Curious about the unique hurdles first-generation graduate students face and solutions to support them? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Jennifer Stripe Portillo, Dean of Student Success and Title IX Coordinator at the Chicago School. Jennifer opens up about her own journey as a first-gen college student and shares how it's inspired her to create impactful programs tailored for graduate students. From personalized graduation cords to the last lecture series, mentorship partnerships, and first-gen faculty/staff directories, discover the innovative ways the Chicago School fosters a supportive environment, in both an in-person and virtual world.
We also dive into the nuts and bolts of their virtual mentorship program, emphasizing its flexibility and success. Learn how this initiative, along with optional training for mentors, has significantly benefited students, particularly those tackling dissertations. Jennifer discusses how they measure program effectiveness using engagement metrics and qualitative feedback, demystify institutional acronyms, and collaborate with programs like McNair. Her dedication to building a thriving community for first-gen students is fantastic, ensuring every student feels seen, heard, and supported throughout their educational journey.
Please help others find this podcast by rating and reviewing wherever you listen!
You can find me at https://www.firstgenfm.com/ and on LinkedIn. My email is jen@firstgenfm.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jen (00:05):
Hello, I'm Jennifer Schoen, your host for the First Gen FM
podcast.
Please Call Me Jen.
Each week, I'll share myinsights and ideas, solo or with
a special guest, on creatingopportunities to celebrate and
support the first-generationcollege and college-bound
students we work with.
My goal with this podcast is toconnect you with other high
college and college-boundstudents.
We work with.
My goal with this podcast is toconnect you with other high
(00:27):
school and college educators, toshare our successes and
challenges and create a web offirst-gen advocates.
Thank you for joining me today.
Now let's dive into this week'sepisode.
Today, we're going to betalking to Jennifer Stripe
Portillo, who is at the ChicagoSchool.
She's the Dean of StudentSuccess and the Title IX
(00:49):
Coordinator, so the ChicagoSchool has graduate campuses in
five cities across the countryand has a very robust online
community of learners, and soshe started a first-gen program
for grad students from scratch,and so our conversation ranges
from how they started withgraduation cords, then to
(01:09):
faculty and staff directoriesand last lecture series, to
mentoring partnerships, but I'mgoing to let her talk more about
that, so let's jump in andwelcome Jennifer.
Welcome, jennifer, to the FirstGen FM podcast.
I am so excited you're here andI really appreciate your
joining me today, all the wayfrom LA.
Jennifer (01:29):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's nice to be here.
Jen (01:32):
You are welcome.
You know I'm really excited totalk about how you're doing
First Gen programs for graduatestudents, and especially doing
it virtually at the ChicagoSchool, because I know you've
probably had to thinkunconventionally about how you
do that.
But first I always like tostart with what was the spark
that got you started ineducation and with working with
(01:54):
first-gen students?
Jennifer (01:56):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Great question.
I'm first-gen, so first in myfamily to go to college.
I'm first gen, so first in myfamily to go to college.
I went to college because myparents told me to and I was
pretty directionless for thefirst couple of years there.
I think my lucky stars, I guessthat I stuck it out because I
(02:20):
felt pretty rudderless in thefirst couple of years.
I went to a big state school.
I love my alma mater, don't getme wrong.
I went to Bowling Green in Ohio.
Great experience there.
But it took me a while tofigure out what I was doing and
how to navigate that place.
You know it's a bigger stateuniversity and this was in the
(02:42):
days before all of thiswonderful first gen work existed
.
Yeah, so I, you know, I creditmy experience as an
undergraduate student withdriving me towards a career in
higher education and wanting todo for other students what
student affairs professionalsdid for me once I found my way
(03:05):
as an undergrad.
And then I've sort of evolvedinto a focus on first gen in my
role because I see the value inacknowledging it as a salient
identity for our students,particularly at the graduate
level.
Being a first gen grad studentis no joke, you know there's.
(03:27):
It is a very difficult, it'sisolating, can be very isolating
experience for students.
So we are trying our best to,if nothing else, raise awareness
and create community amongststudents.
They know they're not alone inpursuing graduate study.
So it was really my ownexperience.
(03:48):
And then I had the fortunateopportunity to win a small
institutional grant from theChicago School where I work,
back in gosh, I think 2021.
And we used that small grant tojust plant some seeds of a
program and we've seen it growand blossom from there.
So it's really self-serving ina lot of ways because of my own
(04:13):
identity and just knowing ourstudents and knowing what's
important to them and being ableto sort of wrap around them in
ways that help them besuccessful.
You know, graduate stay inschool.
Jen (04:30):
Yeah, yeah, and I yeah, I mean.
I think often good things comefrom our own identity and our
own experiences seeing that somethings aren't working for some
students who are like us andthen being able to jump in there
.
So that's fabulous that you gota grant.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the Chicago School
and who your students are?
Jennifer (04:49):
Yeah for sure, the Chicago School is 45 years old,
so we're quite young whenlooking across the landscape of
higher ed at some of our morestoried institutions on the East
Coast, for example, where youare, jennifer yeah, institutions
on the East Coast, for example,where you are, jennifer yeah.
We were founded by a group ofclinical psychologists who were
focused on practitioner modelapproach.
(05:13):
So our primary degree program,our initial degree program, was
the CITI in clinical psychology.
It's a practitioner degree andthat was 45 years ago.
And now today we're a moregeneralist institution with
programs sort of around thehealth sciences, psychology.
(05:37):
In those domains We've gotabout 6,000 students at the
Chicago School.
We have campuses in WashingtonDC, chicago, new Orleans, dallas
, texas, los Angeles, anaheimand San Diego, california.
We've got about 2,000 studentsstudying virtually.
(05:58):
So students who live all acrossthe US as well as abroad who
study with us in our onlineprograms.
Wow, most of our students areadult learners.
They are primarily graduatestudents.
We do have some undergrads now.
We've had undergraduateprograms for the past, you know
five, seven years, maybe a fewmore, but we're still primarily
(06:22):
graduate students, uh, mastersand doc level students.
So, um, our students have fulllives, they're working
professionals, they havefamilies.
They are often caring for agingparents.
They are squeezing schoolsomehow into their lives.
Um, and it's uh.
(06:43):
You know, school for a lot ofour students is just another
thing that they've got to do.
So we have to be really creativein how we reach them and engage
them with this particularcontent, just to make sure that
we're sort of meeting theirneeds.
60% of our students identify asfirst gen Six, six, zero, zero.
(07:04):
Yes, that's a lot of students.
That's six and ten in a group,so you know they're the first to
go, uh, to graduate school intheir families.
Jen (07:13):
That's a big, that's a big deal yeah, that's outstanding,
and so you saw this.
Need you put?
You put in for this grant?
What?
What was your first?
What did you first do to try tobuild that sense of community
and that idea that they're notalone out there?
Jennifer (07:29):
Yeah, thank you for that question.
Like so many schools, we didhonor cords at commencement.
So we spent all of our grantmoney on buying the braided
cords that graduates wear torepresent their unique
identities and we give them awayat commencement to students who
identify as first gen.
(07:50):
We don't make students prove tous that they're first, we just
ask them if that's an identitythat's important to them.
If they say yes, we give them acord and then they're able to
wear that to have a physicalrepresentation of their identity
, and it's been fascinating towatch.
That has remained one of oursignature programs, if you will.
(08:11):
And at the Chicago School,because of our structure we've
got, I think, we have fourceremonies a year one in
California, one in Chicago, onein DC and one in Texas.
And while I don't know this fora fact, it sure seems like most
of the students who areattending those ceremonies are
(08:31):
first gen, because most of thestudents in attendance are
wearing those cords.
Not all of our students go tocommencement.
You know, particularly virtualstudents.
They don't live in one of thosegeographic regions or it's not
something like they're going tofit into their life even if they
do live in the city.
But for the ones that do attend.
We see the majority of themwearing those cords and we've
(08:55):
maintained that program throughtoday.
There's a little blurb in ourcommencement program that
describes the cord and itsmeaning and we see students
really connecting around thatidentity.
We would love it if we couldget that connection earlier,
maybe at orientation, in theirprogram.
You know we've talked aboutways to have that visible
(09:17):
representation of the identityearlier so that students can
sort of look around the room andsee, you know, people who might
share the identity with themearlier.
That's on the wish list, on thecan do list.
Are is doing it at the end,which we think gives graduates,
you know, good feeling going outthe door and we hope that
(09:39):
they'll stay engaged with us asalum and, you know, continue to
be proud of their time at theschool.
Jen (09:44):
Yeah, I think the other cool thing about that is, as you
said, it's visibility.
But also others like facultyand staff, seeing people wearing
that and saying, wow, there area lot of first-gen students in
our graduate programs, what doesthat mean?
And then you can get alliesthat way who are realizing that
this is a population that weprobably should pay attention to
(10:06):
.
Jennifer (10:06):
Yeah, well, and we also offer cords to our faculty
who participate in theceremonies.
So we see faculty sitting onthe dais.
The president of ourinstitution is first gen.
She wears a cord at theceremony.
So it creates, I think, more ofthat.
Just I almost want to saynormalizing, but that feels like
(10:28):
the wrong word.
It's just like there are somany people in this community
and when you look around thatroom and see your favorite
faculty member wearing a firstgen cord the president of the
institution wearing a first gencord and then you look down and
you see I'm wearing it too, youknow there's more.
We are more alike than we aredifferent right.
(10:48):
So we can recognize sort of oursimilarities at those special
events.
And commencement is great.
You know it's a lot of work toplan and execute but it's just a
great celebration of studentsuccess and I love that this
program can be represented there.
Jen (11:03):
Yeah, you, actually you gave me an idea.
I felt like how cool would thatbe to do that at a convocation
where the faculty and the staffmaybe you can't give it to all
the students, but if you gave itto faculty and staff and in the
program or at some point it wasmentioned as to what that was
that they were wearing, likemaking a mental note of that.
Jennifer (11:23):
Yeah, and even you know, as a way to introduce the
program and then as a way to asa persistence tool, right, Like
when you graduate first genmaster's student or first gen
doctoral student, you'll get oneof these and you'll get to keep
it forever and ever and you cangive it to your kids or
whatever, hang it on your wallin your office or whatever you
want to do with it.
But just as a way, you know,some schools will do the like
(11:46):
pin at convocation and then acompanion pin at commencement or
whatever as a means to sort ofentice.
Persistence could be used inthat way as well.
Jen (11:57):
Nice, so that, so that was your, your humble beginnings
just three years ago, 2021.
So how have you been able to doto add to that program with the
, with the grad students?
Jennifer (12:10):
We have.
So we have some programs thatyou might think are pretty
typical under a first-genumbrella, things like a
mentorship program.
So we have afaculty-staff-student mentorship
program, completely voluntary,where we have faculty and even
senior students, like oldergraduate students, who will take
(12:34):
on a mentor.
It's a time-limited commitment.
Two semesters is what we askmentors and mentees to commit,
and we pair based on interestsand, in our case, like time zone
, because it's difficult to havea mentee and a time zone that's
five hours away.
(12:54):
You know, my mentee is in Parisand I'm in LA, then it's going
to be hard to find a time totalk on the phone or have a
meeting, especially when they'realso working.
Jen (13:03):
You know, and take school at the same time, exactly.
Jennifer (13:07):
Yeah, so we we have a that we actually launched that
program.
So we are in our second year ofthe mentorship program.
I think where it probably looksdifferent than a mentorship
program in a more traditionalenvironment is it's completely
virtual and it does it meanmentors and mentees sometimes we
(13:29):
can have them like in the samegeographic region and they can
choose to meet up on a campus,for example, or at a coffee shop
or whatever they'd like to do.
By and large, though, I thinkit's a virtual connection for
the mentors and mentees, andthen it's really on them to
decide how they want tostructure it, how they want to
build their relationship, buildtheir relationship.
(13:58):
We don't do any sort of liketraditional, like meetups or
kickoff meetings or those sortsof things, because we can't just
the way our school isstructured.
But we've seen success.
I mean we've had.
We're in our second year.
We aimed to have something likeI don't know.
We had a very low bar, I thinkwe said like 25 pairs in the
first year just to get our feetwet, and we ended up having more
than 200 people in ourcommunity getting involved.
(14:19):
So we called that a win.
Jen (14:21):
Yes, I would definitely call that a win.
Do you do any training for thementors?
Jennifer (14:26):
We have a mentor handbook, if you will, on our
website, that gives them somegeneral guidance and tips for
how to be a mentor handbook, ifyou will, on our website, that
gives them some general guidanceand tips for how to be a mentor
.
We do offer some live sessionsif they want to come and learn
about.
We don't require the mentors toparticipate in live sessions.
We know with our populationthat that would eliminate a lot
(14:47):
of people from participating,just given people's work
schedules and lives.
So we do provide training thatstudents mentors can opt into.
That's great.
We see some taking advantage ofthat and others who are, like
you know, middle-aged executivesat companies that are don't
need any training from us tomentor a younger student right.
(15:09):
So they're able to use theirown personal experience of life
and life skills, if you will, tohelp another student in a
process.
We've had a lot of studentsactually tap that program who
are in dissertation and who getstuck and they say I want a
mentor who's written adissertation or who's like
further along in the processthan me so that they can like
(15:31):
pump me up and help me, likekeep moving.
That half the battle with thedissertation is just continuing
to make progress and the way ourschool is structured.
You know students really dowork a lot on their own and some
students can get lost in thatprocess.
So we've seen that as aunexpected but pleasant outcome
of that program, where we'reable to see some students make
(15:53):
good progress on theirdissertations because of the
support they're getting fromtheir mentor, which is kind of
cool.
Jen (15:58):
Yeah, that's wonderful because that is a lonely task
writing a dissertation, so ifyou can surround yourself with
support, that's fantastic.
So the mentorship program seemsto have resonated both with
students and with the people whowant to be mentors.
Are there other programs thatyou find are resonating with
students as well?
Jennifer (16:16):
We have a.
We launched a last lectureseries.
You're probably familiar withthe Randy Pausch last lecture at
Carnegie Mellon.
We sort of borrowed that ideaand modified it for our setting
and have a last lecture seriesat our school.
While we don't if you knowabout the last lecture series
(16:37):
from Prana E-Mail-In, you knowDr Pouch was facing a terminal
illness and sort of deliveredhis last lecture under that
umbrella.
Our last lecturers are notfacing terminal illnesses but
rather they are sort of usingthe platform as a way to talk
about their own first-genexperience and share their
wisdom.
We actually just had oneyesterday from a faculty member
(17:00):
at our institution and it was soinspiring just talking about
she's a first generationAmerican, first-gen college
student, first in her family toget any college degree, let
alone she has her from ourschool and just talk, talking
about the roadblocks that sheencountered and how she overcame
(17:24):
them and, you know, givinggreat bits of wisdom and tips to
our students about persistenceand how to, you know, understand
your changing relationship withyour family of origin.
In this case, the facultymember is her parents came to
the US from Mexico when theywere young people and she talked
(17:47):
a lot about sort of being afirst born in the US S, mexican
American, and how herrelationship with her T, as in T
O's, is different than hersibling, who didn't go to
college, and she's okay withthat because they all.
She described it as um, they'reall sort of the colors of the
rainbow, so she has thedifferent people in her life who
(18:09):
feel different needs, just likedifferent colors make up the
rainbow, which was really cool.
We'll post that on our websiteas soon as we have a chance to,
you know, get it in presentableshape.
So we have that series that weget some good traction in.
We have a faculty and staffdirectory that people at the
institution can, who work here,can voluntarily join and just
(18:32):
share information about theirbackground.
They can either identify asfirst gen or as a first gen ally
and the student can go searchthat directory and, you know,
reach out to a faculty member, astaff member who maybe they
share other identities with, andjust say, hey, can I meet with
you, can I talk to you?
Can you help me understand evenlike a school policy or a
procedure?
Or you know, students have lotsof places they can go to get
(18:55):
information about things likeenrollment etc.
Yeah, sometimes it's nice tohave a different type of
connection with someone at theschool, so we see some students
using that yeah, and it's moreorganic that way.
Jen (19:09):
if the student is reaching out, yeah, 100%.
Jennifer (19:15):
And then we do, like many, many schools around the
country, a celebration of firstgen-ness in the fall around
National First Gen Day.
Jen (19:24):
Great.
Jennifer (19:25):
So we'll do a variety of activities and programs and
we are challenged as I thinkmore and more schools are, as
more and more students choosevirtual education to make our
programs accessible to studentswho don't come to campus and
aren't gonna come to campus theydon't even live within, you
(19:45):
know, a thousand miles of acampus, so all of our activities
are online.
So so we do.
We'll have a virtual art showthis fall just kind of cool it's
like, and students are socreative and they'll create art
pieces and share them on ourblog or on our instagram page.
(20:05):
We use social media a lot totalk to students in our
population about first genprograms.
We We'll have trivia nightvirtual trivia night.
We'll host a book club that willbe held just like this on Zoom,
and then actually during firstgen week this year, our
president is going to deliver alaugh lecture.
(20:27):
She's first gen and she'sagreed to be our featured
speaker this year for our firstgen week.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, really kind of like goingas far as we can to get to the
top of the organization, andthat buy in and engagement is so
important to the program'ssuccess.
So we're excited to hear whatshe'll have to share with our
(20:47):
students and faculty about.
You know her own experience andthe lessons that she's learned
as a first-gen person.
Jen (20:54):
Yeah, what have been some of the challenges in setting all
this up?
For example, you said you usedall your grant money that first
year for the cords.
Did you get additional grantmoney Like?
Was the buy-in higher from theinstitution Like?
Talk more about some of thosechallenges and also where you
found the support you needed.
Jennifer (21:11):
Yeah, great.
Another great question.
No, unfortunately not.
We did not get any more grantfunding.
We had to find the money in ourother budget to, you know, move
some things around.
We have a sort of a centralstudent affairs bucket that we
pull funds out of to pay for alldifferent kinds of programs and
(21:32):
every year we have to evaluatewhere we want to spend those
resources, you know, and how we,where we think we can get sort
of the highest return on ourinvestment and where we see the
greatest student need is.
We have been able to procuresome small funds here and there
from, for example, that ourinstitutional strategic plan has
(21:53):
a budget and I asked for somemoney to help pay for first gen
week last year.
So we were able to get somesmall contributions there.
We of course looked at outsideresources and we've had.
We.
We won a COE NASPA grant acouple of years ago to help fund
our first gen week.
Yeah, so we've gotten some, Iguess.
(22:15):
Yes, we have gotten some littlefunding, but no hard dollars.
Jen (22:19):
Okay, no permanent hard dollars.
No, not personally Okay.
Jennifer (22:23):
On my wish list is a director, right Somebody to run
this program Right now it'smanaged by our office team and
we are a small team.
Have we wear many hats, as I'msure many of your listeners do,
because that seems to be the wayof the world in student affairs
Small but mighty.
I mean something.
(22:48):
I'll be candid.
It's difficult.
The funds are limited and wecould spend, you know, 10 times
what we spend on this program ifwe had unlimited funds.
We have to be strategic andknow that we want to maintain
our core offerings and then seewhere we can look around to find
other resources as we want togrow specific arms of the
(23:10):
program as well.
I think that the dedicating thestaff time is challenging.
We do have a advisory boardcomprised of faculty and staff
and students at the institutionthat meets monthly and we lean a
lot on the interest andengagement and generosity that
(23:32):
people on that group bring interms of their time and we
because it's voluntary, I meanpeople show up out of their own
interest and they also help us,you know, get the word out and
get student engagement in oursetting and, I think, broadly.
(23:53):
It seems these days it can betough to get students attention.
You know, back in the day whenI was in graduate school or even
in early in my career, it wasthe like buy a pizza, they will
come, sort of thing.
And that's just not realityanymore for our students.
They're very busy people, theyhave jobs.
There's a lot of distractionsin our lives that can pick up
(24:14):
our time.
So we do have to be verystrategic and thoughtful about
where we show up and how we showup and what we offer to
students to.
You know, get their attentionfor a few minutes and talk to
them about school resources.
Jen (24:27):
Yeah, and it's, and it's made more complicated because
you have several schools indifferent time zones where and
virtual students.
So it's, it's.
It's just a like a higherdegree of difficulty to use,
maybe like gymnastics and figureskating terms.
Jennifer (24:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that analogy.
I'm going to use that.
Jen (24:48):
Okay, All right, See, that's why it's great about
having these conversations.
It's like, oh, that's, I gotthat idea.
I'm stealing that, I'm writingthat down.
Um, so my my last well, not myreal last question, but my semi
last question is um, how do youknow your program is successful?
Do you get to do any kinds ofassessment to see what people
are saying?
Besides the, obviously theadvisory board is giving you
(25:09):
some good feedback.
Jennifer (25:11):
Yeah, I think, uh, numbers of engagement.
So we certainly look at numbers, while I am not a believer that
people just being present is ameasure of success, because we
don't know what they're walkingaway with, we were really
thrilled to have such a highlevel interest in our mentorship
program.
(25:31):
In particular, we do anassessment of that program with
participants at the end of theirtwo semester commitment.
Well, we do like a pre-test,post-test assessment.
So we administer assessmentwhen they come in and then we
administer the same assessmenton their way out as well.
Some qualitative datacollection, sort of what worked,
(25:51):
what didn't, what did you like,what can we change, how could
it be better?
And that's something that we doevery cycle with that program.
We don't have a way necessarilyto measure the effectiveness of
, like, an honor cord programper se, as much as we see it
present in the space atcommencement.
But we aren't necessarily doingany sort of follow up with
(26:16):
students who wear a cord, forexample, to find out the
significance of, you know,receiving that gift from the
institution.
I don't even know how we woulddo that.
Yeah, that might be hard toquantify, that's beyond my
comprehension.
I know they're getting passedout because I see them being
worn and I keep getting therequest to buy more.
So I know that they're.
I know they're being used.
(26:36):
That's awesome.
I know they're being used,that's awesome.
We do, of course, use ouradvisory group for sort of
ongoing feedback on the programwhat's working, what's not.
We're fortunate to have a coregroup of faculty who come to
that advisory group, many ofwhom teach our undergrads, which
is a smaller population for usbut has an even higher first gen
(27:00):
percentage.
So we're 60%.
We're actually like 59 and ahalf, so I'm being generous by
saying 60.
Our undergrads last I look Ithink it was like 72% were first
gen.
So the majority of students andhigh need, you know these are
students who've gone to schoolat a number of different places,
(27:22):
sort of swirled around,collected credits or trying to
finish a degree.
So we're fortunate to have acouple of I'm thinking of a
couple of faculty in particularwho will do things like post
things in their Canvas course,post things in their program
home on.
You know, most programs have ahub on Canvas that students use
for information.
(27:43):
They'll post information aboutwhat's happening in the first
gen program, where opportunitiesfor, you know, networking are
bubbling up.
We do have a first gen club thathas been historically for
undergraduate students that thisyear will expand to include
graduate students forundergraduate students.
That this year will expand toinclude graduate students.
We didn't think graduatestudents would want a club like
(28:05):
they wouldn't necessarily wantto go to a club meeting.
But we've had several comeforward to ask for that space
and community, even though it'llbe a virtual community just
like this.
So we're going to try it andwe'll see if who shows up and
what the outcomes are.
Jen (28:18):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
I love that because becausegive it a try and and just wait
and see if, if you know you get,you get some people.
I think is, as you said, it'snot just numbers that's
important, it's how studentsengage in, what they take away.
And yeah, and so five studentsyou know show up and they get to
form a community.
That's that's.
Jennifer (28:40):
that's a good thing.
Yeah, we also have tried to bereally strategic about
partnering with otherdepartments at the institution,
like, we believe that anythingwe do for our first gen students
benefits all of our students.
So we did, for example, aproject on Instagram a couple of
years back about schoolacronyms things that, like you
(29:04):
and I use in our everyday worklives and we know what we mean
when we say them and we knowwho's in charge of that thing
that we just talked about and weknow how to get a problem fixed
if there's a problem with thatweird acronym place.
Our students don't know whatwe're talking about, like they
don't, so we did a whole seriesof instagram story, or not
(29:25):
stories.
See, you can tell that I'mclearly not the one running the
instagram channel.
It's our student employees whodo it.
oh, yes, I'm totally with you onthat, yeah but uh, we believe
that you know, like demystifyingwhat we mean when we say SAP
for a first-gen student helps acontinuing-gen student just as
much.
Right, it's not like it'ssecret or we don't, we're not
(29:47):
trying to withhold information.
So we've tried to be strategicabout partnering with other
offices and getting them engagedin our programming and knowing
that there are other programsthat are trying to target these
same students in terms ofsupport.
So, like we have a McNairprogram at the Chicago school
you're probably familiar withthe McNair program.
(30:08):
It's actually in our office, inthe office of the dean.
So we work hand in glove withour McNair leader and with the
students in that program.
We have student advisors, youknow, who work under our
enrollment management umbrellaand we work.
You know we're neighbors withthose folks, so we work closely
(30:28):
with them to get them theinformation they might need.
To slip into a conversationwith a student about resources,
you know, when they're trying totroubleshoot an enrollment
problem, for example, they'rejust trying to partner up, you
know, and like work, like allrowing in the same direction.
To use a nautical reference.
Jen (30:47):
Yes, oh yes, I like no.
I think that's a good, becauseit'd be easy to not or to
inundate students with all thedifferent things that they could
be doing, and so it's justsplintered versus a cohesive
whole.
Jennifer (30:59):
So yeah, and I'm not.
I wouldn't say it's perfect,but we sure are trying to
present unified messaging,unified coordinated
communication to students,because they do tend to tune out
if it becomes too much or toodisjointed or if they've got to,
(31:20):
like, figure out how to threadstuff together themselves.
Jen (31:23):
Yeah.
Jennifer (31:24):
So always room to improve, but I think you know
doing our best to be integratedin an intentional way.
Jen (31:32):
Yeah, that's, that's fantastic.
Final question is what wouldyou recommend for someone who's
listening to do first, if theywere wanted to start a virtual
program for their grad students?
Jennifer (31:48):
Yeah, I think, find a partner or somebody at the
institution who can be a thoughtpartner for you, and that may
be just a Jennifer preference,more than any sort of like
professional guidance.
I just I think, working inhigher ed all these years, I
have learned that you know wherewe can collaborate.
(32:11):
We're going to likely be moresuccessful and it's just nice to
have somebody to work with, tobounce ideas off of and to, you
know, try and poke holes in aplan and see where we can
improve it.
It would be great if thatpartner is somebody who has the
ability to help you, you know,figure out things like funding
(32:34):
and how to set up an advisorygroup and how to get the
attention of senior leadershipat your institution.
Maybe you can do that withoutthem, but if you can present
sort of a case together, I thinkthen that might get more
attention.
Jen (32:51):
Yes.
Jennifer (32:52):
Yes, I think sometimes too, we have a tendency to want
it to be perfect before welaunch it and it's been my
experience that that is an enemyof progress.
So know that you're going tomake mistakes and that's okay, I
(33:13):
hope, in your environment, inmy environment, I mean again,
we're kind of young when youlook at us compared to you know.
I mean again, we're kind ofyoung when you look at us
(33:36):
compared to you know, the moretraditional schools and we try a
lot of stuff that doesn't workand we tweak our services and
programs based on what we hearfrom them and if we do something
and it's a miserable failure,we pick ourselves up and try
something else.
So I think, just being willingto take a risk and you know
feeling, I hope, like you, havesupport of your manager and your
institution to take those risks, because we don't grow without
(34:00):
trying new things.
Jen (34:02):
Yeah, and you learn.
You learn from the times thatyou stumble.
So I totally agree and, as a asa fellow Jennifer, I also agree
with finding a thought partner.
So I would, I would supportthat Jennifer theory of getting
started with finding Alice atthe Jennifer theory.
I know, let's, we'll get onthat.
I have a conferencepresentation coming up With
Finding Allies the JenniferTheory.
I know we'll get on that.
I have a conferencepresentation coming up.
(34:22):
Totally.
So if people want to find you,if they want more information or
they have questions about whatyou're doing, how can people
find you and reach out to you?
Jennifer (34:32):
Super simple jstripe at thechicagoschooledu or our
office email address isstudentsuccess at
thechicagoschooledu, traditionalspelling
s-t-u-d-e-n-t-s-u-c-c-s-s.
And.
(34:53):
We are, like most people, Ithink, these days, tethered to
our computers.
So please reach out, give us ashout in email.
We'll be happy to even be anexternal thought partner for you
if you're thinking aboutvirtual services and how to sort
of take your program to thenext level or get it off the
ground.
To begin with, you gotta startsomewhere, so we are also really
(35:17):
willing and open to sharing ourstuff, so nothing we've created
is copyrighted.
If you want to look at ourmentor materials or our honor
cord description in ourcommencement program, give us a
shout and we'll be happy toshare that with you, and you're
welcome to adapt it for yoursetting, because we're all in
this together to help studentsbe successful.
Jen (35:40):
So, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Well, thank you so much,jennifer.
It was really a pleasuretalking with you and I learned
some things, I took some notes,it created some ideas for me
about things to do, and sothanks again for your time.
Absolutely, thank you for theopportunity, thank you for being
here with me today, and if youwant to get in touch with me,
(36:01):
you can find me at Jen that'sJ-E-N at firstgenfmcom and at my
website is firstgenfmcom.
I look forward to talking withyou again next week and, as
always, I love to hear a ratingand review and helps other
people find the podcast.
Thanks so much for today andwe'll talk to you next week.
Hello, I'm Jennifer Schoen, your host for the First Gen FM
podcast.
Please Call Me Jen.
Each week, I'll share myinsights and ideas, solo or with
a special guest, on creatingopportunities to celebrate and
support the first-generationcollege and college-bound
students we work with.
My goal with this podcast is toconnect you with other high
college and college-boundstudents.
We work with.
My goal with this podcast is toconnect you with other high
(00:27):
school and college educators, toshare our successes and
challenges and create a web offirst-gen advocates.
Thank you for joining me today.
Now let's dive into this week'sepisode.
Today, we're going to betalking to Jennifer Stripe
Portillo, who is at the ChicagoSchool.
She's the Dean of StudentSuccess and the Title IX
(00:49):
Coordinator, so the ChicagoSchool has graduate campuses in
five cities across the countryand has a very robust online
community of learners, and soshe started a first-gen program
for grad students from scratch,and so our conversation ranges
from how they started withgraduation cords, then to
(01:09):
faculty and staff directoriesand last lecture series, to
mentoring partnerships, but I'mgoing to let her talk more about
that, so let's jump in andwelcome Jennifer.
Welcome, jennifer, to the FirstGen FM podcast.
I am so excited you're here andI really appreciate your
joining me today, all the wayfrom LA.
Jennifer (01:29):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's nice to be here.
Jen (01:32):
You are welcome.
You know I'm really excited totalk about how you're doing
First Gen programs for graduatestudents, and especially doing
it virtually at the ChicagoSchool, because I know you've
probably had to thinkunconventionally about how you
do that.
But first I always like tostart with what was the spark
that got you started ineducation and with working with
(01:54):
first-gen students?
Jennifer (01:56):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Great question.
I'm first-gen, so first in myfamily to go to college.
I'm first gen, so first in myfamily to go to college.
I went to college because myparents told me to and I was
pretty directionless for thefirst couple of years there.
I think my lucky stars, I guessthat I stuck it out because I
(02:20):
felt pretty rudderless in thefirst couple of years.
I went to a big state school.
I love my alma mater, don't getme wrong.
I went to Bowling Green in Ohio.
Great experience there.
But it took me a while tofigure out what I was doing and
how to navigate that place.
You know it's a bigger stateuniversity and this was in the
(02:42):
days before all of thiswonderful first gen work existed
.
Yeah, so I, you know, I creditmy experience as an
undergraduate student withdriving me towards a career in
higher education and wanting todo for other students what
student affairs professionalsdid for me once I found my way
(03:05):
as an undergrad.
And then I've sort of evolvedinto a focus on first gen in my
role because I see the value inacknowledging it as a salient
identity for our students,particularly at the graduate
level.
Being a first gen grad studentis no joke, you know there's.
(03:27):
It is a very difficult, it'sisolating, can be very isolating
experience for students.
So we are trying our best to,if nothing else, raise awareness
and create community amongststudents.
They know they're not alone inpursuing graduate study.
So it was really my ownexperience.
(03:48):
And then I had the fortunateopportunity to win a small
institutional grant from theChicago School where I work,
back in gosh, I think 2021.
And we used that small grant tojust plant some seeds of a
program and we've seen it growand blossom from there.
So it's really self-serving ina lot of ways because of my own
(04:13):
identity and just knowing ourstudents and knowing what's
important to them and being ableto sort of wrap around them in
ways that help them besuccessful.
You know, graduate stay inschool.
Jen (04:30):
Yeah, yeah, and I yeah, I mean.
I think often good things comefrom our own identity and our
own experiences seeing that somethings aren't working for some
students who are like us andthen being able to jump in there
.
So that's fabulous that you gota grant.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the Chicago School
and who your students are?
Jennifer (04:49):
Yeah for sure, the Chicago School is 45 years old,
so we're quite young whenlooking across the landscape of
higher ed at some of our morestoried institutions on the East
Coast, for example, where youare, jennifer yeah, institutions
on the East Coast, for example,where you are, jennifer yeah.
We were founded by a group ofclinical psychologists who were
focused on practitioner modelapproach.
(05:13):
So our primary degree program,our initial degree program, was
the CITI in clinical psychology.
It's a practitioner degree andthat was 45 years ago.
And now today we're a moregeneralist institution with
programs sort of around thehealth sciences, psychology.
(05:37):
In those domains We've gotabout 6,000 students at the
Chicago School.
We have campuses in WashingtonDC, chicago, new Orleans, dallas
, texas, los Angeles, anaheimand San Diego, california.
We've got about 2,000 studentsstudying virtually.
(05:58):
So students who live all acrossthe US as well as abroad who
study with us in our onlineprograms.
Wow, most of our students areadult learners.
They are primarily graduatestudents.
We do have some undergrads now.
We've had undergraduateprograms for the past, you know
five, seven years, maybe a fewmore, but we're still primarily
(06:22):
graduate students, uh, mastersand doc level students.
So, um, our students have fulllives, they're working
professionals, they havefamilies.
They are often caring for agingparents.
They are squeezing schoolsomehow into their lives.
Um, and it's uh.
(06:43):
You know, school for a lot ofour students is just another
thing that they've got to do.
So we have to be really creativein how we reach them and engage
them with this particularcontent, just to make sure that
we're sort of meeting theirneeds.
60% of our students identify asfirst gen Six, six, zero, zero.
(07:04):
Yes, that's a lot of students.
That's six and ten in a group,so you know they're the first to
go, uh, to graduate school intheir families.
Jen (07:13):
That's a big, that's a big deal yeah, that's outstanding,
and so you saw this.
Need you put?
You put in for this grant?
What?
What was your first?
What did you first do to try tobuild that sense of community
and that idea that they're notalone out there?
Jennifer (07:29):
Yeah, thank you for that question.
Like so many schools, we didhonor cords at commencement.
So we spent all of our grantmoney on buying the braided
cords that graduates wear torepresent their unique
identities and we give them awayat commencement to students who
identify as first gen.
(07:50):
We don't make students prove tous that they're first, we just
ask them if that's an identitythat's important to them.
If they say yes, we give them acord and then they're able to
wear that to have a physicalrepresentation of their identity
, and it's been fascinating towatch.
That has remained one of oursignature programs, if you will.
(08:11):
And at the Chicago School,because of our structure we've
got, I think, we have fourceremonies a year one in
California, one in Chicago, onein DC and one in Texas.
And while I don't know this fora fact, it sure seems like most
of the students who areattending those ceremonies are
(08:31):
first gen, because most of thestudents in attendance are
wearing those cords.
Not all of our students go tocommencement.
You know, particularly virtualstudents.
They don't live in one of thosegeographic regions or it's not
something like they're going tofit into their life even if they
do live in the city.
But for the ones that do attend.
We see the majority of themwearing those cords and we've
(08:55):
maintained that program throughtoday.
There's a little blurb in ourcommencement program that
describes the cord and itsmeaning and we see students
really connecting around thatidentity.
We would love it if we couldget that connection earlier,
maybe at orientation, in theirprogram.
You know we've talked aboutways to have that visible
(09:17):
representation of the identityearlier so that students can
sort of look around the room andsee, you know, people who might
share the identity with themearlier.
That's on the wish list, on thecan do list.
Are is doing it at the end,which we think gives graduates,
you know, good feeling going outthe door and we hope that
(09:39):
they'll stay engaged with us asalum and, you know, continue to
be proud of their time at theschool.
Jen (09:44):
Yeah, I think the other cool thing about that is, as you
said, it's visibility.
But also others like facultyand staff, seeing people wearing
that and saying, wow, there area lot of first-gen students in
our graduate programs, what doesthat mean?
And then you can get alliesthat way who are realizing that
this is a population that weprobably should pay attention to
(10:06):
.
Jennifer (10:06):
Yeah, well, and we also offer cords to our faculty
who participate in theceremonies.
So we see faculty sitting onthe dais.
The president of ourinstitution is first gen.
She wears a cord at theceremony.
So it creates, I think, more ofthat.
Just I almost want to saynormalizing, but that feels like
(10:28):
the wrong word.
It's just like there are somany people in this community
and when you look around thatroom and see your favorite
faculty member wearing a firstgen cord the president of the
institution wearing a first gencord and then you look down and
you see I'm wearing it too, youknow there's more.
We are more alike than we aredifferent right.
(10:48):
So we can recognize sort of oursimilarities at those special
events.
And commencement is great.
You know it's a lot of work toplan and execute but it's just a
great celebration of studentsuccess and I love that this
program can be represented there.
Jen (11:03):
Yeah, you, actually you gave me an idea.
I felt like how cool would thatbe to do that at a convocation
where the faculty and the staffmaybe you can't give it to all
the students, but if you gave itto faculty and staff and in the
program or at some point it wasmentioned as to what that was
that they were wearing, likemaking a mental note of that.
Jennifer (11:23):
Yeah, and even you know, as a way to introduce the
program and then as a way to asa persistence tool, right, Like
when you graduate first genmaster's student or first gen
doctoral student, you'll get oneof these and you'll get to keep
it forever and ever and you cangive it to your kids or
whatever, hang it on your wallin your office or whatever you
want to do with it.
But just as a way, you know,some schools will do the like
(11:46):
pin at convocation and then acompanion pin at commencement or
whatever as a means to sort ofentice.
Persistence could be used inthat way as well.
Jen (11:57):
Nice, so that, so that was your, your humble beginnings
just three years ago, 2021.
So how have you been able to doto add to that program with the
, with the grad students?
Jennifer (12:10):
We have.
So we have some programs thatyou might think are pretty
typical under a first-genumbrella, things like a
mentorship program.
So we have afaculty-staff-student mentorship
program, completely voluntary,where we have faculty and even
senior students, like oldergraduate students, who will take
(12:34):
on a mentor.
It's a time-limited commitment.
Two semesters is what we askmentors and mentees to commit,
and we pair based on interestsand, in our case, like time zone
, because it's difficult to havea mentee and a time zone that's
five hours away.
(12:54):
You know, my mentee is in Parisand I'm in LA, then it's going
to be hard to find a time totalk on the phone or have a
meeting, especially when they'realso working.
Jen (13:03):
You know, and take school at the same time, exactly.
Jennifer (13:07):
Yeah, so we we have a that we actually launched that
program.
So we are in our second year ofthe mentorship program.
I think where it probably looksdifferent than a mentorship
program in a more traditionalenvironment is it's completely
virtual and it does it meanmentors and mentees sometimes we
(13:29):
can have them like in the samegeographic region and they can
choose to meet up on a campus,for example, or at a coffee shop
or whatever they'd like to do.
By and large, though, I thinkit's a virtual connection for
the mentors and mentees, andthen it's really on them to
decide how they want tostructure it, how they want to
build their relationship, buildtheir relationship.
(13:58):
We don't do any sort of liketraditional, like meetups or
kickoff meetings or those sortsof things, because we can't just
the way our school isstructured.
But we've seen success.
I mean we've had.
We're in our second year.
We aimed to have something likeI don't know.
We had a very low bar, I thinkwe said like 25 pairs in the
first year just to get our feetwet, and we ended up having more
than 200 people in ourcommunity getting involved.
(14:19):
So we called that a win.
Jen (14:21):
Yes, I would definitely call that a win.
Do you do any training for thementors?
Jennifer (14:26):
We have a mentor handbook, if you will, on our
website, that gives them somegeneral guidance and tips for
how to be a mentor handbook, ifyou will, on our website, that
gives them some general guidanceand tips for how to be a mentor
.
We do offer some live sessionsif they want to come and learn
about.
We don't require the mentors toparticipate in live sessions.
We know with our populationthat that would eliminate a lot
(14:47):
of people from participating,just given people's work
schedules and lives.
So we do provide training thatstudents mentors can opt into.
That's great.
We see some taking advantage ofthat and others who are, like
you know, middle-aged executivesat companies that are don't
need any training from us tomentor a younger student right.
(15:09):
So they're able to use theirown personal experience of life
and life skills, if you will, tohelp another student in a
process.
We've had a lot of studentsactually tap that program who
are in dissertation and who getstuck and they say I want a
mentor who's written adissertation or who's like
further along in the processthan me so that they can like
(15:31):
pump me up and help me, likekeep moving.
That half the battle with thedissertation is just continuing
to make progress and the way ourschool is structured.
You know students really dowork a lot on their own and some
students can get lost in thatprocess.
So we've seen that as aunexpected but pleasant outcome
of that program, where we'reable to see some students make
(15:53):
good progress on theirdissertations because of the
support they're getting fromtheir mentor, which is kind of
cool.
Jen (15:58):
Yeah, that's wonderful because that is a lonely task
writing a dissertation, so ifyou can surround yourself with
support, that's fantastic.
So the mentorship program seemsto have resonated both with
students and with the people whowant to be mentors.
Are there other programs thatyou find are resonating with
students as well?
Jennifer (16:16):
We have a.
We launched a last lectureseries.
You're probably familiar withthe Randy Pausch last lecture at
Carnegie Mellon.
We sort of borrowed that ideaand modified it for our setting
and have a last lecture seriesat our school.
While we don't if you knowabout the last lecture series
(16:37):
from Prana E-Mail-In, you knowDr Pouch was facing a terminal
illness and sort of deliveredhis last lecture under that
umbrella.
Our last lecturers are notfacing terminal illnesses but
rather they are sort of usingthe platform as a way to talk
about their own first-genexperience and share their
wisdom.
We actually just had oneyesterday from a faculty member
(17:00):
at our institution and it was soinspiring just talking about
she's a first generationAmerican, first-gen college
student, first in her family toget any college degree, let
alone she has her from ourschool and just talk, talking
about the roadblocks that sheencountered and how she overcame
(17:24):
them and, you know, givinggreat bits of wisdom and tips to
our students about persistenceand how to, you know, understand
your changing relationship withyour family of origin.
In this case, the facultymember is her parents came to
the US from Mexico when theywere young people and she talked
(17:47):
a lot about sort of being afirst born in the US S, mexican
American, and how herrelationship with her T, as in T
O's, is different than hersibling, who didn't go to
college, and she's okay withthat because they all.
She described it as um, they'reall sort of the colors of the
rainbow, so she has thedifferent people in her life who
(18:09):
feel different needs, just likedifferent colors make up the
rainbow, which was really cool.
We'll post that on our websiteas soon as we have a chance to,
you know, get it in presentableshape.
So we have that series that weget some good traction in.
We have a faculty and staffdirectory that people at the
institution can, who work here,can voluntarily join and just
(18:32):
share information about theirbackground.
They can either identify asfirst gen or as a first gen ally
and the student can go searchthat directory and, you know,
reach out to a faculty member, astaff member who maybe they
share other identities with, andjust say, hey, can I meet with
you, can I talk to you?
Can you help me understand evenlike a school policy or a
procedure?
Or you know, students have lotsof places they can go to get
(18:55):
information about things likeenrollment etc.
Yeah, sometimes it's nice tohave a different type of
connection with someone at theschool, so we see some students
using that yeah, and it's moreorganic that way.
Jen (19:09):
if the student is reaching out, yeah, 100%.
Jennifer (19:15):
And then we do, like many, many schools around the
country, a celebration of firstgen-ness in the fall around
National First Gen Day.
Jen (19:24):
Great.
Jennifer (19:25):
So we'll do a variety of activities and programs and
we are challenged as I thinkmore and more schools are, as
more and more students choosevirtual education to make our
programs accessible to studentswho don't come to campus and
aren't gonna come to campus theydon't even live within, you
(19:45):
know, a thousand miles of acampus, so all of our activities
are online.
So so we do.
We'll have a virtual art showthis fall just kind of cool it's
like, and students are socreative and they'll create art
pieces and share them on ourblog or on our instagram page.
(20:05):
We use social media a lot totalk to students in our
population about first genprograms.
We We'll have trivia nightvirtual trivia night.
We'll host a book club that willbe held just like this on Zoom,
and then actually during firstgen week this year, our
president is going to deliver alaugh lecture.
(20:27):
She's first gen and she'sagreed to be our featured
speaker this year for our firstgen week.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, really kind of like goingas far as we can to get to the
top of the organization, andthat buy in and engagement is so
important to the program'ssuccess.
So we're excited to hear whatshe'll have to share with our
(20:47):
students and faculty about.
You know her own experience andthe lessons that she's learned
as a first-gen person.
Jen (20:54):
Yeah, what have been some of the challenges in setting all
this up?
For example, you said you usedall your grant money that first
year for the cords.
Did you get additional grantmoney Like?
Was the buy-in higher from theinstitution Like?
Talk more about some of thosechallenges and also where you
found the support you needed.
Jennifer (21:11):
Yeah, great.
Another great question.
No, unfortunately not.
We did not get any more grantfunding.
We had to find the money in ourother budget to, you know, move
some things around.
We have a sort of a centralstudent affairs bucket that we
pull funds out of to pay for alldifferent kinds of programs and
(21:32):
every year we have to evaluatewhere we want to spend those
resources, you know, and how we,where we think we can get sort
of the highest return on ourinvestment and where we see the
greatest student need is.
We have been able to procuresome small funds here and there
from, for example, that ourinstitutional strategic plan has
(21:53):
a budget and I asked for somemoney to help pay for first gen
week last year.
So we were able to get somesmall contributions there.
We of course looked at outsideresources and we've had.
We.
We won a COE NASPA grant acouple of years ago to help fund
our first gen week.
Yeah, so we've gotten some, Iguess.
(22:15):
Yes, we have gotten some littlefunding, but no hard dollars.
Jen (22:19):
Okay, no permanent hard dollars.
No, not personally Okay.
Jennifer (22:23):
On my wish list is a director, right Somebody to run
this program Right now it'smanaged by our office team and
we are a small team.
Have we wear many hats, as I'msure many of your listeners do,
because that seems to be the wayof the world in student affairs
Small but mighty.
I mean something.
(22:48):
I'll be candid.
It's difficult.
The funds are limited and wecould spend, you know, 10 times
what we spend on this program ifwe had unlimited funds.
We have to be strategic andknow that we want to maintain
our core offerings and then seewhere we can look around to find
other resources as we want togrow specific arms of the
(23:10):
program as well.
I think that the dedicating thestaff time is challenging.
We do have a advisory boardcomprised of faculty and staff
and students at the institutionthat meets monthly and we lean a
lot on the interest andengagement and generosity that
(23:32):
people on that group bring interms of their time and we
because it's voluntary, I meanpeople show up out of their own
interest and they also help us,you know, get the word out and
get student engagement in oursetting and, I think, broadly.
(23:53):
It seems these days it can betough to get students attention.
You know, back in the day whenI was in graduate school or even
in early in my career, it wasthe like buy a pizza, they will
come, sort of thing.
And that's just not realityanymore for our students.
They're very busy people, theyhave jobs.
There's a lot of distractionsin our lives that can pick up
(24:14):
our time.
So we do have to be verystrategic and thoughtful about
where we show up and how we showup and what we offer to
students to.
You know, get their attentionfor a few minutes and talk to
them about school resources.
Jen (24:27):
Yeah, and it's, and it's made more complicated because
you have several schools indifferent time zones where and
virtual students.
So it's, it's.
It's just a like a higherdegree of difficulty to use,
maybe like gymnastics and figureskating terms.
Jennifer (24:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that analogy.
I'm going to use that.
Jen (24:48):
Okay, All right, See, that's why it's great about
having these conversations.
It's like, oh, that's, I gotthat idea.
I'm stealing that, I'm writingthat down.
Um, so my my last well, not myreal last question, but my semi
last question is um, how do youknow your program is successful?
Do you get to do any kinds ofassessment to see what people
are saying?
Besides the, obviously theadvisory board is giving you
(25:09):
some good feedback.
Jennifer (25:11):
Yeah, I think, uh, numbers of engagement.
So we certainly look at numbers, while I am not a believer that
people just being present is ameasure of success, because we
don't know what they're walkingaway with, we were really
thrilled to have such a highlevel interest in our mentorship
program.
(25:31):
In particular, we do anassessment of that program with
participants at the end of theirtwo semester commitment.
Well, we do like a pre-test,post-test assessment.
So we administer assessmentwhen they come in and then we
administer the same assessmenton their way out as well.
Some qualitative datacollection, sort of what worked,
(25:51):
what didn't, what did you like,what can we change, how could
it be better?
And that's something that we doevery cycle with that program.
We don't have a way necessarilyto measure the effectiveness of
, like, an honor cord programper se, as much as we see it
present in the space atcommencement.
But we aren't necessarily doingany sort of follow up with
(26:16):
students who wear a cord, forexample, to find out the
significance of, you know,receiving that gift from the
institution.
I don't even know how we woulddo that.
Yeah, that might be hard toquantify, that's beyond my
comprehension.
I know they're getting passedout because I see them being
worn and I keep getting therequest to buy more.
So I know that they're.
I know they're being used.
(26:36):
That's awesome.
I know they're being used,that's awesome.
We do, of course, use ouradvisory group for sort of
ongoing feedback on the programwhat's working, what's not.
We're fortunate to have a coregroup of faculty who come to
that advisory group, many ofwhom teach our undergrads, which
is a smaller population for usbut has an even higher first gen
(27:00):
percentage.
So we're 60%.
We're actually like 59 and ahalf, so I'm being generous by
saying 60.
Our undergrads last I look Ithink it was like 72% were first
gen.
So the majority of students andhigh need, you know these are
students who've gone to schoolat a number of different places,
(27:22):
sort of swirled around,collected credits or trying to
finish a degree.
So we're fortunate to have acouple of I'm thinking of a
couple of faculty in particularwho will do things like post
things in their Canvas course,post things in their program
home on.
You know, most programs have ahub on Canvas that students use
for information.
(27:43):
They'll post information aboutwhat's happening in the first
gen program, where opportunitiesfor, you know, networking are
bubbling up.
We do have a first gen club thathas been historically for
undergraduate students that thisyear will expand to include
graduate students forundergraduate students.
That this year will expand toinclude graduate students.
We didn't think graduatestudents would want a club like
(28:05):
they wouldn't necessarily wantto go to a club meeting.
But we've had several comeforward to ask for that space
and community, even though it'llbe a virtual community just
like this.
So we're going to try it andwe'll see if who shows up and
what the outcomes are.
Jen (28:18):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
I love that because becausegive it a try and and just wait
and see if, if you know you get,you get some people.
I think is, as you said, it'snot just numbers that's
important, it's how studentsengage in, what they take away.
And yeah, and so five studentsyou know show up and they get to
form a community.
That's that's.
Jennifer (28:40):
that's a good thing.
Yeah, we also have tried to bereally strategic about
partnering with otherdepartments at the institution,
like, we believe that anythingwe do for our first gen students
benefits all of our students.
So we did, for example, aproject on Instagram a couple of
years back about schoolacronyms things that, like you
(29:04):
and I use in our everyday worklives and we know what we mean
when we say them and we knowwho's in charge of that thing
that we just talked about and weknow how to get a problem fixed
if there's a problem with thatweird acronym place.
Our students don't know whatwe're talking about, like they
don't, so we did a whole seriesof instagram story, or not
(29:25):
stories.
See, you can tell that I'mclearly not the one running the
instagram channel.
It's our student employees whodo it.
oh, yes, I'm totally with you onthat, yeah but uh, we believe
that you know, like demystifyingwhat we mean when we say SAP
for a first-gen student helps acontinuing-gen student just as
much.
Right, it's not like it'ssecret or we don't, we're not
(29:47):
trying to withhold information.
So we've tried to be strategicabout partnering with other
offices and getting them engagedin our programming and knowing
that there are other programsthat are trying to target these
same students in terms ofsupport.
So, like we have a McNairprogram at the Chicago school
you're probably familiar withthe McNair program.
(30:08):
It's actually in our office, inthe office of the dean.
So we work hand in glove withour McNair leader and with the
students in that program.
We have student advisors, youknow, who work under our
enrollment management umbrellaand we work.
You know we're neighbors withthose folks, so we work closely
(30:28):
with them to get them theinformation they might need.
To slip into a conversationwith a student about resources,
you know, when they're trying totroubleshoot an enrollment
problem, for example, they'rejust trying to partner up, you
know, and like work, like allrowing in the same direction.
To use a nautical reference.
Jen (30:47):
Yes, oh yes, I like no.
I think that's a good, becauseit'd be easy to not or to
inundate students with all thedifferent things that they could
be doing, and so it's justsplintered versus a cohesive
whole.
Jennifer (30:59):
So yeah, and I'm not.
I wouldn't say it's perfect,but we sure are trying to
present unified messaging,unified coordinated
communication to students,because they do tend to tune out
if it becomes too much or toodisjointed or if they've got to,
(31:20):
like, figure out how to threadstuff together themselves.
Jen (31:23):
Yeah.
Jennifer (31:24):
So always room to improve, but I think you know
doing our best to be integratedin an intentional way.
Jen (31:32):
Yeah, that's, that's fantastic.
Final question is what wouldyou recommend for someone who's
listening to do first, if theywere wanted to start a virtual
program for their grad students?
Jennifer (31:48):
Yeah, I think, find a partner or somebody at the
institution who can be a thoughtpartner for you, and that may
be just a Jennifer preference,more than any sort of like
professional guidance.
I just I think, working inhigher ed all these years, I
have learned that you know wherewe can collaborate.
(32:11):
We're going to likely be moresuccessful and it's just nice to
have somebody to work with, tobounce ideas off of and to, you
know, try and poke holes in aplan and see where we can
improve it.
It would be great if thatpartner is somebody who has the
ability to help you, you know,figure out things like funding
(32:34):
and how to set up an advisorygroup and how to get the
attention of senior leadershipat your institution.
Maybe you can do that withoutthem, but if you can present
sort of a case together, I thinkthen that might get more
attention.
Jen (32:51):
Yes.
Jennifer (32:52):
Yes, I think sometimes too, we have a tendency to want
it to be perfect before welaunch it and it's been my
experience that that is an enemyof progress.
So know that you're going tomake mistakes and that's okay, I
(33:13):
hope, in your environment, inmy environment, I mean again,
we're kind of young when youlook at us compared to you know.
I mean again, we're kind ofyoung when you look at us
(33:36):
compared to you know, the moretraditional schools and we try a
lot of stuff that doesn't workand we tweak our services and
programs based on what we hearfrom them and if we do something
and it's a miserable failure,we pick ourselves up and try
something else.
So I think, just being willingto take a risk and you know
feeling, I hope, like you, havesupport of your manager and your
institution to take those risks, because we don't grow without
(34:00):
trying new things.
Jen (34:02):
Yeah, and you learn.
You learn from the times thatyou stumble.
So I totally agree and, as a asa fellow Jennifer, I also agree
with finding a thought partner.
So I would, I would supportthat Jennifer theory of getting
started with finding Alice atthe Jennifer theory.
I know, let's, we'll get onthat.
I have a conferencepresentation coming up With
Finding Allies the JenniferTheory.
I know we'll get on that.
I have a conferencepresentation coming up.
(34:22):
Totally.
So if people want to find you,if they want more information or
they have questions about whatyou're doing, how can people
find you and reach out to you?
Jennifer (34:32):
Super simple jstripe at thechicagoschooledu or our
office email address isstudentsuccess at
thechicagoschooledu, traditionalspelling
s-t-u-d-e-n-t-s-u-c-c-s-s.
And.
(34:53):
We are, like most people, Ithink, these days, tethered to
our computers.
So please reach out, give us ashout in email.
We'll be happy to even be anexternal thought partner for you
if you're thinking aboutvirtual services and how to sort
of take your program to thenext level or get it off the
ground.
To begin with, you gotta startsomewhere, so we are also really
(35:17):
willing and open to sharing ourstuff, so nothing we've created
is copyrighted.
If you want to look at ourmentor materials or our honor
cord description in ourcommencement program, give us a
shout and we'll be happy toshare that with you, and you're
welcome to adapt it for yoursetting, because we're all in
this together to help studentsbe successful.
Jen (35:40):
So, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Well, thank you so much,jennifer.
It was really a pleasuretalking with you and I learned
some things, I took some notes,it created some ideas for me
about things to do, and sothanks again for your time.
Absolutely, thank you for theopportunity, thank you for being
here with me today, and if youwant to get in touch with me,
(36:01):
you can find me at Jen that'sJ-E-N at firstgenfmcom and at my
website is firstgenfmcom.
I look forward to talking withyou again next week and, as
always, I love to hear a ratingand review and helps other
people find the podcast.
Thanks so much for today andwe'll talk to you next week.
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