UW-Green Bay shares First-Year experiences at national conference

Six faculty and staff members participated in the 28th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience Saturday through Tuesday in Orlando. The delegation got a look at what other schools are doing, and also shared as presenters the many initiatives UW-Green Bay has implemented in recent years, through FOCUS and various curricular efforts, to enhance engagement and retention of new students. The attendees were Brenda Amenson-Hill, assistant dean for campus life; Prof. Denise Bartell of Human Development; Scott Furlong, dean of liberal arts and sciences; Prof. Kim Nielsen of Social Change and Development; Donna Ritch, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences; and Prof. Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges of Human Development. Presentations included:

• Amenson-Hill, Bartell, and Jessica Hopp (peer mentor), the poster “Intentional Design in Peer Mentoring: Developing a Peer Mentor Component That Optimizes Facilitation of First Year Seminars Program Objectives.” Peer mentor co-authors include Tracy Beyer, Samuel Seefeld, and Kirstin Thompson.

• Bartell and Wilson-Doenges presented “Using BCSSE Expectations to Raise the Bar for Engagement in the First Year College Experience.” Co-authors include Amenson-Hill, Debbie Furlong, Scott Furlong, Regan Gurung, Andrew Kersten, and Ritch.

• Scott Furlong Ritch presented “Teaching the Teacher: Faculty Development for First-Year Seminars.” Co-authors include Amenson-Hill, Bartell, Gurung, Kersten, and Wilson-Doenges.

• Ritch led a focused dialogue on “Classroom Management in First Year Seminars.”