1. CU GROW: Guided Reflections on Work
Welcome and thank you!
Introduce presenters – name, title, department

2. University of Colorado Boulder
Chancellor’s Call to Action, Fall 2013
Increase campus:
Reputation
Revenue
Retention to graduation
Increase graduation rate from 68% to 80% by 2020
Chancellor’s State of the Campus, Fall 2013:
Chancellor’s State of the Campus, Fall 2014:
From the Provost: Turning the tide on student retention:

3. Student Affairs and Retention
Graduation rates increased by:
Frequent participation in campus activities
High level of staff involvement and concern for students
Grad rates increase by fx participation in campus activities and high level of staff involvement: Pascarella and Terezini ,1991, p. 384
On campus employment offers engagement, decreased isolation, feelings of attachement: Bergen-Cico and Viscomi ( )
Pike, Kuh, and Massa-McKinley (2008)

4. Student Affairs and Retention
“Mattering” is the feeling that others
depend on us
are interested in us
are concerned with our fate
Especially relevant for our relationships with student employees
Mattering fosters belongingness
A sense of belonging is highly predictive of students returning for their second year
Mattering: (Schlossberg, 1981, p. 165)
Belonging (Hausmann, Schofield, and Woods, 2007)

5. Student Affairs and Retention
Student Affairs staff are uniquely positioned to support students to:
Discover work, programs, events, and organizations that best fit their temperament, interests, and goals
This is achieved through a variety of efforts:
Structured peer-to-peer interactions
Staff-student interactions
Engagement with the institution
Student employment offers all three opportunities

6. On-campus Employment:
Positive Impact
Creates a sense of engagement
Decreases isolation
Fosters a feeling of attachment to the university
Increased graduation rates
Even when controlling for HS achievement, family SES, and test scores
Better grades
Working 20 hours or less/week is significantly and positively related to higher GPA
Pike, Kuh, and Massa-McKinley (2008): impact on retention even when controlling for HS grades,
It’s difficult to compare on-campus and off-campus employment because students who work off campus often have significant additional constraints on time and resources. Also, very little research has been done on the impact on working off campus.

7. On-campus Employment Benefits
Build close relationships with other student staff
Supervisors
Allow flexibility to schedule work around academics
Accommodate students’ school concerns beyond “seat time”
Engage in conversations about their educational life
7 Leonard, 2008

8. Assumptions
Student employment is positive for the student and the employer
Employing students can be challenging at times
It is easier in some departments to spend time developing student employees than in others
Small efforts can make a big difference in helping students develop skills for success at CU and after
Many departments within Student Affairs are unique in how they employ students (times of years, hours of operations, number of student employees per supervisor) and in what students do in their jobs. We know these differences affect how one may understand student employment and can affect what you are thinking about having to implement CU GROW.
In thinking through CU GROW, we worked under these assumptions and looked at adaptations to help supervisors implement CU GROW.
Review assumptions.
Re-state… We want CU GROW to be a successful part of your employment of students as we know it will be beneficial for students and it will help us (division and campus) demonstrate how an on-campus job contributes to student success. Therefore we have included adaptations to help you incorporate CU GROW into your role as a supervisor and we will talk more about these adaptations at the end.

9. Student Affairs Employment
The Division employs over 1500 students each year
Largest employer of student staff on campus
Student employees are essential to our operations

10. Student Affairs Learning Outcomes
Personal and professional development
Understanding of diversity, inclusion, and humanitarianism
Civic engagement and effective leadership
Interpersonal and intrapersonal competence
Independence and interdependence
Responsibility and accountability
Presenters should give one or two examples (total) based on their audience. Possibilities include the examples below, but presenters can introduce their own unique examples:
Personal and professional development 
Being on time for work
Wearing and caring for a uniform
Dressing appropriately for work and/or the next position a student may want
Remaining calm in difficult situations
Understanding of diversity, inclusion, and humanitarianism 
Collaborating with someone who looks, speaks, or dresses in a different manner
Adapting language and actions to be more inclusive of others
Thinking about how a decision or action will affect someone (for example, some students cannot work on Saturday nights for religions reasons or eat during the day during certain holidays)
Civic engagement and effective leadership 
Eliciting the opinions of others, including those who believe very differently than you
Facilitating a meeting
Sharing a decision and acknowledging concerns
Interpersonal and intrapersonal competence and independence and interdependence 
Communicating with peers and supervisors
Talking with customers
Responding appropriately to upset customers
Asking for help or delegating when needed
Responsibility and accountability 
Being on time
Following through on promises
Taking ownership of mistakes
Taking initiative to take on tasks.

11. What Employers Want

12. Top 5 Skills Employers Want
Ability to:
Work in a team structure
Make decisions/solve problems (tie)
Communicate verbally in/outside organization
Plan, organize, prioritize work
Obtain and process information
NACE data reported by Forbes Magazine (4/15/2015)

13. Bridging School, Work, Social Life
We know on-campus employment is high impact, but students do not necessarily know this
Students gain job and life skills, develop insights, and clarify values

14. Guided Reflections on Work
CU GROW:
Guided Reflections on Work
If we ask student staff a few questions, in a structured way, we support them to see the connection between their job, classes, relationships outside of work, and future career
Supervisors trained to have brief (15-45 minute), guided conversations with student employees
CU GROW is adapted from IOWA GROW®. Used with the permission of ©The University of Iowa.

15. Results from IOWA GROW®
Student staff were more likely to report:
Seeing connections between job & academic coursework
Positive outcomes of employment other than money
Feeling they were making a positive contribution to campus
Their job contributed positively to:
Written communication skills
Oral communication skills
Conflict resolution skills
Time management
Nothing had changed in the day-to-day function of the job and nothing had changed in their classes. Instead someone took about 15 minutes with the student to give them time to think about these connections.
(If desired….presenter can ask…Why do you think these are areas where students reported a connection or improvement?)
…compared to students who did not have a GROW talk with supervisor.

16. Benefits to Supervisor and Department
IOWA GROW® findings:
Students who made connections to the workplace were more invested in their jobs
Invested employees
Performed better work
More committed to job and supervisor
More responsible to job and supervisor
While we like to see and hear about how the jobs we offer help students succeed during college and beyond….it is also nice for us to see a benefit!
The IOWA GROW program showed that students who went through the program--participated in the 15 minute guided conversation— reported being more invested in their job.

17. CU Student Voices
One of the greater challenges I have had being in a leadership position is managing people older than myself. But after some experience it became easier as I developed respect amongst my colleagues.
Working at the UMC…I have gained a network of people who care about me and keep me up to date on what is happening around campus. I have been able to have more amazing experiences at CU because of this.
Two slides…sharing quotes from students…

18. CU Student Voices
I wouldn't have the job I have now if I hadn't worked there for 3 years. I accrued invaluable experience and made many friends and contacts.
Since I started working at the UMC I feel a lot more involved with the University. It has also positively impacted my grades, since I have to be more organized.
I just started working with [Company] in their marketing department. So thank you for all the valuable skills you taught me over the past two years. I am definitely utilizing all of it now!
Two slides…sharing quotes from students…

19. Let’s get to know each other…
In pairs or triads, share:
Name
Where you work
Number and level of students you supervise
Discuss:
Describe a supervisor (current or past) who has had a positive impact on you.
(If someone says they have not had a supervisor who had a positive impact, ask the person to describe what it would look like/what a supervisor would do or say to be a positive impact.)
Note  Ask for volunteers to share examples and/or a commonality they found in the experiences shared in the pairs or triads.

20. Student Employment and Transferable Skills
In pairs, discuss…
What should students know or be able to do after working in your area/unit?
How do these skills/knowledge relate to what employers are looking for?
What might students learn while working in your area that they may not expect to learn?
Pairs/Triads – small group conversation
Share back to large group just a few examples. Try to pull from different units and/or types of jobs to show that learning and skill development happens in every position.
The interactions, role modeling, and regular conversations we have with students have an impact. The daily or weekly interactions build trust and a relationship that can make the CU GROW conversation more impactful as well as easier to have.

21. CU GROW: Expectations
Supervisors have 2 structured conversations with each student employee during academic year (or 1 in the season, for seasonal workers)
Small group conversation is an option
Take notes on the conversations; revisit comments in future conversations
Submit names/ s of students who have 2 conversations to CU GROW facilitator for your office
Small group option: Research indicates that students may also benefit from hearing other students talk about what they are learning.

22. Guided Conversation
What are you learning here at work that’s helping you in school?
What are you learning in your classes that you can apply here at work?
What are a couple of examples of things you’ve learned here at work that you think you’ll use in your future profession?
What are you learning or doing here at work that you’ve used in your personal life?
The conversation we want you to have with the student is straight-forward. We want you to ask, in a conversational tone, these 4 questions and in this order. You will ask the same 4 questions at each conversation.
We encourage you to take notes during the conversation so that you can re-visit topics at the next conversation. (Humor…if needed or applicable…say…I know I can barely remember names and year of the 10 (or more) students who work for me…there is no way I will remember their major, classes, what they are learning or the examples they provided!)
We have a short video that give an abbreviated version of this conversation…

23. Conversation in Action: Video

24. Tips for Conversations
Thank the student for meeting with you
Share the purpose of the conversation:
“To support students to recognize the connections between what you are learning in the classroom and what you are learning at your job”
Be patient with silence
Be okay with guesses
If offering an example, phrase as “some students have found…”
End with thanking student for meeting with you
We are going to give you a chance to practice this conversation….before we do, here are a few tips to help set the stage, start, and wrap-up the conversation.

25. Conversation in Action: Your Turn
One person is the supervisor and one is the student.
Ask the Four Questions (answer questions as if you were a student employee in your area):
What are you learning here at work that’s helping you in school?
What are you learning in your classes that you can apply here at work?
What are a couple of examples of things you’ve learned here at work that you think you’ll use in your future profession?
What are you learning or doing here at work that you’ve used in your personal life?
Switch roles and repeat.
In pairs, we invite you to practice these conversations. We know this type of practice can feel awkward…but we also know the practice makes it easier to have the conversation when you meet with your students.
The questions are on the screen as a reference. If you are in the role of the student, think about a class you took in high school or college if it is helpful.

26. Conversation in Action: Your Turn
Reflection in pairs
What questions made the most sense to you or were the easiest to ask?
What questions did the “student” have for you?
What were you unsure about?
Re-group as a large group.
Share out pair reflections to the group
Staying in your pairs, talk about:
What questions made the most sense or were easiest to ask?
What questions did the “student” have for you when you asked the questions?
What questions or parts were you unsure about?
Large group “re-group”, share out:
What questions made the most sense to you?
What questions did the student have?
What were you unsure about?
What did the supervisor do well when asking the questions and hearing the answers?

27. Tips for Conversations
What tips would you add after having practiced the conversations?
You have had a chance to try out these 4 questions and to hear the 4 questions in the role of students. What tips would you give others for when they have this conversation with their student employees?

28. Pre-implementation Survey
All CU Student Affairs departments participated
> 500 student staff responded in April 2015
Modeled on Iowa survey, but with unique CU questions as well
Results will serve as a baseline for comparison after the implementation of CU GROW
Division-level findings to be shared in fall
Baseline survey results will not be broken out by department. The Division-level benchmark will serve as the comparison going forward.
Our response rate was over 30% which is better than we usually see for CU surveys; this is a completely acceptable response rate.

29. Pre-implementation Survey
Preliminary findings
“Working in current department significantly improved my”:
Oral communication skills (51%)
Ability to work with others on a team (50%)
Ability to resolve problems independently (48%)
“I am better able to work effectively with individuals from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and cultures”
58.8% strongly agreed with this statement

30. Next Steps
2 structured conversations with each student employee during academic year (or 1/season, for seasonal work)
Take notes on the conversations; revisit comments in future conversations
Submit names/ s of students who have 2 conversations to the CU GROW facilitator for your department (or 1 conversation for seasonal staff)
Timeline
You will receive an to initiate CU GROW (set up conversations, have conversations)
Student staff will receive as heads up
Review online resources
As a reminder, these are the expectations for the project.
Here are the next steps for making these conversations and connections a reality…(VARY based on time of year. Consult timeline for exact dates.)
The CU GROW resource are online at the Student Affairs website

31. Resources Online Video example and 4 CU GROW Questions
Tips for Conversations
Timeline
Sample and purpose statement to share with students
Resources for students: academic, personal, counseling, etc.

32. Questions? Presenter A Department, email Presenter B Coordinator
Julie Volckens,
In addition, the CU GROW Team is here as a resource for you – whether you are not sure about what to do next, are not sure how to ask a certain question or what to say to a student, or are curious about what we are learning – we encourage you to contact us.
Here is our contact information. On the website, you will find the names and contact information for the CU GROW Team.