First-Year Experience committee members attend the National First-Year Experience Conference

A contingent of faculty and staff leaders within the First-Year Experience Advisory Committee attended “The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition” national conference from Feb. 16 to 19.

The Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience provides an ongoing forum where higher education professionals can share experiences, concerns and accomplishments related to supporting student learning, development, and success in the first college year.

Staff and faculty from Elon shared best practices from Elon’s U.S. News #1 ranked First-Year Experience program and #1 ranked Learning Communities with colleagues from other colleges and universities. Attendees from Elon included:

• Jen Platania, associate provost for Academic Affairs and associate professor of economics
• Eleanor Finger, assistant vice president for Student Life, dean of Campus Life and assistant professor
• Jennifer Stephens, director of academic-residential partnerships and assistant professor of education
• Kirsten Carrier, assistant dean of Campus Life and director of Residence Life
• Jill McSweeney, assistant director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and assistant professor of wellness
• Paula Patch, senior lecturer in English and associate director of First-Year Initiatives in the Elon Core Curriculum
• Brandy Propst, director of Elon 1010 and assistant director of academic advising

Additionally, Jennifer Stephens and Kirsten Carrier presented their work at the conference in a session titled “Living & Learning at Elon: A Framework for First-Year Residential Learning.” This presentation discussed the creation of a new residential learning outcomes framework that gave faculty and staff working on the initiative common goals for programming and assessable learning outcomes. The framework was created as a result of the Residential Campus Strategic plan, which aims to achieve portions of Boldly Elon, the university’s current strategic plan. Attendees at the session gained practical strategies on how they might create this type of framework for their residential learning initiatives and were able to hear how assessment results have informed updates and changes to the framework for the future.