Karla Lucht, graduate studies advisor and coordinator of continuing education, and Rebecca Hodson, career services coordinator, will present a successful model of new student orientation at the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Region 5 Conference. Over five hundred advisors are expected to attend this year’s conference, which will be held from March 15-17 in Rosemont, Illinois.
Lucht and Hodson will give the presentation, "Destination Early Engagement: A Holistic Approach to Graduate Student Orientation."
At the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, one major goal of our student affairs unit is to facilitate a holistic, engaging orientation for incoming students. The process of designing orientations is dynamic as we shift objectives to fit the changing demographics of our community. The career services and advising units work together to create a synergistic approach to welcoming new students which includes not just information transfer but community building, socialization, and tools to ensure student success before classes even begin. We will discuss the motivation and logistics of moving from a one-day orientation to a more thoughtful orientation week(s), and how we evaluate this structure.
This is their first presentation at an advising conference.