First Year Experience

First Year Experience is dedicated to providing first-year students experiences that help them better understand how to navigate the changing world around them, enhance their capacity to engage with new people and ideas, and develop the skills and connections required to meet the challenges they face both in and out of the classroom.

Faculty and staff members across campus contribute to this mission and help students find academic and personal success during their first year. To recognize these faculty and staff, the Outstanding First Year Advocate Award will be presented at the Focusing on the First Year Conference.

This award will be given to honor up to three individuals who have demonstrated a passion for helping students make the most of their first year, have fostered personal connections with or among first-year students, have implemented policies that helped make first-year student success possible and have served as a resource to new students.

Nominations
Staff and faculty are encouraged to nominate exceptional peers for this award. Nominees will be evaluated based on the following:

• Demonstrates a commitment to helping first year students succeed in academic, co-curricular, and personal arenas
• Collaborates with colleagues across campus to build relationships with new students and implements policies or programs that positively impact first-year students
• Utilizes innovative practices to engage students and contributes to first-year student learning
• Seeks to recognize multiple aspects of the first year experience and develops students in a holistic manner