Focusing on the First Year Conference

Conference Description

Focusing on the First Year is a half-day conference bringing together faculty and staff from across the Columbus and regional campuses to focus on the university’s efforts to support the success of first-year students. The most important foundations for college success, and ultimately graduation, are built during the first year. Hosted by FYE each spring, the conference is designed to encourage faculty and staff to share ideas about how we can help first-year students transition successfully to college life at Ohio State.

Conference Goals

In 2009, the conference focused on the transfer student experience (including experiences of campus-change students). We had the following goals for the conference:

• Gain a better understanding of statewide efforts and policies affecting transfer students
• Highlight current university efforts to support transfer students
• Discuss challenges faced by the transfer student population at Ohio State
• Develop collaborative efforts to better serve transfer students

2009 Schedule and Presentations

8:00-8:30 a.m.       Registration and continental breakfast

8:30 a.m.               Welcome

8:45 a.m.              Opening session: a panel discussion about current issues affecting

                            transfer students locally and throughout Ohio

10:00 a.m.             Breakout sessions

11:15 a.m.             Breakout sessions

12:30 p.m.             Lunch

Please look at the conference program for more details about the breakout sessions and presenters. The materials for the following presentations are available online:

• Transfer Student Demographics and Involvement: Implications and Comparisons
• Transfers are First-Year Students, Too: FYE Programming for Transfer and Campus-Change Students
• Becoming Buckeyes: Facilitating the Transfer Transition and Creating a Sense of Place and Purpose
• Merging In and Moving Forward: How the Office of Student Life Supports the Transition of Transfer Students at Ohio State
• Have You Met the Neighbors? Fostering a Cross-Institutional Dialogue Between Advising Professionals at The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College
• Office of Minority Affairs Specialized Programming for Underrepresented Transfer and Campus-Change Students.

Registration Information

Please check back in spring for 2010 conference registration information.
For more information, contact Amy Barnes at barnes.269@osu.edu.