Our NPS Scores are getting better at our campus. Our President has done a fantastic job addressing the importance of NPS in our mission to increase enrollment and student retention. Our goal is to make our school the best place to work in San Francisco.
Thank you, James. You are fortunate to have a campus President with an edupreneural spirit, one that balances the needs of students with the business needs. Inspiring a happy, dedicated staff is the most important thing a leader can do.
What are some of the specific things your President does that makes your school such a good place to work?
You're welcome. Our President makes a point to walk about the campus, several times a day, to meet with students and staff--just to greet us. He conducts a morning stand up meeting with the management staff to ensure that they are communicating well with each other. In addition, he has formed teams of all faculty and administrative staff members to highlight items we perceive to be working, not working, and what's possible. We are working on action plans at this time.
Helping our students realize their dreams. Helping to build their confidence and showing them ways to attain their goals.
Our school's culture is one fo a very positive attitude toward our students. It starts with our director who tells everyone up front taht we are a teaqm. Our team is busy trying to help our students succeed in their chosen field.
Randy,
You are fortunate that you have a Director that focuses on teamwork. This is what you will normally find in good career colleges.
Because we are a non-profit organization, we are naturally very small. In my opinion this is good and bad. Having a close knit group of employees can contribute to a family atmosphere, again, being good and bad. I would describe the culture as "dysfunctional family." Maybe the family that's portrayed in movies during Christmas time, they all love one another and get along, but there is always a sense of underlying frustration or a behavior that irks someone.
Everyone gets along, but there are definite dividing lines and some times "too many experts/bosses and not enough workers." I think we have Intelligent Hearts, but not enough and not enough emphasis on this concept. It's great to enroll a student and remember their name months later, but what do you really know about the student? Nothing. I would like to see more interaction to ensure the student's succeed instead of just recognizing they are present.
My perception of an Intelligent Heart is a person that knows the difference between blowing smoke and acutally communicating with a student. A person that addresses negative behavior (i.e. missing school or failing a test) with positive reinforcement and achieves the end goal of helping the student understand why they can do better, instead of brow beating them. A person that is able to develop a true connection and a relationship with not only the students but their co-workers to work towards a common goal.
Jon,
It appears that you are referencing the relationship between admissions representatives and students when you say "It's great to enroll a student and remember their name months later, but what do you really know about the student? Nothing."
m
This is a challenge for a lot of career colleges. One successful college in Nebraska used to form teams with members of each department, including representatives, who would track a group of students and meet with them once or twice per term. The teams worked with the students on community projects, fundraisers, campus beautification, etc. The leadership of the college believed this type of approach led to positive results for the students and each department in the school.
This kind of activity only works if the campus leadership is committed to it. It will not work if the reps start fading away from the activities because their numbers are not where they need to be.
Complacency is a major issue at all colleges Im sure. We are lucky that our student's have a physical goal in mind to be come a proffessional chef.Even though our student are in contact with peopl;e that have reached this goal we still encounter the student that need the encouragement to relize they can achieve thier goals.
"Intelligent Heart" is mentoring and pointing to students to the right sources so that they can succeed.
As instructors we see and deal more with the students than anyone else on campus. So when the student has a problem their more likely to come to us before anyone else. It takes more than just teaching to be a good instructor. You have to be someone who will take the time to help a student who is in need. Even if it's just listening and pionting the student in the right direction to get help.
Thank you, Kevin. It is really a good idea for each faculty member to have access to a list of resources to which students may be referred. This list should include resources available through the school as well as community resources.
We have recently developed a student council which will hopefull give some guidance and thoughts towards a mission statement and idea for students to embrace and works towards. Our school leadership is working on becoming more school culture centered and thinking with "intelligent hearts."
Thanks, Jeff. Several career colleges have forms of student government or student councils. They offer a great way for campus leadership to interact with students to address concerns before they become complaints.
Many colleges also use student organizations to help plan and facilitate community outreach programs such as blood drives, toys-for-tots, food for the needy, etc.
I would have to say that our school is made up primarily of those with “Intelligent Heartsâ€. Having been a student at the organization and now an instructor, I see how effective that the entire staff is at motivating the student to do their best because everyone firmly believes in the personal touch and truly goes above and beyond the job description to offer anyone who needs extra help the additional attention that they need, even if it is just a sympathetic ear.
Phyllis
Phyllis, Your students' are fortunate to be involved with your team. Student-focused teams are what make good career colleges successful.
My schools culture is the typical career college. One wherein most of the students are adult learners wanting to improve in a career they are in or want to get a career for the first time in their life. A lot of them have jobs, families, and sometimes the greatest obstacle is finding someone to care for their child while they are at school or work for an acceptable rate. Our student body is multicultural and we even have international students sometimes. I think we have a stable "seasoned" group of instructors who are student success oriented or "heart intelligent."
They gladly go the extra mile after class to explain to students that ask and have difficulty.
Sometimes the instructor will solicit a stronger student who may be "getting it" to come to the aide of another. We solict and pay previously succesful student to tutor other who are weak.
I believe that is greatly empowers our students and drives them to success too.
I would say, overall, my school has many "Intelligent Hearts." Of course, there are always a few that don't fit in to that category. I think I see the line between (for the most part) the full-time faculty and the part-time faculty. A lot of the part-timers are not as invested in the school or the students. Many of them have other full-time jobs, then they rush here to teach at night. Then they rush out again. I think the students and the other staff members can see/feel the difference. One way that we are trying to fix this is to get the instructors more involved with each student. They are required to contact the student when they are absent, and they also have 1 on 1 counseling sessions twice a quarter to check in with each student. I know that we could be doing more, but this is a start. We have also tried to move to having fewer full-time instructors, then many part-time instructors and this has helped a lot.
I am curious Sarah and must ask do you pay the instructors extra for their time? in the past I have heard some of our part time instructors ask, " Are you going to pay us?"
The instructors have office hours in which they can complete the phone calls. They are also required to be available 15 min before and after class, so they could make the phone calls during that time. For the 1 on 1 counseling sessions, these are usually done during class, while the rest of the class works on an assignment.
