How Spelman Helps Students Start and Stay Right

0:00:19.7 S1: Hello and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. Today we get a chance to hear from Dr. Andrea Lewis, the Director of the Student Success Program at Spelman College and Associate Professor of Education. Dr. Lewis shares details of the student onboarding and orientation process at Spelman, which starts with a college readiness program the summer before they enroll and extends into their first semester with mandatory study groups for first-year students. Dr. Lewis also shares how Spelman uses Navigate360 to unite students, faculty, and administrators in a shared effort to keep students on path and get them the support they need quickly if and when they struggle. It’s a fascinating discussion, so give these folks a listen and enjoy.

0:00:26.5 Lindsay Schappell: Hello and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. My name is Lindsay Schappell, and I’m a Senior Strategic Leader on EAB’s Student Success Team. I work with colleges and universities all over the country to share ideas on what’s working and what isn’t in terms of keeping students engaged and on path to graduate. Today, I’m excited to be joined on the podcast by an individual who’s doing outstanding work in helping her students at her institution overcome the many challenges that virtually all students face to some degree as they adapt to student life. Pleased with me today is Dr. Andrea Lewis, Director of Student Success and Associate Professor of Education at Spelman College. Dr. Lewis, welcome to the program.

0:00:37.3 Dr. Andrea Lewis: Thank you so much, Lindsay. I’m happy to be here.

0:00:44.1 LS: As we start, would you mind telling us briefly about Spelman, about your role, and about how long you’ve been there?

0:00:45.2 DL: Absolutely. One of my favorite topics in life is Spelman, and so I am delighted to share that Spelman is the number one HBCU, according to the US News and World Report, for the last 17 consecutive years. We are very proud of that accomplishment and all we have done in terms of students’ completion and retention, innovative programming or academic curriculum or extracurriculars. And our work within the community and our network of our amazing alumni. I am the Director of Student Success, as well as an Associate Professor in the Education Department. I have been at Spelman since 2009.

0:01:02.0 DL: I have been in my role in Student Success since 2021. Within the Student Success program, we coordinate the academic support services for the campus. We have strategic success advising, peer tutoring, study buddies, first-year study groups, sophomore major meetups, monthly success workshops. We have a plethora of resources and tools to assist students, for them each to reach their highest potential. So whatever they need individually to make it happen, that’s what we try to do for our students.

0:01:14.5 LS: Incredible. And just from a personal experience or a personal note, it’s been a privilege to work as your strategic leader across the last few years and see firsthand all of the incredible things that you and your team have accomplished.

0:01:18.8 DL: Thank you.

0:01:20.3 LS: So I know that we know the old saying that it really takes a village to raise a child. And I believe that that same idea applies to the way that we hope an individual campus community comes together to help each student navigate their way through. You have advisors, academic and otherwise, who work directly with students and their university administrators to provide help where needed. You have faculty who deliver the lectures, assign and grade coursework, keep office hours to provide individual assistance. You also have technologies that help the institution track the progress of various student cohorts and help identify those who appear to be struggling and may benefit from some sort of proactive intervention. Dr. Lewis, would you tell me how you think about the different legs of that student support stool and how you view your role in making sure that they’re all working together?

0:01:39.2 DL: Lindsay, I’m so happy you brought up that African proverb about it takes a village and it most definitely does. And we have the village approach here at Spelman. And you also talked about the navigation. And so as we use the Navigate360 feature at Spelman, we tend to brand everything that we use. So we call our Navigate360 the Arch because at Spelman there is an arch of greenery in our oval and the students cannot pass through the Arch until it’s time to graduate. So everything that we do within the arch for EAB Navigate is to assist them in graduating.

0:04:48.4 DL: And so that village concept of getting them through the Arch comes in the form of faculty, of staff, as well as I would say themselves as well because they are a component of one of the legs on the stool. So we have faculty who use the Arch as well as our staff who support students with advising or even if students are in certain organizations, we’ll use their advisors in those organizations or even within residential life to be able to connect with students and then the students themselves to be able to track how they’re performing and when they need help and to be able to do the hand raise feature or just to advocate for themselves. So I think the different levels of the support stool are vitally important to getting our students across that finish line and to commencement and we all work together in tandem to make it happen, hopefully seamlessly, but we do it for the students intents.

0:05:09.2 LS: Amazing. One of the things I wanna talk about is how you get first year students engaged right away at Spelman. We all know how important it is to get first year students engaged quickly and get them started on the right foot and those first days on campus can really make a student’s head swim. So what do you do at Spelman to reach out to these students, put them right in the right frame of mind to succeed right from the start?

0:05:23.7 DL: Absolutely. The students transition to their first year can be so pivotal in building a foundation for their strong start, which leads to their strong finish of college before the students even arrive for new student orientation. We have a program called Through the Gates. So Spelman is surrounded by gates. So the concept is to help them get through the gates, into the gates of Spelman. So our office, the Student Success Program, we have a program where we reach out to students who have paid their deposit, they’ve decided on Spelman, they’ve paid their deposit by the initial date in May, we’ll send them an invitation to the College Readiness Program, which are held in four cities across the United States.

0:05:39.1 DL: So the concept is to bring the Spelman experience to three cities, the fourth city being Atlanta, and the students can either come to those cities or come to Atlanta, and to have a daylong set of workshops dealing with college readiness skills, such as time management. One is called I’m Here Now What? Because we found that when we sent the registration materials out to the students, we asked a few questions. And one of them was about challenges they may have had in high school. What do you anticipate a challenge being in college? And a lot of them responded, they just did not know what to expect. And so the I’m Here Now What? Walks them through what new student orientation is gonna be like, what will academic advising look like, we show them the Arch or EAB Navigate, we show them other tools that they will use for their courses, auditing software and things like that. And so it gives them a head start on college readiness skills, it builds a sense of belonging, and it gives them some confidence that like, “Yes, I can do this.”

0:07:45.1 DL: So we have the Through the Gates program. Then the students come for new student orientation, and new student orientation is the period before classes begin. And then within new student orientation, the students are assigned an academic advisor, and this academic advisor assists them with selecting their courses, as well as that person will be their instructor for our first-year experience class, which lasts for the entire year.

0:07:45.1 DL: So they’re building relationships that will sustain them for the entire school year. In order to make all of this magic happen, we use EAB Navigate, or we call it the Arch, to disseminate information to students. Also within the Arch, the students can log on and they can see who their first year advisor is, who their success lead is within the student success program. So they can visually see who can I go to for assistance. We also have first year study groups, where all of the students in the first-year class participate in first year study groups. They are divided into sections of 12-15 students with a study lead, who is an upper-class student recommended by their department.

0:07:53.0 DL: And we have found over the last four years that the first-year study groups have been proven successful. And we’ve also found that it’s statistically significant, the success and the increase of GPA of students who participate in the program and attend at least four sessions in those who do not. And because of the success of our first-year study groups, the college has allowed us to integrate study groups within the first-year experience class this semester. And so students now are required to attend for at least four sessions of the first year study groups. And again, as part of the first-year students success group, the picture and contact information for their first-year study group lead is also listed on the Arch. So as soon as they log in, they can see who their support team is readily. And I think that adds to the success and the innovation of our first-year programming.

0:08:15.9 LS: That’s amazing. I mean, we all know that the research shows that students are showing up less academically prepared, perhaps less socially prepared and need more supports along the way. And it’s incredible to see what you’ve done with that Through the Gates program and the impact that the study groups have had on those first-year students, building such a strong foundation that will get them through to their degree completion. I wanna talk a little bit about the technology aspect for just a minute. You know, you’ve mentioned the Arch and EAB Navigate360 a couple of times now. I wanna talk a little bit about how you introduce the platform to students, not just through the summer, but even returning students. And maybe most of all, how you introduce the platform to faculty and administrators. And can you talk a little bit about how these different groups might use the Arch or Navigate?

0:08:37.2 DL: Yes. And as you can imagine, it takes multiple ways of introducing the platform, multiple times and multiple ways for the information to be retained by both students and faculty and staff. So what the students during Through the Gates, as well as during new student orientation, we will show them the information for how to log on, how to download the Navigate app, how to make an appointment with an advisor. Also, this year, we instituted the hand raise function. And so during new student orientation, we shared that with the students as well, showed them how to do it, as well as follow up with emails to show them how to set up the Navigate app, do the hand raise and having a campaign around that. And we do that multiple times and send out reminders to the students.

0:09:00.2 DL: For the faculty, it’s pretty much the same. We have mentioned it in Faculty Institute, which is a gathering of the faculty at the beginning of the semester, beginning of the school year, send out emails to the faculty of how they can sync their calendars to Navigate and be able to block out time on their schedule when they’re not available to meet with students, but to use it as a tool to meet with students to take notes. And we explain to the faculty that when you take notes of an advising session, that assists our office, the Office of Undergraduate Studies and other faculty, because we can all see the notes and what support has been offered to a student and to help supplement that support. And I think, again, that goes back to that support student approach of helping the student be successful throughout their time at Spelman. And so emails, meetings, one-on-one contacts. We also have faculty use the early alert feature within the first four to five weeks of class.

0:09:15.1 DL: And that is a progress report so we can see, as the Office of Student Success, how are students faring within the beginning of the semester? Are there things that we need to look at? Is there excessive tardies or absences? Are students not engaged in doing their work? You know, or other issues that the professors may see early on that can help us to assist the students in having a stronger start in the rest of their semester. And one highlight from last year, one of our pride points, is that we doubled our faculty response rate for the early alerts. And so where we were hovering around a 20% mark last year, last fall, we actually got up to 40%. So we were really proud of our faculty response rate within our early alerts last year. And that took a lot of messaging to faculty, personal messaging, as well as campus distribution emails, as well as in meetings.

0:09:39.6 LS: That’s amazing. I mean, doubling your faculty response rate is certainly something to be shouting from the rooftops. Have you found in your experience, and I don’t mean to sort of wade into shark-infested waters here, but have you found in your experience with the faculty at Spelman that they have embraced their role in student success? You know, how open are they to accepting a more holistic view of the role they play in helping students succeed?

0:09:51.8 DL: I believe there is definitely an overall approach that student success is not just from our office or a particular office on campus. Student success has to be campus-wide. And I do believe that faculty have bought into that notion that student success is everyone’s responsibility on campus, and everyone lends a hand to the success of the students from supportive staff into the classroom.

0:10:05.7 DL: You know, even people who work in a cafeteria and facilities, we all do our part to help students succeed. And so I would say that through continued engagement, as well as just them seeing what our programs can do, our academic programs, as well as technology programs like EAB Navigate, and being able to see the data and how our data is strengthened and our retention rates, our completion rates are strengthened, and it takes that whole village concept that we were talking about earlier. I think that also leads to faculty buy-in and the willingness to support students through not just instruction, but with the early alert system and referring students to our office or the Office of Undergraduate Studies or the Student Access Center for students who need accommodations.

0:10:17.7 LS: Incredible. I mean, a couple of such important concepts you hit on there, the importance of consistency, the importance of getting people to buy into the concept that student success is everyone’s job, and you’re doing it so successfully. I have one more question on your early alert program. You were describing it earlier, and it made me think. You know, I get a lot of questions in my role about how do we ensure that we are tailoring outreach to students as part of an early alert program that doesn’t scold or punish. Talk to me a little bit about how you do that at Spelman. How do you ensure that when an alert is raised on students that the communication you send to them is strengths-based and centered around how you wanna be there to help and support them be successful?

0:10:34.3 DL: I agree, Lindsay. The messaging is so important for faculty and student acceptance of the early alerts. So, when the messaging is sent out to faculty, not just the email messaging, but conversations we’ve had in faculty meetings, is that early alerts are not meant to be punitive. Early alerts are to assist students. When the faculty fill out the early alert and say it’s a student has excessive tardies or absences, when we receive that notice, then we will contact the student, talk to the student to see what’s going on, and not in a scolding manner, but how can we of assistance? What do you need for success?

0:10:41.2 DL: Now, what we found, maybe it was a year ago, one of the problems where there was excessive tardies is because the gate was closed. One of the gates to campus was closed, and it was causing the students to walk around. And then there was a neighboring college whose gate was closed, and our students were used to walking through that campus. And that was something that we would not have necessarily known unless we talked to the students. And so, our engagement with the students is definitely not from a negative point of view, a deficit point of view. It’s how can we help you? What is it that we can do that you will have a stronger start and a better semester? And we’ll find out tidbits like that information about the gate being closed, and having to contact public safety and see how we can work around that. So, that’s just one example of something that we might find out in the process of meeting with students.

0:20:14.2 DL: And then also, the early alerts are definitely not looking at challenges, but there’s also a feature for keep up the good work. So, we also want students to know, “Hey, you’re doing a great job. Your professor recognizes that you’re doing a great job. Here’s to keep up the good work.” And so, I think that’s when we also have a positive spin, it lets them know my professor sees me. My professor knows that I’m trying. I’m engaged in the work. And I think that also helps students to move forward, knowing that their professor is seeing them and recognizing the time they’re putting in to class.

0:20:23.7 LS: I completely agree. What a great example and what a great opportunity to champion success for students that you’ve provided through your early alert program. You know, Dr. Lewis, I know there’s way more to say on this. And I know because I have talked to you for hours that I could talk to you for hours, but I wanna be really respectful of your time. So, before I let you go, what would you say are the most important things that you’ve learned over the past few years in terms of meeting the student success challenge? And what advice do you have for other institutions that are facing similar challenges?

0:20:31.0 DL: I would say two challenges that stick out. One is the consistency of using a product and to just get in there and learn as much as you can. When I came into this role, I came to it as a department chair and from the faculty side. And I used the arch, but not to its full capability. And so, coming into this position, I had to learn a lot about the functionality of the arch. And so, one of those challenges I would say is just get in there and learn all that you possibly can. And you have been such a phenomenal support to me as well as our student success team. And another challenge, which we’re also working on, is just making sure that more faculty are trained in the Arch and how to use it beyond taking notes and how to use it beyond syncing your calendar. But how can you use the Arch, especially for department chairs, to look at data from your major, courses that may have high DFW rates, courses that or majors that have high turnover in terms of students changing their major.

0:20:53.8 DL: But there’s so much positive and wonderful data that you can use to extract. And so, I think just making sure that it is a tool that is used continuously and that there’s training provided for all. And then the second is just making sure that everything is individualized because so much of what we do in student success is built upon relationships with students. And students don’t all fit within the same box. All students have different challenges that they need resolved to help them experience success. And so, just making sure that we individualize, we talk to students, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all mentality.

0:23:39.6 DL: But then how can we create success for each individual student based upon their individual needs? Because it takes a village, but it also takes a village to know that each part of the village is different. And how can we support everybody in the village to be their best selves?

0:23:47.5 LS: Well, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us. Most importantly, Dr. Lewis, thank you for sharing your time with us today. I know that I learned some great things from hearing you explain some of the wonderful success that Spelman has had with the Arch or Navigate360. And like I said in the beginning, it’s been a privilege to work alongside of you for the last few years and get to see firsthand all of the great work that you and your team have been doing. So, thank you.

0:24:00.6 DL: Thank you so much, Lindsay, for the opportunity. And the honor and privilege is all ours. And we absolutely love working with you and the support that you have given us to help us to go from good to great. And we’re looking forward to being even greater over the next few years with your help. So, thank you.