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>> My name is John Amanatides, I'm a CS prof also the Master
of Bethune College, and Co-chair
of the Student Experience Subcommittee
of the Retention Counsel.
The academic student transition project is all
about helping students, or incoming students transition
to this gigantic institution, help --
we want to try to help make a big institution feel a
little smaller.
We want to connect with students right at the beginning,
before classes start we want them to feel comfortable with,
with this space, with the services that we offer.
So many times in this place, I see, you know,
lots of interesting programs, useful programs,
but students don't know about them.
I think if we can consistently give a message to students
that we have services to help them succeed,
I think that they'll be able to remember it
when it, when it gets hard.
>> My name is Catherine Salole, and I'm the Director
of Student Community and Leadership Development,
and I'm also the Co-chair of the Student Experience Subcommittee
in the Retention Counsel.
The Incoming Student Transition Initiatives Project is actually
more than just one, we call it The Initiatives,
because there are many initiatives associated with it.
Broadly, it's about projects
that support student's transition
through to the first day of class,
so they include the RED Zone, the RED Zone videos and blogs,
as well as RED Talks and the Student Services Play.
So with the AIF Funding we were able to hire orientation chairs
from each of the colleges to actually be the student staff
within the RED Zone, so it's about taking incoming students,
sitting down with them, having meaningful conversations
and connections with them, to help them with any questions
that they might have, or as well as signing them up
or pointing them into the right direction
or the right, the right resources.
>> My role as a RED Zone Student Ambassador,
as well as the Orientation Chair of Bethune College.
I got to meet the students that I was going
to see one on one, first hand.
It helps them kind of break down that barrier first thing,
and take the plunge to join social orientation.
Working in the RED Zone has definitely helped me plan
social orientation.
The reason is, it helped me get in sync with students
that were coming in from high school.
I'm four years out of high school, so it gave me a chance
to meet them and see what those barriers are going to be
when they finally get here.
It also helped me see who was going to be signing
up so I could plan events that were appropriate for them.
>> They expect to get their email, they expect to get --
go to Facebook, they expect to make connections on the web,
and that's where we need and have put information
for incoming students.
>> The second part of the RED Zone is the virtual component,
so over the summer, every week, a new theme or blog was,
was released, and they cover topics
such as explaining what a Faculty was, a college was,
orientation, how to stay healthy on campus, financial services,
academic success, so they did cover a range of,
a range of topics in a way
that we really thought was fun and engaging.
>> One of the initiatives is the student portal providing new
portlets for incoming students, and I think that's really nice
because you provide a welcome in a format
that today's students really appreciate.
>> The project also included RED Talks, which was inspired
by the TED Talks concept.
What we wanted to do was we wanted to make sure
that through the summer we engaged incoming students
to a faculty member in a fun and interesting way.
So we invited five faculty members to deliver a RED Talk
on a, on a topic that would be interesting to incoming students
and get them used to what a lecture might be like.
The student services play was another component
of this project.
The play itself was written by one of our staff members
in residence life and produced by Vanier College Products.
It's called The, The Text Race and it was presented
at academic orientations across campus.
And the idea was to give, to give incoming students
in academic orientations across campus a very consistent message
and experience around student services.
>> The academic innovation fund has allowed units to go --
to think beyond what's possible with their resources,
and imagine and connect with other players on this campus
to do something bigger,
and I think that's been really valuable.
>> This project is all around, about helping students.
We know that students who have a successful transition
into university are more likely to have a successful first year,
and the research also tells us that a student
who has a successful first year is more likely
to complete university with a positive experience.