As Salem College prepares for the start of a remote Spring 2021 semester supporting all students continues to be the priority for the Great Beginnings program. This past August the institution made the tough decision to conduct all classes remotely with the ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main issue, keeping students engaged and facilitating success.
While this decision was especially hard on the Department of Athletics forcing all competitive teams to be sidelined, it did not stop the work that needed to be done. After brainstorming, the Department of Athletics coaches presented an idea to the institutional leadership team that came to fruition in the form of a new program called "Great Beginnings". This initiative provided high levels of support to all traditional first year students as well as transfer students in meaningful new connections with members of the athletic staff. This program provided opportunities for Great Beginning leaders (campus mentors) to connect with traditional first year students before their virtual arrival. The work began in earnest in August and staff initiated introductions which facilitated ongoing communication on a weekly basis with our young women to support them and further prepare them for their first semester in a virtual landscape.
"When we made the decision to transition to fully remote as an institution, we knew the impact on our student-athletes and coaches," said Hughes. "We immediately redirected our focus and energy on how best we could provide support to our entire student body. I am so proud of our staff and their work in supporting ALL students at Salem and collaborating with our colleagues in student affairs. As coaches, supporting students is what we do, and our coaches showed great resilience and agility in redirecting their talents and energy!"
The Salem College coaches mentored all traditional first year and transfer students on a weekly basis during the first semester. With the success of this program, the coaches will continue to meet with these students and athletes on bi-weekly basis during the second semester.
Among the initiatives that were put in place for these students were: introduction to goal setting; establishing and maintaining academic communication; exposure to campus life and events; academic support with midterm check-ins; backstop early alert efforts to augment Student Affairs; practicing good time management habits; as well as learn and utilize wellness accommodations available to them which included access to wellness programming and other student resources.
"The support team for each student provided weekly outreach staffed by an athletic or staff coach/mentor, Resident Assistants, Orientation Leaders and First Year Seminar faculty for first year students. The primary goal was to make sure each student was surrounded and connected by a caring resource team," said Laurie Neff, Salem's Dean of Students and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs. "Maintaining high levels of connectivity through the disruption of in person learning while moving to online learning helped tremendously with the uncertainty, social isolation, and lack of in person community students expressed."
The hope as a result of instituting these initiatives is support for all first years to have a positive adjustment to campus life; increased self-awareness; increased student involvement/engagement; and most importantly the chance to expand leadership and growth opportunities for staff and students wishing to participate in the success of future classes.
"The Great Beginning mentors' program has been a strategic and agile deployment of the athletic coaches, Student Affair staff and admissions counselors to support and sustain our students during the remote learning pandemic realities," continued Neff. "We asked ourselves 'how can organizations thrive during a global disruption?' and the answer was by keeping employees engaged, connected and productive in service to student needs to create a sense of belonging, care and human outreach in the digital, distance learning environment. Given the unprecedented disruption we found ourselves in with short notice, our traditional leadership strategies were being challenged.
"As an agile leader, our Athletic Director Trish Hughes and the coaches stepped up to inspire productivity through new ways of working collaboratively across campus, with the goal to keep our student body engaged with staffing supports in place," Neff added. "Rather than allowing the remote campus environment to be an insurmountable challenge or a constraint, Hughes and her team pivoted quickly to provide leadership interventions for our students along with the Student Affairs co-curricular team, and the Admissions staff to build a circle of care for each student.