William Jewell College is overhauling its incoming student orientation mentor program for fall 2020 as part of Jewell’s radical inclusivity efforts and the College’s response to COVID-19. The changes to the mentor program include the dissolution of the student leadership team and the inclusion of virtual diversity, COVID-19 and social media training activities to be undertaken in the weeks leading up to orientation.

In past years the orientation program was made up of an orientation director, orientation advisors and incoming student mentors. This year the program is eliminating the roles of the leadership team, which is composed of the orientation director and advisors. Those on the leadership team will now be mentors, and the program will not have the same structured hierarchy. 

Rather than having the leadership team, the orientation program will increase the involvement of staff members. Student life staff will now assume responsibility for all aspects of orientation – including the Jewell orientation social media pages. By reassigning those in leadership positions, more mentors will be available to interact with incoming students, account for increased enrollment and navigate newly online aspects of orientation.

Shelly King, dean of students, described student life’s motivations for making the necessary changes by sharing a portion of an email sent to mentors July 1.

“As we reflected on how we prepare for our new students, we identified significant gaps in our approach, the training provided mentors and the foci of Orientation. Therefore, we decided to completely revise our Orientation Program,” the email said. “One element influencing our approach is COVID-19, so we are making changes to be sure we are working within the strategic framework outlined in the email sent to you on June 26.”

“Another important element is acknowledgement that our approach did not embrace inclusion and equity as a mindset and practice to the extent needed, so we are increasing our focus on the education and practice of equity and inclusion, as mentors we believe this will help better prepare you to welcome our new students and cultivate their sense of belonging to the Jewell Community,” the email continued.

Of the mentors in the 2020 orientation program, 100 percent identify as white, while 30 percent of the incoming first-year class and 56 percent of transfer students identify as non-white.  This significant disparity contributed to recognizing the program’s failure to be sufficiently inclusive and equitable.

Members of the leadership team and mentors for fall 2020 orientation were notified of the changes in early July and were given the option whether to remain with the program.

“We started with 31 mentors and six students on the leadership team, including the director. One mentor decided not to return to Jewell so that takes us to 30 mentors. We now have 24 mentors, including two students that were on the leadership team. Eight mentors did not return so we retained 73% of our mentors. Two students from the leadership team are now mentors so we retained 33%. The other four students from the leadership team are no longer involved with Orientation,” King said.

All mentors will now be required to participate in an online educational program – beginning July 9 – to increase their preparation for welcoming incoming students. 

The program will consist of staff-led weekly activities – some synchronous and some asynchronous – totaling in between one to two hours of commitment per week through July and August. This process of staff-led training differs from previous years of mentor training – which were led by the student leadership teams and took place in two days in August.

The weekly activities and meetings will focus on social media, creating a sense of belonging, COVID-19 training, understanding the role of a mentor, diversity and inclusion, anti-racism and generally preparing for orientation in the time of COVID-19. All mentors will also be required to take the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) survey and participate in a process of reflection upon their results.

Mentors will be required to take an anti-racist training course from the Diversity and Resiliency Institute of El Paso. This training consists of six total hours of content divided into three different modules. 

Mentors will be given a stipend for completing all required training. Failure to complete the programs – including taking the IDI, debriefing on the IDI and completing the anti-racism training course to receive a certificate – will result in a mentor forfeiting this stipend and their role as a mentor.

King says she hopes to keep all educational components of the mentor program in future years. She notes they may be presented differently in the future in the absence of a pandemic, but any such decisions would be made later in the academic year.

“We believe restructuring will enhance our ability to engage more directly with our new students, while still drawing on the talents of students in the Mentor Program, and creating new opportunities for mentors to understand and become enthusiastic about our diversity and inclusion emphasis and initiatives,” stated the July 1 email to mentors.

King discussed the new programming for mentors and future plans for additional changes.

“During the interview process, each candidate was asked if they would stay in touch with their mentees during the first semester. Everyone said yes so that is still an expectation that will not change. As for specific programming that is new after Orientation, we will have mentors encourage our new students to attend the Student Radical Inclusivity Workshop in the fall. We may add another programming event for mentors but that has not yet been decided,” King said.

Incoming students from underrepresented backgrounds may also participate in the Shape Your Future program. Through this program, older student guides aid those incoming students’ transition to Jewell. These guides were invited to participate in the program because they are BIPOC, from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds or otherwise are underrepresented in higher education. This program will ensure the diverse incoming class will interact with similarly diverse returning students. Look for a Hilltop Monitor article on the inaugural program soon.

The four-day orientation will occur Aug. 18 to Aug. 22 and seeks to expose new students at Jewell to available resources and equip them with the tools to use them. This fall, Jewell will welcome approximately 170 first-year students and 40 transfer students. As some students are still registering for classes, these numbers are changing daily and only approximate enrollment numbers can be provided.

Student feedback, collected via surveys sent out shortly following the fall 2017 orientation, indicated that last year’s orientation was successful in preparing incoming students for their Jewell journeys. Yet, the data was largely subjective, and it was concluded that more specific outcomes needed to be determined for this year’s event.

The fall 2018 orientation is designed to meet seven specific program-level learning outcomes. These outcomes include new students knowing how to access academic resources such as Moodle, the Emergency Text Alert System, Academic Achievement Center Resources and Administrative Offices.

The outcomes also seek to ensure that students understand college processes and policies, such as Title IX rights and reporting procedures, and residence life guidelines.

According to a document prepared for student life while planning for this year’s orientation, the comprehensively defined learning outcomes ought to lead to “providing students with improved learning opportunities and improving the learning experience” and “periodic activity reports, annual report, and multi-year program review (to occur in year 5 of the review cycle).”

Mary Dickerson, first-year experience director, has been a leader in implementing changes to the new student orientation program and is optimistic that these changes will facilitate better data gathering allowing for more in-depth program evaluation and quicker responses to student feedback.

“[We’re] moving away from ‘student satisfaction,’ though that is still important,” said Dickerson. “We’re learning how to measure what people are learning.”

Such comments are reflected in a metrics report compiled following the 2017 orientation which extensively represents which activities students enjoyed, but does not measure what students learned.

Despite this, findings clearly indicate the value of the new student orientation with 85 percent of the nearly 220 participating students reporting that the program better prepared them for classes, 100 percent reporting that they effectively learned Jewell’s honor code and approximately 80 percent reporting that they were familiar with co-curricular resources, like the counselors and the Emergency Alert System.

Shelly King, Dean of Students, commented that the changes at Jewell reflect trends in higher education nationwide as the impact of metrics continues to increase.

“Assessment is huge right now,” said King. “We’re taking it a step further to ask what students are learning and whether this is meeting the learning outcomes.”

To facilitate evaluation, the four days of the orientation have been organized into the following categories: discovery, community, engagement and knowledge. The implementation of these categories is a direct response to student feedback gathered in fall 2017.

Specifically, Dickerson offered the example of reorganizing the second day of the orientation so that Diversity and Inclusion workshops are paired with Title IX training as opposed to with exercises from the Tucker Leadership Lab.

King commented that this organization should create a more natural flow in the orientation and allow students to better transition between activities.

“Discovery is new, and you’re internalizing, community is great for reflection, and you’re deciding where to engage—which is the third day,” she said.  “The fourth day of the program is specifically designed to push people to act with purpose.”

This reorganization has also been instigated to integrate the college’s new mission statement into the orientation. The new mission statement reads: “We educate our community to ask reflective questions, apply critical thought and act with purpose.” The statement was finalized during the spring 2018 semester and put onto the college’s website during the summer break.

“We hope that everyone has been thinking critically throughout their high-school years but what we want to prepare them for is this specific community into which we’re welcoming them as a cardinal,” said King. “These four days are truly about equipping [new students] to be successful inside and outside of the classroom.”

Over 150 people have been involved in the orientation including student mentors, faculty, staff and members of the administration.

As the director of this event, Dickerson has been actively engaged in—and receiving emails about – the organization of this year’s orientation since October 2017.

“It’s been hard for us because we’re changing the way we think about things,” said Dickerson. “[But,] it’s been good.”

Kristin Wooldridge, coordinator of Student Activities and Greek Advisor, was thrilled to see the orientation come to fruition after so many months of planning.

“It was great; I got high fived by Dr. Dema,” she said about the first day of the program.

While there are still two days remaining in the orientation schedule, new students have already participated in sessions about service learning and diversity and inclusion, as well as completing their anti-harassment training.

Tricia Hager, director of counseling services, commented that the orientation is an exhausting time but that the collective excitement creates a shared energy.

“[It was] energizing seeing all [the new student’s] smiling faces when they drove up, even though they were really tired,” Hager said.