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School Commitment

Describe a practice at your institution that demonstrates School Commitment.

At our school we have a program called the "Graduate of the Year". All students are encouraged to submit a brief essay describing why they started school and the situations that they had to overcome in order to graduate. (We currently have 14 schools in a 5 state area, so we get a lot of responses that cover a wide range of circumstances.) We have several rewards for the winners ranging from a new computer system, money for a wardrobe, to a full reimbursement of tuition for the grand prize winner.

The stories are published along with photos of the participants for all to see in the schools, and the awards dinner is videotaped and played in our lobby areas for new prospective students and families to see.

This is a year long process, and involves every department of the school from selecting the candidates to helping with the essays. We promote the students need to 'tell their story' so others can see that they too can make it regardless of the 'stressors' the have to overcome.

This seems like a great program. I imagine it generates a lot of excitement among graduates.

Does each school have a winner, with the grand prize winner selected from this group?

One practice at our institution that demonstrates School Commitment requires committed instructor involvement. Each time a student misses a class, the instructor calls the student to "touch base and make sure everything is OK" and to remind the student of topics covered and what the homework is. In this way students know that they are perceived as important and individual, not just one of a group.

We also have a very dedicated Student Services staff. When students have problems with transportation or housing, we can refer them to the Student Services department where resources to assist in these areas can often be provided. Even if we can't always solve the problem, alternatives are explored and the students know that we care.

It's great to hear that your faculty will follow up with students who have missed class. How do they communicate problems they uncover and to whom?

Any problems that are identified are communicated to the Director of Education. In our school, the DOE also acts as the Student Services focal point. The request is typically done in person by the instructor, and an entry concerning it made into our database so we can track responses and continuing efforts to resolve issues.

Problems identified through teacher contact are communicated to either Student Services or to the student's Program Director. If students have 2 or more absences without contact or if other problems are identified, a Request for Program Director's Attention is sent. (Each degree or certificate program has a Program Director.)

Thanks, Laura. Sounds like you have a good system in place. Does anyone else do something like this? What are your results?

Bill, how large is your school? What Student Services do you offer? Is your DOE also the person who makes contact with the student?

We display on a plaque the following:

What are students?

Students - are the most important people in this business.

Students- are not dependent on us. We are dependent on them

Students- are not an interruption of our work. They are the purpose of it.

Students- are part of our business- not outsiders

Students- are not statistics. They are human beings with feelings and emotions like ourselves.

Students- are people who come to us with their needs, wants and ambitions. It is our job to see that they have every opportunity to succeed.

Students- are deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give them.

Students- are the life-blood of this business. Without them we would have to close our doors.

AND WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET IT!

We display this in our offices, put it in our Team Member and Instructor Catalogs, and cover it as part of orientation. I believe we truly make a concerted effort to follow this notwithstanding minor aberrations.

That's very powerful, Les. Do you ever use any of these points as a basis for discussion in staff or faculty meetings to remind people and demonstrate the principles in action?

Yes. First, we have a written retention plan that we hand to all employees which covers that. In addition these items or derivatives are discussed at virtually all of our 8 staff meetings and 8 separate instructor in-service meetings we have each year.

Les

I'm very impressed with your institution's focus on making retention a way of daily life, Les. Too often schools hand out a memo that outlines what should happen and then never re-enforces the message. Obviously, the people at your school understand that retention is an important part of how things should be done.

Twice during each quarter we have student appreciation week. During one of the weeks the college provides “treats” for all the students: cokes and hotdogs, pizza parties, summertime ice cream social, holiday bakery goodies, etc. During the other week, each program has its own student appreciation social with food, fellowship and an opportunity for a recently employed graduate to talk to the students about their new career. It's a wonderful opportunity for the college, program directors and faculty to show their commitment to the students.

One of the challenges of appreciation events is to get everyone involved. If it's a retention effort you need to reach all the students. Jaime, how do you assure that you are reaching the students who aren't very social or who aren't engaged with school activities?

My school environment sounds similar to Laura's. We definitely keep track of attendance and our Student Services and Admissions staff members will call students who are missing. We try to do everything we can to help with individual problems (we arrange car pools and accommodate class schedules, etc.), and if we are not able to, we have a Resource Directory we use to refer students to the proper places or people.

When a student nears his or her graduation date, they meet individually with our Career Development Department to review a resume we have prepared for them and discuss their hopes for future employment. On graduation day, the school supplies the graduating class with lunch. We also award certificates to those students with perfect attendance.

That's a rather comprehensive list of services, Carol. Do you actually prepare the resume for the prospective graduate or are you editing one that they prepare?

About 2 months prior to graduation, our students are given a resume workbook. Here they fill in prior employment, activities, etc. From this our Career Development Department inputs the information into a template. They do a good job personalizing each one, for example, with a statement about each student's goals.

Our academy hosts periodic job fairs, where I send out invitations to other businesses in the field who need makeup artists. Students are on hand to show off their best work. I think this is something extra the students can experience to know that we are commited to their success.

The most important items at our school would be our 3 student progress bulleting boards. We have one board dedicated to students who have outstanding attendance and list their names monthly. The second board is for academic honors anyone who has a GPA at or above the programmatic standard is listed. The third board is dedicated to the total classroom attendance and is published on the first day of the month for the prior month. A class must have a total of 90% attendance to participate and the classes who have the most days at 90% or above compete for first and second prize. First and second place receive a ribbon framed in a shadow box to hand outside the classroom door. In addition the other classes receive a paper award telling how many days they were above 90% to post outside their door, even of it was only one day. Each of these items has been a motivator for all of us. We really hustle to get students to understand that if they are not in school they are not learning and what happens in class today can never be duplicated because they missed the class interaction.

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