Success Programming

U.S. News & World Report ranks ��-Dearborn as top Michigan regional public university

stuxbury — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 11:39:32 +0000

U.S. News & World Report ranks ��-Dearborn as top Michigan regional public university stuxbury Mon, 09/12/2022 - 07:39

University of Michigan-Dearborn ranks as a top Michigan university in U.S. News & World Report’s annual guide to American colleges and universities. The new numbers were released today.

The university ranks first in the state and fifth overall among regional public universities in the Midwest. And it’s 30th — moving up the list from last year — among all regional universities, public and private, in the Midwest.

"��-Dearborn faculty and staff should be very proud of this ranking. It's proof that our work here changes lives and makes our region stronger and more competitive,” said Chancellor Domenico Grasso. "Our practice-based curriculum means that our graduates will hit the ground running in their careers, earn higher salaries and have less debt after college."

Another point of pride: ��-Dearborn takes a top spot on the “Best College for Veterans” list. In the 2023 rankings, the university — when ranked among regional campuses in the Midwest — earned the top placement in the state at No. 11 overall.

Criteria for the designation includes being GI Bill-certified and participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program. In addition, ��-Dearborn has an active Veteran Affairs staff that organizes veterans-based programming and provides structure for incoming students. “We are veterans, so we understand the needs of our service members and veterans,” said Veterans Affairs Coordinator Tom Pitock, who has more than 22 years of military service.

In college-specific listings, U.S. News again recognized ��-Dearborn’s undergraduate business and engineering programs.

The College of Business ranks as the third best undergraduate business program in the state. This is the 14th consecutive year it’s appeared on the list. The College of Engineering and Computer Science was ranked with the fifth best ABET-accredited undergraduate engineering program in Michigan. Their computer science undergraduate degree also was named a top program.

��-Dearborn is also the number one regional public university in Michigan on the list of “Top Performers on Social Mobility.” The campus ranked 15th overall among regional universities in the Midwest. The list includes colleges that are successful at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of Pell Grant eligible students.

U.S. News & World Report’s overall rankings are based on data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality including first-year retention rate, graduation rate and strength of faculty.

The complete 2023 rankings will appear in the magazine’s annual guidebook to “America’s Best Colleges.”

In other rankings news, the university was recognized on the Forbes list of America’s Top Colleges.

Academic Excellence

Accessibility or Affordability

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Awards

College of Business

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Mon, 09/12/2022 - 11:39

��-Dearborn also number one Michigan public regional university on "Best College for Veterans" and "Top Performer in Social Mobility" lists.

��-Dearborn Wolverines are enjoying a warm Fall '22 day at the beginning of the semester.

Have a campus question? Student mentors have answers.

stuxbury — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 11:32:11 +0000

Have a campus question? Student mentors have answers. stuxbury Fri, 09/02/2022 - 07:32

When Sara Sandiha first started college, she knew two things. One: She wanted to be a dentist. And two: She wasn’t exactly sure how to become one.

“I was super nervous to start college and was worried that I wouldn’t be knowledgeable about the opportunities that are available for me,” said Sandiha, now a sophomore. “So I signed up to get a mentor through the Wolverine Mentor Collective. It was nice to have someone I could reach out to whenever I needed help during my first year of college.”

The Wolverine Mentor Collective (Wolverine MC), managed by Experience+ and the Office of Student Life, is a campus mentoring program that helps students get familiar with campus life. Each person who signs up takes a survey and is then matched with a student mentor who has personal, academic or identity-related similarities — and most often a combination of all three. Interested students can sign up.

Associate Provost Maureen Linker said that, with college being a journey of sorts, it’s important to have a navigation system. That’s why ��-Dearborn started the Wolverine Mentor Collective last year. During its first year, nearly 600 incoming students were partnered with 140 continuing student mentors.

“Given that we were welcoming in a group of first- and second-year students who had not had any on-campus classes (due to the pandemic), the university wanted to create a robust peer mentoring program to foster a sense of connectedness and belonging for these students,” Linker said. “Our students have had such a positive experience that we looked for ways to expand the program to benefit more of our ��-Dearborn student population.”

This fall Wolverine MC adds two areas of expertise.

Professional networking: juniors are matched with a ��-Dearborn alum who can help with career readiness and exploration
Grad student: first-year graduate students are matched with either a second-year graduate student or a ��-Dearborn alum to learn more about life at ��-Dearborn and make connections in an industry they are interested in pursuing.

Experience+ Executive Director Laurie Sutch said campus is rich with resources and opportunities. But for students to know about what’s available, there needs to be outreach. And the Wolverine MC is one way the university does it.

“We have wonderful professors, academic advisers and other key people on campus here to help, but students often want to reach out to other students or recent graduates for advice,” Sutch said. “The Wolverine MC provides these connections when you first get to campus and throughout your time at ��-Dearborn.”

Sandiha, a Biological Sciences major on a pre-dental track, said she learned how to efficiently make the best class schedule, thanks to her mentor. “There’s an online schedule planner where you can put the hours you are available to take classes and it automatically generates a bunch of possible class schedules to choose from. It’s saved me so much time.”

And, as Sandiha continues toward her future dental career, she’ll reach out to her mentor when it comes to navigating the university’s pre-professional track (pre-med, pre-dental, etc.) and prepare for the standardized testing needed for graduate school.

Sandiha said her mentor made such a difference in her first year that she’s signed up to mentor incoming students starting this fall.

“I always had a peer that was only a text away. My mentor had already been in my shoes, so I knew she’d have the best advice for me,” she said. “I got so much out of this program. Now I’m looking forward to guiding incoming freshmen so they can have the best college experience possible.”

Interested in becoming a mentor? Applications are on-going and training, along with a small monetary stipend for those who meet the requirements, is provided.

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Student Success

Career Services

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Fri, 09/02/2022 - 11:30

Wolverine Mentor Collective matches students with peer mentors who have similar goals and interests to help navigate campus resources, professional opportunities and more.

Taking Academic Success to the Next Level

stuxbury — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 23:52:48 +0000

Taking Academic Success to the Next Level stuxbury Thu, 07/22/2021 - 19:52

Graphic showing the variety of resources available in the Office of Academic Success

When it comes to scientific concepts, like a plant’s life cycle, Harry Rahn draws sketches for students to see. For vocabulary terms, Rahn teaches them the meaning of the root word.

“I love science,” said Rahn, a ��-Dearborn graduate student. “When you can visualize something as it exists in the world around us or understand the root of a word — like knowing bio means life and -ology is Greek for ‘the study of’ — it helps you understand and retain what you’re learning.”

Rahn is a long-time ��-Dearborn tutor and Supplemental Instruction (SI) leader. And he’s one of the many people available to help students excel in their courses through the newly formed Office of Academic Success.

The Office of Academic Success, which launched on July 1, brings together the academic resources around campus and coordinates them under one ��-Dearborn office.

For students, there’s Tutoring Services, Supplemental Instruction, the Science Learning Center, the Math Learning Center, and the Writing Center. For faculty and staff, the office will closely work with the Hub for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Digital Education, and other areas of Faculty and Institutional Support.

“The Office of the Provost and all four colleges saw an opportunity to bring areas together to allow for greater support, more coordinated resources and a stronger focus on academic success,” said Office of Academic Success Director Jessica LaGrange.“This change also gathers resources in one office and makes them easier to find rather than navigating among services across campus.”

In addition to the work already happening on campus, the office is developing new collaborative programming geared towards both students and faculty for the coming academic year. Plans in development include microgrants for faculty and coordinating programming with peer mentoring groups, and professional development training sessions for the office’s nearly 100 student employees.

“Sessions will cover topics like professionalism, learning strategies, difficult situations, and facilitating sessions or interacting with students in a peer-learning environment,” LaGrange said. “All students can learn and benefit from these skills, no matter which area they are working in within Academic Success.”

Senior Ben Bartley said he’s benefited from the campus' Math Learning Center, SI sessions and tutoring services. Bartley said he’s a good student, but was struggling in a few math and science courses.

“My high school didn’t cover the material that we were learning in class, so I didn’t have the foundation I needed. I felt like I was fighting to keep up with the material. Then I heard about the different ways you can get help on campus,” said Bartley, who had Rahn as a tutor and SI leader. “I could have struggled through and gotten Cs or Bs on my own. But Harry pushed me to the next level and I got all As.”

LaGrange knows the importance of the academic campus services through hearing about experiences like Bartley’s and seeing the numbers. Last year, the learning centers and tutoring held more than 4,300 virtual appointments and engaged with more than 1,200 students. And Supplemental Instruction supported 30-plus courses, many with multiple sections.

She also knows offering different styles of support — from group sessions tied to specific courses, to one-on-one meetings, to asynchronous support — is important in accommodating different types of learners. To meet students wherever they are, the Office of Academic Success also will offer both in-person and virtual options this fall.

Bartley said the free services are a must-use. He said it will help boost grades and your social network.

“The people you meet are students too — they just happen to be really good at a particular class or subject. It’s nice to have someone to learn with and I’ve even made study groups with other students from my SI sessions,” he said. “It helps to know you have someone there when it’s crunch time for a test or when you are just trying to make sense of something you’ve read in a textbook. Tutors like Harry want to help. They’ll reduce your stress and increase your G.P.A.”

Want to learn more about the Office of Academic Success? You can visit their website or reach out to them.

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Student Success

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Center for Mathematics Education

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The Office of Academic Success, which launched on July 1, brings together student-focused academic resources and coordinates them under one ��-Dearborn office.

Why learning your style can maximize success

stuxbury — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:51:22 +0000

Why learning your style can maximize success stuxbury Mon, 10/19/2020 - 15:51

The different abilities, talents and motivations people have play a key role in learning. To help members of the campus community make the most of theirs, Tutoring Services Coordinator Sharon Lobdell assess individual learning styles.

Lobdell says there are a variety of learning styles — this is the phrase often used to describe how learners gather, interpret, organize and remember information — which she’s studied for more than a decade.

Lobdell’s Disability Awareness Month presentation Managing Your Learning Style During COVID-19 will share tips and tricks for maximizing learning with the campus community.

“I want to help people get a better grasp of critical learning skills by looking at their different learning styles. We all have a variety of abilities,” she says. “Some of us have struggled with the transition to the remote environment and that’s to be expected. My goal is to use learning styles to give suggestions for creating a successful remote learning environment. Individuals can then take these tips and modify them to best fit their needs.”

Speaking with Lobdell recently, she shared five takeaways on learning styles and maximizing success.

People often associate themselves with auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning styles.

People have a mix of several learning preferences and styles, but they typically lean toward three main categories: Auditory, kinesthetic and visual.

Lobdell says the majority of people identify as visual learners. This means they do best in meetings or classes where there is a lot of information written on the whiteboard or handouts are provided. It’s also why infographics and pie charts can be helpful in displaying information.

If someone talks to themselves or moves their lips when accomplishing tasks, they may have a stronger auditory ability. She says learners who prefer this style use sounds or voice-oriented information to help them learn and thrive in lecture-style classes. To help prepare for a presentation, they may read their notes out loud. Or they solve problems by talking them through.

Students with stronger kinesthetic — meaning hands-on — abilities often prefer labs, flash cards and group projects. Clues to knowing if someone falls into this group: Rewriting critical information several times to deepen the learning process or connecting information with a physical act.

Want to know more about the individual styles, but can’t attend Lobdell’s presentation? Lobdell says to contact her about giving an office or class presentation, which includes an individual assessment tool.

It’s about looking for ways to make the most of your abilities.

Lobdell says auditory learners often flourish in foreign language learning. Chemists and engineers are often kinesthetic learners. And visual learners do well in design, composition or business.

But that doesn't mean someone needs to limit her or himself — there’s always room for growth.

“Once you learn what kind of learner you are, lean into it. For example, I’m an auditory learner. I might not always get visual slides, but I can make recordings and re-listen. Use your strengths to turn a challenge into an opportunity.”

Consider incorporating different activities into the learning environment.

Research shows there’s some debate on whether the learning styles model is helpful or a neuromyth — but having a variety (visual, hands-on, auditory, etc.) of activities in a learning environment is scientifically supported. “Mixing things up is an attention booster. When you pay closer attention, you learn better,” Lobdell says.

Here are some ideas:
• To help visual learners, incorporate videos and written work assignments.
• Auditory learners do best when there’s a voiceover with notes or when there is an online recording that they can revisit.
• Give an experience to the kinesthetic learners by incorporating hands-on activities into your lessons. Share simulation scenarios, have them make a video or create a project.

Lobdell says many faculty members are already doing these things. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share, please let her know. She’s looking to compile tips to share online and during future presentations.

Build in checkpoints for studying, teaching or running a meeting.

Whether you are remote or in person, Lobdell suggests incremental learning “speedbumps.” She says this helps both the teacher and learner because it gives a moment to stop, ask questions and evaluate how everyone is doing with the new information. “If 10 minutes goes by and you haven’t heard anything, ask if there is anything that needs clarified. Or before you move onto the next idea, ask if there is something you should go back over. When you ask, actually stop to see if people are getting it.” She says if presenting information via Google Meet or Zoom, look to see if people clicked to “put their hand up” or added comments.

This tip works for solo learning efforts too. She says while studying or conducting research, add in breaks. She said all minds wander no matter the learning style and these checkpoints also serve as a way to re-focus.

Ask for help when it is needed.

Lobdell says this is the most important step — let people know when you are struggling.

She says professors are understanding and can help if students clue them into what’s happening behind the scenes and campus has many success resources that include tutoring options, counseling services and academic advising.

In addition, Lobdell says ��-Dearborn’s Disability Services staff knows the learning diversity across campus and — when resources are needed — want to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all.

Learn more about Disability Services resources or Disability Awareness Month by contacting Cathy Sidor.

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Mon, 10/19/2020 - 19:44

Tutoring Services Coordinator Sharon Lobdell shares five takeaways about using learning styles and creating a successful educational environment.

Graphic showing various learning styles

Talent Ambassadors are the quiet engine that keeps the Talent Gateway humming

nlerma — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:16:18 +0000

Talent Ambassadors are the quiet engine that keeps the Talent Gateway humming nlerma Mon, 07/23/2018 - 11:16

Talent Gateway undergraduate student

Talk to students in ��-Dearborn’s Talent Gateway program, and you’ll quickly discover that small things can have lasting takeaways. For junior Rosa Gonzalez, it was the Gateway’s “seat swap”—a popular student challenge where your only mission is to pick a different seat in class than your usual spot.

“Seems kind of simple, right?” Gonzalez said. “But I ended up meeting a couple people I’m still friends with just by doing that. And I even felt like my attention in class improved from sitting up front rather than toward the back.”

Such activities, where students do things to step outside their comfort zone, or work to develop a new skill, or experience a culture different than their own, form the backbone of the Talent Gateway philosophy. The idea is that by completing these “challenges”—and most importantly, reflecting on what they’ve learned from them—students can develop those soft, interpersonal skills that are increasingly sought after by today’s employers. Collaboration, creative thinking, tactful communication and cultural sensitivity are among the core values the Talent Gateway is trying to build up.

At any given time, dozens of ��-Dearborn students are submitting challenges. And that means inside the Talent Gateway, they always have their hands full reading, evaluating and offering feedback on the students’ reflections.

“For me, that was the really interesting part,” Gonzalez said. “Like, how they decided what to write back to you, or ask you just the right question to push you to think about something in a different way. So one day, I was in the Talent Gateway office, and I met the director, Laurie [Sutch], and she was with another student who was a Talent Ambassador. And they explained to me their process, and how it was the ambassadors that reviewed the challenges the students submitted, and even how they came up with the new challenges. I’ve always been someone who enjoys seeing the back end of things, so I thought it was really cool.”

Gonzalez applied for an opening, and shortly thereafter, claimed a spot as a Talent Ambassador herself. Ever since, she’s been pulling double duty: As a Talent Gateway participant, she’s racked up 50,000 points; and now 10 hours a week, she’s helping other students by giving feedback on their own Talent Gateway challenges.

The latter sometimes requires a soft hand. For example, a while back, she said a student submitted a challenge where many of the responses were heavily colored by the person’s religious beliefs.

“But the tricky part was, the challenge didn’t really have anything to do with religion,” Gonzalez explained. “So you have to think really hard about what you’re going to write back. On the one hand, you want to be sensitive to how important their faith is to them; but you still want them to get everything they can out of the challenge.”

In that case, Gonzalez said she and her fellow Talent Ambassadors teamed up to discuss the best approach, offered some feedback, and then gave the student another shot at the challenge responses. It’s something they do often, especially with the tough calls. And that, Gonzalez said, provides a chance to work on collaboration skills that are core to the Talent Gateway experience.

In fact, in many ways, she said being an ambassador is sort of like the graduate level version of her original Talent Gateway experience: Reading and reviewing student responses is consistent practice in learning to empathize with others’ points of view; while giving feedback to students is great training in thoughtful communication.

Gonzalez also has pitched in at the Talent Gateway in other ways. Along with her fellow ambassadors, she’s helped create new challenges. And the accounting and finance major has also put her knack for numbers to use, by helping analyze data on how students are using the Talent Gateway.

One other soft, new economy skill she’s picked up from the ambassador experience: How to hold down a virtual job. With much of the communication happening online, and the freedom to set your own hours, the temptation to let things slide is real—especially when, like Gonzalez, you’re going to school and holding down two part-time jobs.

She said keeping up with it all means setting her own weekly deadlines, blocking out time on her calendar just for her ambassador duties, and otherwise treating it like the “real” job that it is.

Experiential Learning

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Talent Gateway veteran Rosa Gonzalez is now helping other students on their own Gateway journeys.

New campus-wide reading initiative encourages cultural dialogue, critical thinking

nlerma — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 17:36:17 +0000

New campus-wide reading initiative encourages cultural dialogue, critical thinking nlerma Mon, 10/16/2017 - 13:36

Metro Read

A new program on campus wants you to read into it. And then take the time to examine, communicate and reflect.

��-Dearborn Metro Read is a campus initiative to instill a joy of learning, to think critically, and to enhance the culture of creating a metropolitan engagement within southeast Michigan by coming together through a common campus read, said Assistant Director for Success Programs Tyler Guenette.

Over pumpkin muffins and coffee, members of the community—from both on campus and in the Metro Detroit area—gather at Mardigian Library’s Books & Brew series. The discussion surrounds the book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel.

In addition to sharing interesting quotes and passages in the book, the Metro Read initiative encourages cultural questions and engaged dialogue surrounding it. Guenette, who brought the Metro Read idea to campus, said the author’s autobiography explores where religion fits into his life and the lives of the people around him.

“The book looks at differences and similarities of beliefs, spanning from religious totalitarianism to pluralism,” said Guenette, who worked on Metro Read program with the Metro Read Commission and communications senior Catherine Lencione. “Through exploration, Patel—who believes in the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement—finds a common core element across society: Regardless of the belief system, people are striving to do good.”

Guenette first read the book when he started college. It had such a profound impact that when he overheard people sharing their concerns about a divisive national climate, he wanted to start the Metro Read program and chose this book as the inaugural reading material.

“As an incoming freshman, I had never met an individual of Muslim faith,” Guenette said. “This book helped shape my thinking about world religions and helped me better understand that there is a commonality among belief systems. Realizing that interconnectedness opened my mind to so many more people and experiences than before.”

With that in mind, the Metro Read book is also part of this year’s Intro to University Life Seminar curriculum—which is a non-credit course incoming students can take to become acclimated to campus—as a way to start a conversation about cultural differences and similarities.

“The Metro Read program is meant to serve as an intellectual bridge for our students, for our campus community and beyond,” he said. “By being able to express viewpoints, have others listen to you and come up with ways we can think through our personal lens and learn together, we will all work toward developing a clearer picture of our community and what it means to be a part of it.”

The free-to-attend Books & Brew program reviews two chapters of the Metro Read book each session. The next session, which will focus on Acts of Faith chapters 4 and 5, is from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Oct. 30 in the library’s Berkowitz Gallery. Each session is independent and people do not need to have attended previous sessions to take part.

There will also be a Metro Read Scholarship Competition, an Interfaith Dialogue Series and more during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Acts of Faith can be found for free through the Mardigian Library, both in hard copy and as a digital copy through the online catalog.

Inclusion or Diversity

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Metro Read is a campus program to instill a joy of learning, to think critically and to increase community engagement.

Model Arab League extends winning streak to 16

sgedert — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:50:11 +0000

Model Arab League extends winning streak to 16 sgedert Wed, 04/05/2017 - 10:50

Model Arab League at conference

MAL is a mock conference where students represent one of the 22 member states of the League of Arab States and debate regional and global issues that affect those states. This year, ��-Dearborn sent 11 students in two delegations, representing Egypt and Oman, with the Egyptian delegation earning the Outstanding Delegation Award.

“When you have a group of people who are passionate about the same thing it’s so much easier to work together,” said international affairs major student John Burke, a member of the Egypt delegation. “We all genuinely enjoyed discussing and listening to what one another had to say about Middle Eastern affairs.”

In preparation for the event, students participated in four two-hour training sessions and completed research and readings together to plot strategy, discuss parliamentary procedures and draft resolutions.

“Students study their country and the issues affecting their country,” said Political Science Professor Ronald Stockton. “They prepare resolutions that their country would like to see adopted, and they also study the relationship of their country with other countries, regional issues, their country’s position with the region, its problems, its positions, its demographics, etc.”

Stockton said the winning streak is nice, but the bigger reward comes from the change he sees in his students year after year.

“I see students transformed by this event,” he said. “I had one student tell me that she would never have gotten through her law orals without this program. Another student—who was a noted public speaker—told me that he had never engaged and advocated for his positions in this way. He found it a transformative experience.”

In addition to the team delegation award, ��-Dearborn students earned two Outstanding Delegate awards—Burke and software engineering student Mohamed Al-Jabery—and four Distinguished Delegate awards.

Al-Jabery, who participating in MAL for a second year, credited Stockton for the university’s continued success in the competition.

“The vast knowledge and love he has for the Middle East really motivated us to make him proud,” he said. “It’s been such a life-changing experience all thanks to him.”

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College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

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For the 16th consecutive year, a University of Michigan-Dearborn delegation has taken the top prize at the annual Model Arab League (MAL) conference.

Success Programming

U.S. News & World Report ranks ������-Dearborn as top Michigan regional public university

Have a campus question? Student mentors have answers.

Taking Academic Success to the Next Level

Why learning your style can maximize success

People often associate themselves with auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning styles.

It’s about looking for ways to make the most of your abilities.

Consider incorporating different activities into the learning environment.

Build in checkpoints for studying, teaching or running a meeting.

Ask for help when it is needed.

Talent Ambassadors are the quiet engine that keeps the Talent Gateway humming

New campus-wide reading initiative encourages cultural dialogue, critical thinking

Model Arab League extends winning streak to 16

U.S. News & World Report ranks ��-Dearborn as top Michigan regional public university