BSU Campus Summit to Advance Pursuit of Student Success

Showcase, Reflections and Engaged Discussions to Define Meaning of Success

 

MEDIA CONTACT: David Thompson, dlthompson@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-4311

(BOWIE, Md.) – What is student success? How can Bowie State University systematically achieve it? What high impact practices, or HIPs, are occurring on campus and what new ones should be added?

These are some key questions to be examined at the First Annual BSU Student Success Summit and Showcase to be held Monday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Wiseman Ballroom in the Student Center.

BSU faculty, students and staff are invited to showcase their best practices for supporting student success and join the discussion to develop a shared understanding.

You can reserve a table, free of charge, to showcase an individual project, departmental initiative or student engagement activity. See the agenda for the 1^st Annual BSU Student Success Summit and Showcase.

“We want to acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of those who have taken the lead to develop success initiatives, while giving others the opportunity to learn from your success,” Monica Turner, director of Engaged Learning and Student Support, wrote in an email to the campus community. “Your input will help us develop a campus wide definition of student success as we hear from students, faculty and staff about the experiences that best support student achievement.”

Campus wide initiative gets boost from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The summit and showcase are a shared initiative of BSU President Aminta Breaux, Provost Carl Goodman, and the BSU/American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Student Success Pilot Cohort team.

In January 2019, BSU’s efforts got a boost when AASCU was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “to accelerate transformation and increase student success outcomes” across its membership of nearly 400 public colleges, universities and systems. BSU was one of five AASCU member institutions selected to participate in the Student Success Pilot.

Building on the team’s work with AASCU, BSU’s goal for the summit is to create a shared definition of student success to serve as a guidepost for future success efforts on campus. The summit organizers hope to elicit input from students, faculty and staff to create a definition of student success that reflects the diverse voices of the BSU community.

While the goal of the summit is to develop a shared definition of student success, Turner suggests some ideas about what it might be.

 “[Student success may look] like students engaged in their community in meaningful ways, actually finding their place in the career space before graduation, finding their place in community service and activism, authoring their own work, starting a business, or being presenters of research,” she said. “I think success looks like students being fully engaged in their own scholarship and development in their major path, being active citizens, gaining experience in the work world prior to graduation … Graduation is really the earned credit for what they have already done.”

Event presenters sharing experience with success projects include Dr. Wendy Edmonds, College of Business; Dr. Rose Shumba, chair of Computer Science; and Darryl Hill, senior communications major and CEO of Gofech Management. Bao Le, former AASCU Student Success Center Pilot Cohort project lead, will facilitate the main discussion.

BSU already has HIPs in place, Turner explains. She points to interdisciplinary learning communities through Scholars Studio, Operation Navigation mentoring program, Bulldog Scholars Academy’s support for incoming freshmen, Study Abroad and internships, all aimed at improving student success.

Summit organizers hope the conversations that emerge from this event will help shape a clear vision of what a transformed institution would look like.

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About Bowie State University
Bowie State University (BSU) is an important higher education access portal for qualified persons from diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, seeking a high-quality and affordable public comprehensive university. The university places special emphasis on the science, technology, cybersecurity, teacher education, business, and nursing disciplines within the context of a liberal arts education. For more information about BSU, visit bowiestate.edu.