students have all the resources, opportunities and supports they need to succeed and reach their goals,” Gettings said. “Ultimately, it comes down to meeting the needs of the students and understanding what works for them.”
Hollins’ new Office of Student Success plans to coordinate efforts with many areas of the college, including professors, housing and residence life, health and counseling, change, equity and inclusion, and many other departments.
“We need to understand our students. We need to know where they’re coming from. We need to listen to them. We need to empower them, and we need to be able to make sure we’re putting things in place to help them reach their goals, because that’s the promise of a college education,” said Gettings. We see it happening, but we need to make it available to everyone.
They are patient’.Upstairs in Radford University’s Moffett Hall, prospective teachers who just moved into the Schoolhouse Living Learning Community this week are making fast friends with each other, said Brian Kitts, who teaches educational leadership.
“Young people are strong,” Keats said on Friday. “They are strong and they will find their strength.”
By surviving the pandemic, young people have learned to use their resources independently, Keats said. He notes that prospective students know where their gaps are, and they seek out tutoring and advising options for those goals.
“I think a lot of kids have developed a new set of skills and become more independent…I’m encouraged by their independence,” Keats said. “They want to know where the resources are on campus and what they can do to help.”
Keats, too, mentions that it is an important aspect of student success. Given the “infectious” excitement on Radford’s campus this week, he said, there is good reason to encourage these students to do well.
“You can already feel the sense of community building, and you can feel the kids living with each other,” Keats said. “That’s critical, transitioning to college.”
‘Shape the World’At the start of classes at Virginia Tech on Monday, Minnick said in his dorm room that he wants to study chemical engineering with a focus on nuclear engineering and one day find sustainable energy solutions in nuclear fusion.
Talk about a bright future.
“Things have gotten really bad in the last few years, and now it’s encouraging to see them trying to get everything back to normal,” Minnick said. “I see it as promising for things to come… It inspires me to try to see how I can shape the world.”
