Create a number of activities for the students, such as best attendance, student of the month, best monthly academic achievement, best improvement.
Have students pot lucks for their birthdays, anniversary, ets.
Celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving , New Years and other holidays with the students, staff and faculty. Let the students feel at home and show them that we recognize their achievements.
We are looking at implementing a similar approach where we have a student advisory board that meets with the dean and the president on a quarterly basis. We also implemented town hall meetings by program with students and their department chairs but most of these issues are curriculum or teaching related.
The advisory would help us solve more school wide related issues and opportunities. We are in need of a student voice when brainstorming solutions and would utilize the student advisory for their input.
We have a verity of student activities including a student council, organized student participation at organized industry events and trade shows. We have a student / Staff pool tournament twice a year. I feel that some opportunity lies in some events like Saturday technical challenges, organized volunteer work such as adopt-a-road and other such community activities.
School involvement activities found in the course that could be implemented in our school pertained to graduation. Inviting current to students to attend graduation ceremonies for senior students, as well as, involving students in planning their own graduation ceremonies would be helpful toward increasing student retention.
These are really great suggestions, it is very important that the students feel validated for their accomplishments. Getting recognition from the Director of Education and the Campus Director I'm sure is very meaningful to them.
Adding a student blog section to your website will help too.
Additionally, adding a chat section to your LMS (Learning Management System) which allows students to communicate online will help build a sense of unity.
We adopted a road and have periodic clean-a-thons to help create bonding among students, and, of course, to help beautify our neighborhood.
That is a fantastic idea. Any community involvement is a good thing for the students, the school and the community. We have had blood drives, food drives, etc.
What percentage of your student body participates in community activities?
We currently do the following student involvement activities: Tutoring, mentoring, student council, student appreciation weeks, holiday contests, student recreation trips, student field trips, student contests and school open houses on some weekends with car shows. We are always looking for additional ides.
We too are always looking for new ideas for student activities to better our retention rate.
we presently have quarterly picnics,and award ceremonies. We are planning on adding to this list with awards by indivual programs for dress code, tutoring, outstanding achievments (nominated by Instructors).
Develop a list of ideal school involvement activities that can be implemented in your school to increase student retention.
within the last year we implemented the student council and that has helped bond students together. we have discussed other activities; however, we have not made any decisions as of yet.
We have a list, and we have implemented so many of the same strategies which are mentioned here. But, we still lose students. I think that our missing piece is the bonding of the students to each other and to the school. So for us, it isn't so much about creating the involvement activities, because they do exist. I think it will be about making them more effective.
Seasonal activities such as fall theme or spring, summer, etc.
Specific holiday activities such as christmas, thanksgiving, easter, halloween.
Toys for tots during the holidays.
Feed the hungry program.
Holiday baskets
We find that the more activities we have on campus the better. We have lots of clubs for students to involve themselves in. We also have a Halloween, and Holiday party that encourages students to bring their kids into the school. We have once a qtr Student Appreciation days where we give the students lunch/dinner. As well as we recognize their good work throuhg certificates for good grades/ good attendance.
Each quarter, we try to do at least one social event for our students. Recognizing that most of our population are working adults, we end classes early or start them late so that the activities are during class time. They range from simply having donuts and coffee before class to all campus holiday parties.
We also have created a club on campus that encourages community involvement. They have bake sales, clothes drives, etc....to help give back to the community. We are also going to have them start helping with the graduation ceremony.
Here at the school I teach at we have open house and at that time we have contest for current and future students and give out prizes. We also do things through out the year besides just open house events that's more for student retention. I think it works we'll.
At our campus we have developed student clubs that directly relate to their specific field of study. These are official chapters so there are many benefits. We have the officers of the club make a presentation during orientation and also during the first quarter for the new students. In addition, the club members serve as mentors for the new students. So, if a new student is having issues, they can discuss it with a fellow student if that is what makes them confortable. We have found that the mentor will guide them to talk to a staff member for guidance (in most cases).
We also have scheduled student appreciation activities through out each quarter. Last year, we had very discounted tickets for our students to a professional baseball game, we have a student picnic in late spring and we also have scheduled field trips to our local industry leaders' facilities.
The problem again is we have students nationwide, so we really cannot put together any localized activites. Do you have any suggestions?
