Our Student Ambassador program (student leadership) has failed miserably. Students state that they don't have the time to commit to the meetings. I would be interested to hear about other Student Ambassador programs that have been successful. What have you done to make it successful and how do you generate interest from the student body?

In order to meet the needs of the industry, it is necessary to make changes to the curriculum and programs of study to stay competitive. This tends to happen quite frequently at the college I work at. We are a large career college with 7 campuses. How can we effectively communicate changes to students? We have tried e-mails, flyers, meetings etc. I would be very interested in hearing how others communicate change to the student body.

Many of our students, while excited at first, also have some lingering self-doubt about their ability to succeed. Many of our new students have struggled in high-school and have been repeatedly told that they won't amount to much of anything. In order to turn this perception around, we have to help them believe in their own potential. If they don't believe in themselves, we'll do it for them. We tell all of our students that if we did not believe that they could succeed in our school, they would not have been accepted. Additionally, we take great pride in celebrating success -- no matter how minor. If a student is habitually late, we celebrate the day that they showed up on time. Over time, because we refuse to give up on them, they begin to realize that perhaps they can make it. It takes a great deal of energy and follow-up, but re-framing students expectations of themselves can be change -- but only when we sincerely believe in them.

Does anyone have any ideas how to incorporate current students in orientation activities. I think this is a good way that the new students can start to feel comfortable in their new environment and get some positive feed back from current students.

Do you think it would be helpful to students to introduce a 2nd orienation midway through the program as way to remotivate students who are failing or considering dropping and also to keep those students who are in good standing involved in the school ?

I am really interested in getting input on how to extend orientation beyond a one day event and extending it over several weeks, I think most students are overwhelmed with the amount of information presented at orientation and forget a lot of the information, has anyone tried this method?

How do you deal with student burn-out, meaning that there is too much outside and personal issues in their life that they can not cope?

How do you reach a student that is so preoccupied with their home life that school and school related activities become less important

There are times when students come to you with personal issues totally unrelated to school. I have always done my best to help the student to be solution oriented not problem focused. I would never turn a student away telling them, "that is not my problem" but I am not sure how involved I should become?

How do you deal with parents who feel the school is responsible for everything wrong in their adult childs life simply because they were not successful in their educational efforts with your school? While it isimportant for the school to look at how they could've been more helpful, it is also important for the student to take responsibility for their outcome as well. This is not an easy task. Any suggestions?

We currently hold orientation in a large classroom. The President, Executive Director, and Director of Education speak. Other staff members are introduced as they direct arriving students through the hallways toward the session. I'm very interested in the idea of dividing the new students into groups and having them visit the various departments. However, this method seems complicated to organize. Does anyone currently doing this have advice on planning and timing the concurrent sessions? What is the typical length of an orientation when done in this manner?

I think the idea of Admissions calling during their first week is a good idea, is anyone doing this?

Has anyone tried creating a passport, where they are required to get stamps or signatures of certain faculty? Then,each station then has alittle school suppy there as an incentive to meet everyone.

What is being done as a follow up to orientation during the second or third week of school to check up on students and see if their expectations are being met by everyone they have encountered?

A teacher who wants to approach 100% retention must give their student's individual attention every class period. Yes, this seems hard to do, especially as class sizes get bigger, but I believe it is neccessary. And I'm not talking about just calling on each student to answer one question, I'm refering to meaningful discussion that will help you understand if the student is actually learning or just simply repeating key phrases.

I like the idea of the students going from station to station picking up non-academic items such as pens, calulators, planners ect. Has anyone done this and if so how did it work?

Each year we struggle to find fun events to engage students and build a supportive family environment. We've actually increased spending year to year. With all the effort and dollars spent, very few students particpate in the events. How can we measure the effectiveness of these events?

I believe all these concepts start in the Admissions Associates interview. The orientation should then address them again. Their perception will then start to become reality when all departments are on the same page.

Does anyone have a formal plan in place too have admission involved in the transition of students too faculty?

Has anyone tried holding orientation in conjunction with the first day of class? Would this not make it easier too have new students interact with current students, staff and faculty?