When the alarm clock goes off on Monday morning, University of South Florida junior Kayla Miner enthusiastically gets moving -- she is headed to a job she loves.
Like most workers in these days of self-isolation, Kayla doesn’t have far to go as she settles in with her cell phone and her laptop. This Health Sciences major is remotely continuing both her education at USF and her work as a Senior Peer Advisor Leader (PAL) in the New Student Connections (NSC) office from her small hometown near Boston.
Kayla scans the provided list of 30-50 mainly first-year students, who have been prioritized by the university for outreach to ensure the students’ success so they return for a second year. Settling on a name, Kayla dials the student’s phone number. Her face breaks into a big smile as the student on the other end answers the call on the third ring.
“Hi, Mark! My name is Kayla and I work with New Student Connections in the MSC at USF. I am calling just to see how you are doing. Crazy times, huh?” Kayla continues her introduction and, before Mark can divulge anything, she has let him know that she is a Title IX mandatory reporter and what her role is as a PAL. With the formalities out of the way, Kayla’s bubbly personality apparently sets Mark as ease and they settle in for a 25-minute chat.
Kayla’s easygoing demeanor and practiced coaching skills asking open-ended questions gets Mark talking and sharing the challenges he is facing, especially since the university switched to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a few quick technology questions answered, the conversation turns to time management. Kayla is well-versed and slides into her coaching role to help the freshman identify solutions to his challenges. As the call winds down, Kayla asks Mark if he would like to reconnect in a week or so to see how he is doing. He agrees and they set up a call for the following week. Her first contact of the day was a success – Kayla is happy.
“These days, with all that is going on, more students than ever are answering my initial calls,” she said. “They are really missing USF and it gives them peace of mind to know they have a more personal connection to someone who can get them help if they need it.”
Outreach for Student Success
USF’s focus on student success has long included initiatives to address first-year student retention, and New Student Connections holds a primary role. The university utilizes both its own first-year retention model and predictive analytics software to determine the students with the greatest likelihood for attrition in their first year. Additionally, a robust referral system by faculty and staff also provides information on students facing potential challenges. To effectively act on this data, the university follows a case management approach to coordinate care and support for individual students.
As part of the cross-campus outreach team, New Student Connections developed its peer coaching program, Peer Advisor Leaders (PALs), in 2016 to expand its scale and effectiveness. This year’s cohort of 20 PALs went through an extensive training program in the NSC office to prepare for the role. Ongoing training and a weekly all-hands meeting with staff, ensures they learn coaching methods, interviewing techniques, and leadership skills, in addition to becoming well-versed in everything USF. Senior PALs, like Kayla, go one step further in developing management skills to help them guide their assigned team of PALs. These skills and experiences not only benefit the first-year students they contact, but the PALs themselves are professionally developed for their careers beyond college.
How It Works
Starting in the summer, each PAL is assigned a list of students to begin their outreach. The master list this year had approximately 1,300 students (90 percent are first-year students and the remainder are transfer or continuing students) prioritized by the university for contact, but that number more than doubled to 3,000 recently with the pandemic requiring remote learning beginning in March.
PALs connect with students mainly via phone call, text, and email, and follow-up conversations (before pandemic) could be an in-person meet ups on campus. PALs typically address many student’s concerns in one call, but the sweet spot seems to be three sessions. Conversations during the outreach attempts are driven by a weekly curriculum established to ensure relevance to the student experience. For instance, in weeks 4-6 of the semester, the PALs are asking students about preparations for midterms, while in weeks 13-15, they are asking students about their ability to successfully register for courses. Remote learning challenges have been added to the curriculum.
PALs outreach often leads to a peer coaching session, which is aimed at identifying challenges, strategizing solutions, and providing referrals to essential resources that will aid a student’s progression. Coaching conversations range from helping a student decode their syllabus, to guiding a student through a major change process, to helping a student get connected to support resources based on a Title IX disclosure. Each coaching session concludes with goal setting, solidifying an accountability mechanism, and needs for timely referrals to resources. Within 48 hours of an outreach or coaching conversation, the PALs document the conversation. These logs are reviewed by a staff member and necessary referrals to campus colleagues are made via USF’s proprietary case management platform to connect the student with the individualized support they need to be successful.
Results
Over the past four years, this innovative peer-to-peer program has produced a critical front-line team for student success at USF, earning recognition from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and, most recently, the 2020 Innovative Program Award from National Orientation Directors Association (NODA).
Students really seem to open up to the PALs, finding in them a confidant, friend, and coach who has already walked their path. The initiative has led to the early identification of students withdrawing from the university, those experiencing severe academic distress, and/or those needing mental health support. PALs have not only contributed to USF’s retention rate, which has climbed to 91 percent, but also enabled the university to provide the right support to the right student at the right time.
Kayla settles back into her chair, scanning her list for the next student to call. “It’s rewarding to be able to help first year students navigate USF, but -- right now -- being able to provide a friendly helpful connection in this stressful time is really special,” she said. “That’s why I love being their PAL!”
For more information about New Student Connections and this program, visit www.usf.edu/newstudent.