Author Archives: Sarah

Connecting with the Pilot Network During Break

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As students progress through their college years, some start to feel apprehension about what the future holds once they leave The Bluff. One of the valuable resources available to both students and alumni is the vast network of Pilot alumni and parents ready to assist other members of the UP community! Here are some easy ways that your student can start connecting with the Pilot network during the winter break, even from the comfort of the couch in their pajamas!

Regional Networks

Is your student looking for professional connections in their hometown or thinking of relocating to a new city? We currently have 15 chapters of alumni and parents around the country that welcome, connect, and support local Pilots. There are no fees or dues, so if you are a student, alumni, or parent you are automatically part of the local chapter! UP chapters are located across the country, so check to see if there’s one near you. Winter break is a great time for your student to connect with the chapter and ask an alumnus to schedule a virtual coffee and chat about life after UP. Many chapters, such as the DC Chapter, are currently hosting virtual events or other outreach initiatives which are open to students.

UP Switchboard

No matter where you live, a great way for students to connect to the Pilot network is through Switchboard, UP’s online community. Many students reach out to alumni for advice on graduate school, finding a place to live, or advice in a particular field. Students can sign up here! Here’s a few examples of previous posts from our UP community:

An Alumni Perspective

The National Alumni Board (NAB) is made up of UP alumni from various class years, fields, and locations. Their goal is to assist the Alumni & Parent Relations staff in its mission to connect all generations of the UP family by building creative, collaborative, and supportive relationships between the UP campus community and all graduates in all locations. The NAB members, with their professions, locations, affinities, and contact information, are listed on their webpage. They are always happy to talk to students about post-grad life! Students can also read this opinion piece that the NAB shared in the Beacon student newspaper about the resources available to new graduates. The NAB also offers a scholarship to incoming sophomore, junior, and senior students.

Other Resources

There are many other connections that students can make to help them transition to life after college. Graduates of the Last Decade (or GOLDs) have local programming in Portland and a GOLD board to support young alumni. There are several academic-based chapters, such as the Nursing and Engineering Chapters. Students can also reference these ways to connect, including a student-led organization and a LinkedIn group.

If your student is looking for advice in a particular area, they are always welcome to email the Office of Alumni & Parent Relations and we can connect them to the right person!

New Programs Support Student Learning at UP

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The Learning Commons is UP’s hub for peer-assisted learning support. We house the Writing Center, the Math Resource Center, and content-based tutoring programs in the sciences, languages, business and economics, and nursing. We also offer support with presentations and group projects. All writing assistants and tutors participate in hours of training.

In the past year, we’ve been busy developing new programs to support all UP students.

The Study

Often, students need help with how to study and how to organize time for durable learning. While our tutors in the Learning Commons are trained to support students with study strategies, we also recognized the need for peer-assisted learning about how to learn in specific disciplines. Reading and learning in the disciplines varies. For example, learning in science courses is far different than learning in a philosophy course.

Last spring, we piloted The Study, a peer tutoring program which helps students develop and refine discipline-specific study strategies. This fall, we’ve added it to our regular line up of tutoring programs. Currently, we have two tutors staffing The Study, and this number will grow in the spring.

PAL groups

PAL groups are the Learning Commons’ newest addition to our programming. PAL stands for peer-assisted learning. PAL groups support historically difficult classes that tend to have higher rates of D/F grades and withdrawals (DFW). Research shows that peer-facilitated learning groups such as PAL and supplemental instruction (SI) reduce DFW rates significantly. Many refer to PAL and SI as high-impact practices in learning assistance.

Students voluntarily attend PAL group sessions that are organized by a trained peer facilitator who has taken the class in an earlier semester. Collaborative learning is a focus of PAL programs, and facilitators address both what to learn and how to learn it. Our PAL program can support faculty who agree to let the facilitators sit in their classes once or twice per week. The participating faculty also must share student performance data so that we can assess the PAL program.

From an online PAL facilitator training on community building in November.

Prior to offering PAL sessions, facilitators participate in six hours of training covering characteristics of PAL and SI, facilitation techniques, collaborative learning techniques, learning strategies, and session planning. Facilitators also participate in ongoing trainings on topics like active learning and community building. I also meet with each PAL facilitator weekly to discuss recent and upcoming sessions.

This semester’s PAL program is a pilot that will continue into the spring semester. As we progress through the academic year, we will determine whether we want to make PAL a permanent program of the Learning Commons.

Watch an interview that I did with nursing student Maria Lorienes Solis ’21 on her experiences as a peer facilitator in UP’s new online PAL program.

Other initiatives to support students

  • With the shift to remote learning, the Learning Commons has expanded its website to include pages on learning to learn online and how to create online study groups. In the coming months, we will continue to refine these pages so that we can improve our support of all UP students no matter where they are.
  • For more information on the Learning Commons and how it supports UP students, please visit our website.

Jeffrey White is the Learning Commons Administrator with the Shepard Academic Resource Center, as well as an Instructor in International Languages & Cultures at the University of Portland.

Leader Certificate Program

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Does your student want to learn more about how to lead themselves and others during these complex and uncertain times? Would they like to make a positive impact in their local, national, and global communities? Do they want to set themselves apart when applying for service opportunities, internships, and jobs? Would they like to develop leader habits such as being more courageous and motivational?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, the Franz Center Leader Certificate Program might be a good fit for your student! The Leader Certificate Program is designed to provide leaders with the tools, knowledge, and ability to impact and inspire their followers using the key leader habits. Check out this video from students who have participated in the Leader Certificate Program to learn more.

Students can register for Spring Semester leadership course. Courses are 1 credit and meet once per week in the spring. All students can register for the first course in the program (LDR 225: Foundations of Leadership), and all majors are welcome!

Students who enroll in the Leader Certificate Program receive priority in the RA selection process with Residence Life. Students who enroll in the Leader Certificate Program (by taking LDR 225) also receive priority in the selection process for the popular Global Perspectives on Leadership course. Most recently, students in this course have traveled to amazing locations such as New Zealand. (Check out our 1-second-every-day-style video from May 2019!) We hope to be back on campus and exploring the world again as soon as it is safe to do so. Your student can be ready when the time comes to apply for these opportunities (and many more) by strengthening their leadership now.  

Due to popularity, we are offering 5 sections of LDR 225 for Spring Semester 2021: Mondays at 1:35 p.m. (with Dr. Jennette Lovejoy), Mondays at 7:10 p.m. (with Mike Wode), Tuesdays at 11:20 a.m. (with Kallan Picha), Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. (Dr. Dave Houglum), and Thursdays at 4:10 p.m. (Dr. Jeromy Koffler). 

If your student is interested in participating but in need of financial assistance, encourage them to complete the leadership scholarship application. Scholarship applications are due by Friday, December 4 at 5 p.m. Students must be enrolled in LDR 225 (Foundations of Leadership), to be eligible to receive financial assistance. 

Encourage your student to contact Dr. Dave Houglum at houglum@up.edu for more information or questions.

Here is what University of Portland students are saying about the Leader Certificate Program:

“The leadership course experience has been an important component of my education here as it’s helped me see leadership in the little things. From my experiences in leadership positions on campus to the moments of leadership just sitting in class, I’ve learned how to reflect, use my strengths and grow as a human being to approach different aspects of life.”

– Samantha van den Berg

“None of my major-oriented classes have been as beneficial as the Leader Certificate Program in relation to my education and my career. The Leader Certificate Program adds valuable life skills to any major –skills that are often overlooked within specific fields of study.” 

– Gabe Ablin

Watch a video to see the difference the Leader Certificate Program made for one of the graduates of the program.

Hear what leadership speaker and author Mark Sanborn has to say about why students should get involved in the Leader Certificate Program at UP.