Two phases of preparation are key for college student success and degree attainment. The first is preparation that occurs prior to arriving on campus. The second involves experiences provided by the university as students matriculate to empower effective transition from campus to careers and citizenship.
IUPUI emphasizes both phases. Our campus engagement of families, neighborhoods and schools in Indianapolis, as well as collaboration with key community partners, helps enhance readiness of incoming students.
After enrollment, initiatives designed to augment academic performance and expand learning opportunities beyond the classroom embody our welcoming campus environment.
In an effort to strengthen how the campus is structured to support student success, an Institute for Engaged Learning is forming. This unit, which will be housed within the Division of Undergraduate Education, will bring together units that support practices that have a high impact on student learning. These include research and service learning. As a result, beginning July 1 the Center for Service and Learning will become a part of the Division of Undergraduate Education. We are excited to see the improved accessibility and opportunity this will provide our students.
From a programmatic standpoint, the campus also offers a number of outstanding examples of programs that support student success. For one, the IUPUI School of Informatics and Computing offers summer workshops that provide students a hands-on, high-energy glimpse into how informatics and computing is shaping our world through innovation in mobile and web applications, interactive media and digital games along with health and medical research.
Workshops will provide courses that include 3-D animation and digital sculpture, creature and character design with Pokémon and application of bioinformatics methods in personalized medicine.
Summer also brings high school students who are passionate about art to the Herron School of Art and Design Summer Teen Intensive. This program offers immersive art experiences in professional state-of-the art professional studios where students explore the latest techniques, taught by Herron faculty and graduate students.
Student preparation also advances through programs provided by community partners such as the Center for Leadership Development (CLD) where instruction and training focus on five principles for success: (1) educational excellence, (2) community service, (3) effective leadership, (4) character development, and (5) career achievement.
An outgrowth of this collaboration is the IUPUI Norman Brown Scholarship administered through CLD in cooperation with IUPUI. This fall, we will welcome to campus 2017 scholarship recipient Khrisma McMurray. Her story is included in this edition of the Office of Community Engagement newsletter.
While at IUPUI, she will discover involvement options offered to IUPUI students such as the Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholarship program. Alum and former Sam Jones scholar Sharvonne Williams recalls her years spent with in the program from 2011 through 2013 as she worked her way through graduate school. Being paired with the Greater Indianapolis Urban League helped Sharvonne transition from Harlem to Indianapolis.
“Being part of the Sam Jones Scholar program helped me appreciate the dynamics of local nonprofit organization networking and building relationships. I later became an Urban League volunteer and officer with their young professionals group,” said Williams. She now serves as director of operations at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Indianapolis. Learn about exciting changes coming to the Sam H. Jones program in this issue of the newsletter.
Through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) College Program, IUPUI students add to their resumes working at the largest single-day sporting event in the world, serving thousands of race fans at the 988-acre world-class speedway. The IMS program allows students to advance their strengths, interests and leadership through workshops.
This year’s IUPUI participant is Natania Van Sickle. Students are paid and may receive intern credit while their time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway provides learning experiences to help prepare them for transition from campus to careers and community.
Real world application of academics help prepare students for transition at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy through a course called, “Learning by Giving.” Students get hands on experience with how philanthropy works as they weigh applicants and determine grant recipients in their peer group.
“Learning by Giving” teaches students the process of giving wisely and making grants, from deciding what community issues to address, writing requests for proposals, conducting site visits, evaluating applications and deciding where to give grant award money. Doris Buffett, sister of Warren Buffett, provides the funding.
These are only a few examples of the many ways in which IUPUI is committed to supporting student success through expanded and sustained collaborations that tie learning experiences to real-world career and community expectations.
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