GC Journeys Newsletter

The GC Journeys Annual Report is now available on the GC Journeys webpage. The annual report includes participation information, highlights and news stories, as well as assessments for GC Journeys. The Annual Report can be found here.

• October 2nd (12:00 & 4:00)- Maintaining the Magic (Conversations with Dr. Alby) [Sign up here]
• October 14th (3:30-5)- Transformative Experiences Workshop [Sign Up Here]
• October 16th (12:00-12:30) - GC Journeys Info Session [Sign up here]
• October 21st- (3:30-5) Essential Skills Workshop [Sign Up Here]

This Fall the Office of the First-Year Experience (FYE) has partnered with several areas on campus to support a successful first-year for our new Bobcats. FYE teamed up with Student Life in August to create a comprehensive onboarding portal in GeorgiaVIEW complete with modules to assist our first-year students. This month FYE again co-sponsored an event with Student Life, facilitating the “Putting Down Roots” program as part of an initiative to increase night and weekend programming on campus.

FYE hired 16 returning GC students to serve as First-Year Guides (FYGs) this year. FYGs are working closely with our Academic Advising Center team. FYGs are embedded in nearly all first-year seminar courses, providing support to the Academic Advising instructors while working both in and outside the classroom with students to help make connections on campus. Additionally, FYGs send out weekly updates to their students, and meet with students individually throughout the semester. FYE partners with University Housing to follow up with any student who an FYG indicates may be feeling disconnected on campus. FYGs will continue collaborating with the Academic Advising Center by staffing a Virtual Registration Help Desk Sunday-Thursday evenings in October. The Help Desk will assist students with questions about registration from 7-10pm via the FYE WebEx room.

Finally, this September FYE developed a comprehensive calendar of academic success workshops with the GC Learning Center. The workshops cover topics including: note taking, study skills, test taking, and critical reading for STEM courses. Seventeen workshops were offered over the course of five weeks, both in virtual and in-person formats. Workshops were facilitated by a FYG alongside a student staff member of the Learning Center. Through these partnerships FYE hopes to connect all areas of the first-year student experience to create an environment where our first-year students with thrive.

Four Georgia College faculty were recently selected for the University System of Georgia’s Chancellor’s Learning Scholars Program.

• Dr. Scott Butler, Professor of Public Health
• Dr. James Schiffman, Associate Professor of Communication
• Dr. Jehan El-Jourbagy, Assistant Professor of Business Law,
• Dr. Stefanie Sevcik, Lecturer of English

These faculty members went through the nomination/application process and were selected for this statewide program. As Chancellor’s Learning Scholars, they will take part in faculty development opportunities related to online learning and high-impact practices with peers from all around the state. They will then bring their experiences and knowledge back to Georgia College and lead faculty learning communities for their peers. When asked about the program, Dr. Jordan Cofer, Associate Provost for Transformative Learning Experiences, said that “it certainly speaks to the good work that GC faculty are doing. GC is known for innovation in the classroom and these four are certainly deserving of this honor.” All Chancellors Learning Scholars serve a two-year term.

2020-2021 GC Journeys Transformative Experiences Mini Grant

Are you leading a transformative learning experience (whether virtual or online) and need a little money to complete it? Apply for the 2020-2021 GC Journeys Transformative Experiences Mini-Grant.

Overview:

These small mini-grants, offered on a rolling basis, can be used to complete/fund transformative learning experiences (First Year Experience, Capstone, Undergraduate Research, Leadership, Community based Engaged Learning) that you are leading.

Restrictions:

These are state funds, so there are limits on how it can be spent and must be expended by June 2021. A committee made up of faculty and staff will review the applications monthly and make the awards.

To apply:

Fill out the application here.

Seventy-three GCReads microseminars were held on Monday August 10th and Tuesday August 11th. Microseminar sessions were scheduled for 90 minutes, and were held both virtually and in-person. On Monday August 10th we held 35 sessions, of which 13 were in-person and 22 were virtual. On Tuesday August 11th we held 38 sessions, of which 14 were in-person and 24 were virtual. We had 52 faculty, staff, and administrators volunteer to facilitate sessions with representatives from every college.

Students were informed about GCReads during their summer orientation session, and sent follow-up reminders via email. If students did not register themselves for a microseminar, they were assigned to one. This year 15 essays were selected for GCReads. These essays were available to students at no cost through a libguide created by the GC library. Registration for GCReads was also facilitated via LibGuide. Across the two days 1,323 first-year students attended a GCReads microseminar.

Student Feedback

307 students responded to the GCReads Student Survey. Of these respondents:

· 99.3% of students indicated they read their assigned essay

· 91.5% of students felt GCReads was a good introduction to academics at Georgia College

· 82.8% of students rated their GCReads experience as “excellent” or “good”

by Katelyn Neeley

So far, my Mass Communication capstone course has been a challenging but rewarding and valuable experience for me. My capstone course meets once a week in a socially distanced learning environment, and our professor does an excellent job of reminding us of deadlines and answering any questions we may have, which is such a great help. I currently serve as the Assistant Account Executive for the Twin Lakes Library System. In this position, I have learned so much about my leadership style, how to effectively communicate with my team members and our client, and what I want to do with my major and minor after graduation.

Though it is difficult to schedule meetings that work with everyone’s schedules and keep all of the different Zoom links organized, we are still able to have productive virtual meetings and complete projects for our client. This capstone experience is one of a kind and I’m glad this course is built into my Mass Communication curriculum. This course is readying me to enter the communications field and I am grateful Georgia College gives me the chance to complete transformative experiences like this!

Community Engagement Abroad

Perspectives and Practices on Service, Engagement, and Learning Overseas

Presenters: Pat Crawford and Brett Berquist
Facilitator: Lynn Anderson
Monday, October 5th 2020. 3PM EST

This webinar will allow participants to identify the essential guiding principles of community engagement abroad, to be exposed to a community engagement abroad framework and evaluation rubric, and to increase awareness of different approaches (lenses) to community engagement abroad work. The webinar is based on the recently published book, "Community Education Abroad" by Berquist and Crawford which explores the community engagement framework through a variety of case studies of study abroad programs developed by Michigan State University.

Register here

Email: journeys@gcsu.edu
Website: https://www.gcsu.edu/gcjourneys
Location: Carl Vinson House