Brought to you by the Student Success and Completion Committee
As a community college, we wear many hats, and we welcome all learners whether they are here for a career change, self-enrichment, or to transfer to a university. The diverse student body encourages creativity as well as connections, but it can also stretch us thin with multiple needs to fulfill.
At GCC we have many nontraditional (aka “post-traditional”) students who may be older, returning, first-generation, full-time workers, and parents. We know our demographic, and we care for our students, but how do we best demonstrate this care?
Researchers are more loudly reporting that what really makes the difference for students at a commuter campus is a sense of belonging (Jacoby, 2019).
What does student belonging look like?
- Seeing themselves represented in media
- Coursework that reflects various cultural identities
- Instructors who reach out with personal notes to congratulate on achievement, express concern over struggles, or even just recognizing absences (“nudging” in modern parlance)
- Connections to resources, including the food pantry and childcare
- Integrated support in our courses, including tutoring, advising, and more, in order to increase engagement
How are YOU contributing to a sense of belonging for our students?
Take a few moments to reflect on ways you may already be contributing to student belonging and then identify ways you are not.
The Reality…
According to a recent report, 60% of undergraduates are “post-traditional” (25+ years of age, or work, or have dependents, etc.). Of that group, 70% work and 45% actually work full time. The report argued that if we worked harder to target those students, completion rates would increase since they are usually a motivated group but are the ones where life responsibilities get in the way (Soares et al., 2017).
Digging deeper…
Our students are complex and have many competing areas of attention in their lives. To best help them, we might dig into some theoretical frameworks to understand how to create more meaningful strategies for engagement. Some frameworks to explore include Schlossberg’s Mattering, Marginality, and Transition Theories.
The more informed we are, the more we can help our students be active participants in a meaningful stage in their lives, no matter where next steps take them.