Summer Conference Schedule

FYE Session 1 - Understanding & Responding to Diverse Students Experiences 

As ethnic, socioeconomic and racial diversity within higher education has broadened, leaders and educators need to recognize the varied backgrounds of their students through culturally responsive pedagogy and programming. This opening session will provide participants with an overview of national trends and data in higher education, while taking a deeper dive into our own student data and practice to help inform our work as higher education practitioners.

Digital Badging Session 1 - Credentials and Digital Badges: The demand for skills

Skill-based hiring is not just a buzz phrase; it’s the preferred hiring modality for much of the US labor market. Preparing students, staff, and faculty to think in terms of skills is critical for a modern University. In this session, we’ll consider how the data structure of badges accommodates skills alignment, look at how other schools use various skills taxonomies for their badges, and explore skills as currency in the labor market. Micro-credentials are a logical step in packaging skills into larger credentials.

Mentoring Session 1 - An Overview of Mentoring and its Impact on Student Success 

This session will provide a broad overview of mentoring as a developmental relationship, the different ways mentoring plays out in an academic setting, and how mentoring contributes to various student-related outcomes including their academic success and career readiness. 

FYE Session 2 - 1st Year Student Experience Panel 

The focus of this student panel is to hear from both the freshman and transfer students about their first year at Cal Poly Pomona.  The discussion will center around the following questions: Their experience at Cal Poly Pomona during their first year at CPP, in what ways were their expectations met, what surprised them, If they could repeat their first year in CPP  over again, what changes would they make, what did faculty and staff to support them and what additional support would have been helpful and whether they were aware of support programs for students in transition.  

Digital Badging Session 2 - Micro-Pathways: Pathways to high-demand jobs

This session will give attendees the knowledge to understand what digital badging pathways are, the benefits for institutions and how it can support learners. We will explore current trends in hiring, aligning program & course content to in demand skills and discuss developing partnerships with employers to create a comprehensive program. This interactive session will allow a hands-on approach to sketching out micro-pathways.

Mentoring Session 2 - Mentoring Diverse Students: A Panel Reflection 

Hear from faculty members about their experiences with mentoring diverse student populations. 

FYE Session 3 - Serving First-Year Students Panel 

Supporting students in transition goes beyond orientation. Hear from a panel of experts about what they are doing in support of students in transition through their first year.

Digital Badging Session 3 - The 'Why' of Digital Badging

Digital badging is new tool at Cal Poly Pomona designed to help students better connect with employers. But did you know it can also provide academic and emotional benefits to students? Learn more about the merits of digital badging and how you can use it to support your students’ success.

Mentoring Session 3 - Inclusivity in Research Mentoring: Approaches and Advice from CPP Scholars

Research provides the opportunity for students to investigate and generate knowledge. It is an opportunity for growth in their home discipline and for expanding their skills. But as mentors, how do we guide them in this process? In this session, Drs. Shayda Kafai (Assistant Professor, Ethnic and Women's Studies Department, CPP) and Chantal Stieber (Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, CPP) share their mentoring stories and approach when working alongside students in research and scholarly activities. Collectively, they have mentored over 80 undergraduate and graduate students in various capacities from capstone projects and conference preparation to graduate school theses. Our speakers will also share their knowledge and experience in mentoring students in research programs like McNair, STARS, and others. The session will conclude with a Q&A session to promote a rich dialogue on the topic among session speakers and attendees.

FYE Session 4 - Working Across the CSU's in Support of Students in Transition

The First-Year Seminar and Students in Transition team are cross campus organizations composed of representatives from five CSU campuses: Sacramento, Northridge, San Diego, Pomona, and San Francisco. These teams aim to create a collaborative community of engagement among all 23 CSU campuses to share best practices, materials, and effective approaches around transitional academic programming specifically for first-year and transfer students. These cross-campus collaborations will help increase access to interventions that maximize student success and reduce equity gaps as well as provide resources to CSU faculty and practitioners on working with first-year students in transitional periods of their academic journeys. This session will include a presentation on the team’s work as well as a panel to share best practices on FYE programs from the different CSU campuses.

Digital Badging Session 4 - Learner-Centered Design and Personas: Understanding learners

Understanding learners needs is an important part of creating a successful credentialing program. This session will help attendees create processes to identify needs, align standards/ competencies and explore options for learners to engage with credential programs through flexible learning opportunities.

Mentoring Session 4 - Staff Mentoring as a Catalyst for Student Growth and Belonging 

Staff mentoring is critical in promoting student success, a sense of belonging, and passing on navigational knowledge. To further explore the importance of staff mentoring in higher education, this session will provide an interactive discussion to engage and learn from the audience. The session will showcase various forms of staff-to-student mentoring and the benefits for mentors and mentees. The session will showcase strategies two staff members used to effectively mentor students, including providing academic and career guidance, creating a safe and inclusive student space, and offering emotional support. Participants will then have the opportunity to engage in an interactive workshop where they will learn and practice mentoring. Through case scenarios, attendees will learn how to build trust with their mentees, take action, and foster a positive mentor-mentee relationship. They will also learn to provide effective feedback, set goals, and create a supportive learning environment. The session will emphasize the importance of mentoring for promoting a sense of belonging for underrepresented and marginalized groups in higher education. Participants will learn how to recognize and address the unique challenges that these students may face and how to provide appropriate support and guidance. 

FYE Session 5 - FYE Course at CPP Best Practices 

In this session, attendees will hear from current CPP FYE Instructors highlighting strategies they have found to work best in FYE courses. Tips and tricks for utilizing currently available resources including FYE repository, faculty learning communities, implementing a project (PolyX), and much more will be presented. We are hoping by the end of this session, attendees will have a better understanding of FYE practices and resources available at CPP. 

Digital Badging Session 5 - Learning & Employment Records

The digital credentialing ecosystem is expanding in all directions: spreading rapidly across higher ed, exploited for more use cases in corporate spaces, valued and implemented higher up in government. Learning & Employment Records (LERs) are a key driver of this expansion. In this session, we’ll review LERs, the digital wallets that hold them, and why the next iteration of digital badges (Open Badges 3.0) is critical to them.

Mentoring Session 5 - Mentoring in the Curriculum 

Although mentoring often takes place outside of the classroom, Dr. Holmes will discuss successful strategies for mentoring within the classroom and how to scaffold career development and mentoring through the curriculum. 

FYE Session 6 - Mock FYE Course 

This interactive session will use curated FYE modules to mimic a semester long FYE class. Each “week” will be presented as a 5-minute presentation, featuring certain aspects of an FYE course. This session will introduce various FYE modules available and show how to organize a 15-week semester.

Location: CBA 163-1015  

Digital Badging Session 6 - Getting Started with Credentials

Developing a successful credentialing program has many steps and considerations. This session will take attendees through creating policies, procedures and plans for implementing a badging program from both a department and institutional level. We will dive into suggested key players and provide use cases from other institutions. At the end of this interactive session attendees will have tools and exemplars to start creating a credential program.

Mentoring Session 6 - It Takes a Village: Student Mentoring Opportunities at CPP

This interactive session will include panelists representing various student support and equity program offerings across CPP such as RAMP(Reading, Advising, and Mentoring Program), EOP (Equal Opportunity Program), Renaissance Scholars (a comprehensive program to support foster youth), McNair Scholars (Undergraduate research and mentorship), University Advising, etc. that view student mentoring as an integral component of their student success initiatives. Along with learning about how these programs integrate mentoring into their programs, attendees will also get a stronger grasp of these student support programs/opportunities offered at CPP and across CSUs.

FYE Session 7 - The FYE Ecosystem and Embedding Signature Polytechnic Experiences (PolyX) in FYE Courses   

The goal of this interactive session is to share the resources available to FYE educators as well as provide guidance to educators interested in integrating a PolyX, a pedagogical principle aligned with the "learning by doing" philosophy of the California Polytechnic State University (CPP), into their First-Year Experience (FYE) courses. The session will begin with an introduction to CPP’s FYE program, core elements of PolyX and its impact on FYE students. A discussion of how to effectively utilize Project Learning Assistants (PLAs), a unique type of peer mentorship, as a valuable resource in the classroom will follow. The session will conclude by reiterating how a PolyX experience can significantly contribute to both the academic success and career readiness of students, and opportunities for involvement in the FYE ecosystem.

Digital Badging Session 7 - Get Started – a hands on experience

The workshop will be focused on walking participants step-by-step on the creation of a program badge using Badgr along with the creation of the artwork. We will conclude the workshop by teaching participants how to award the program badge that they created.

Mentoring Session 7 - Peer Mentor Perspectives on Mentorship  

Peer mentors play an important role in supporting student success. Students can often relate most to other students who can share advice and experiences from their own recent educational journeys and can foster a greater sense of belonging.  This session is composed of peer mentors from across campus who will answer questions and provide perspectives on how to partner with and recruit peer mentors for your programs.  Peer mentor panelists will also discuss their best practices and approaches to their role as mentors, the importance of their role as mentors, and in what ways their role as mentors has been mutually beneficial to them and their mentees. 

Mentors, Sponsors, and Allies: Best Practices for First-Generation College Students (and Professionals)

This session explores the proverbial village it takes to support first-generation students to graduation and beyond.  With a focus on strengths-based, culturally-relevant approaches, the presenter will describe best practices implemented and observed on a national scope.

The Birth of The First-Year Experience: Teaching Your Students to Love Being a Student at Cal Poly Pomona

One of the three themes of focus in this year’s conference is what has become to be known as “the first-year experience,” a global higher education movement now in its fifth decade, to improve the beginning college experience. In more recent years this has become inclusive of transfer students as well. We have asked the founder of this movement, John Gardner, to explain its origins up to its current status for consideration of its application to our own institution’s on going thinking and planning for how best to serve our own new students. Gardner will address us, as requested, on "The Birth of The First-Year Experience: Teaching Your Students to Love Being a Student at Cal Poly”

Future of Work

The overall employment landscape is evolving due to advances in technology and new ways of working, an evolution that has been further exacerbated by the pandemic. Simultaneously, student values are changing, influencing what they expect from a college education and what they expect from their professional endeavors. Students need to be equipped with the types of workforce skills they need to keep up with this evolving employment setting, but that are also aligned with their values. As an educational institution that serves a large population of first-generation, minoritized, and Pell-eligible students, the success of students must extend beyond graduation to include preparing them for and helping them to successfully transition into a variety of dynamic and rapidly changing professional experiences. In this session, we discuss how Cal Poly Pomona aims to provide students with the skills and competencies they need to transition successful into life after college.