Keren Orion

I learned that admissions should be a process. Dueing the process, the prospective student can develop questions to ask and begin their intention of staying in the program.

The first week is a very important time! It can be very effective to reach out to students with a friendly "How's it going"? 

Our school has a great 3-day orientation program, which includes the introduction of my department - Student Services. During our portion of teh orientation, we introduce ourselves and talk about what we do to offer support resources for our students.

I learned the term "progressive orientation." This means that, rather than just listening to individual speakers, students, either as individuals or in groups, travel from department to department to gather the important information. Doing this in teams is a good idea for helping to build interaction with classmates.

When I was a student, I had the "traditional" higher education experience of a 4-year university and I do recall that helpfulness and excellent service did not seem to be among the top priorities of the institution. Now that I work at a private career college, I understand the difference - helpfulness and excellent service really are top priorities here!

I learned that having the right people for each job is the first step in providing excellent student services. I like to t hink that I am a caring individual who has student sucess as my main objective. I agree that no matter how sophisticated an institution's systems may be, it is the people who make them work.

I learned that it is important to make sure that responsibility for the problem remains with the student and that my role remains one of support. It is not my job to solve the problem but, rather, be a listening ear and the voice of encouragement for the student. 

I learned that most often attrition is a result of some form of stress. If a student is unable to cope with stress they may end up resorting to easingtheir stress level by withdrawing from school. It is important for school personnel to have some understanding of stress dynamics in order to be better able to intervene at the right time (and hope to prevent a studentfrom quitting).

I like the definition of retention as, "the by-product of doing the right things the right way, of having the right people in the right place at the right time." This really sums up the idea that it is a group effort as opposed to being the responsibility of a single department.