Tips for Helping Student Stay Motivated
Students often return from break with a renewed sense of motivation. Here are some tips to help students maintain that motivation all semester long.
Remember why you started. What are your goals?
Stay focused.
Set goals for yourself. Even if they are small daily goals
Reward yourself.
Focus on actually learning, not just getting good grades.
Surround yourself with positive, influencing people.
Take care of yourself mentally and physically.
Balance your school life with your social life. Set aside time to relax and have fun
Be realistic in your goals. Understand some goals take more work than others
Believe in yourself. Everyone starts somewhere
Commuter Assistants will be holding numerous events this term to help Commuter students. Please share with your students!
January 16-19: CAs will be helping students organize their courses for this term with tips on time management, recording all of their assignments, projects and exam into a master calendar, and getting their notebooks organized for best note-taking practices.
January 23: Commuter FREE Lunch in Cafeteria! Open from 11:30AM-1:30PM. CAs will be available to talk with students about any concerns they be having.
January 31: PB & J Wednesday! Located at Commuter Help Desk (1st Floor Library) from 12PM-1PM. Commuters can have lunch and meet with different campus Services! This week: Office of Retention
February 28: PB & J Wednesday! Located at Commuter Help Desk (1st Floor Library) from 12PM-1PM. Commuters can have lunch and meet with different campus Services! This week: Counseling Services
Office of Retention’s New Year’s Resolution: Faculty Involvement
Welcome to the first edition of the faculty e-newsletter from the office of Retention! My hope for this newsletter is become better connected to faculty members in the hopes we can partner together for student retention. In fact, my 2018 resolution is to work more closely faculty than ever before because you all know our students best! You have the power to alert my office of a student who is struggling so we can go to work to help that not to disappear (because we all know students often won’t seek help themselves). This care for our students will only help us to uphold our mantra—a personalized experience where you are more than a number! I am hopeful that you will partner with me this term to create tighter bonds that will increase retention. Please read on below to see this term’s initiatives that you can partner with me!
Thinking of You Postcard Campaign—Your Penmanship Needed!
If you recall the Thinking of You postcard campaign kicked off last spring where students who were missing class/appointments were sent a handwritten postcard from my office to show that we noticed them starting to disappear. For this rendition of the postcard, I think it will mean much more to students if the faculty member who has the concern for them “writes” them the postcard!
I have made this (what could be very labor intensive) gesture simple for you. You will be receiving five postcards in the interdepartmental mail with a typed message of concern. All you will have to do is fill in the student’s name (i.e. Dear Charlie,) and sign your name to the bottom of the card. Then send back the postcards in the included office mailer to me and I will do the rest! If you would like more than five postcards, I would be happy to send you more. My hope is that this show of concern will be a spark for the student to talk about the issues they are encountering and setup a plan before it is too late. Thank you in advance for your help with this project!
Call for Faculty interested in mentoring first-year students this fall
At the Retention conference I attended this fall, I had the pleasure meeting Dr. Joe Cuseo, a professor emeritus at Marymount University. He has been doing research for years about student success. Besides his work in the First Year Experience, he is also a believer in Faculty Mentoring for students.
“Mentoring has the potential to reduce students’ feelings of marginality, increasing their sense of personal significance—that they ‘matter’.” (Cuseo, 2005).
Personal significance is key to retention and is the reason why my office will be concentrating on helping students develop a sense of belonging. Relationships with faculty members are essential for students to find their fit and I need your help in developing a Faculty-Student Mentor program for the incoming students this fall. If you are interested in being a mentor, I want your input on how this program should be structured as you know best what kind of interactions you can insert into your already busy schedules. We will begin working through the program details laid out in Dr. Cuseo’s report (see below). Interested parties will convene this term to develop the program. Stipends are available for interested faculty members. If interested, please email Charlie.watson@fairmontstate.edu to sign up.
I have the great pleasure in sharing the Turley Student Services Center phone list that contains staff's direct extensions. The staff of Turley would like to me to remind you that this list for internal purposes only and students should continue to use the main phone number of 304-367-4141. For the guaranteed fastest response when contacting Enrollment Services, the main phone (listed previously) is recommended.
Office of Retention
WHO WE ARE: An office that “makes things happen”, who loves new ideas and input from all over campus, an advocate for family members and a sounding board for students, a believer in the first year experience, and someone who thrives on a challenge and loves a good initiative!
WHAT WE DO: The Office of Retention oversees:
HOW TO HAVE STUDENTS CONTACT US: Students can easily schedule an appointment with us by visiting www.fairmontstate.edu/retention and click on 'Make An Appoinment' or stop our office in Turley Center 226.
