We want Monarchs to earn their crown. To do so, each Monarch must know their university and the resources available to them
Our solution to defeat the stigma around asking for help is a combination of a map quest and better advertising of the resources around campus. We have seen since the beginning of the pandemic that students are bombarded with so many emails that they tend to filter out what they think is important for today and forget about things that could help them in the long run. With Wear your Crown proud we will help students overcome this habit and form long lasting memories, friendships, and mentorships, while also getting to know and use their resources. This program will also allow for a student's first time using the resources on campus to feel less confusing and scary.
We have created an application form that you can find below. The application form will allow individuals to identify their major, year, whether they are on-campus or a distance learner, and if they identify as a student or faculty:
This program will target first-year and transfer students to provide a helpful building block; however, it will be available to all who are interested.
We will form groups of 5-10 students. Groups will be paired by commonalities such as major or transfer status. Groups will be guided by an upper-class student and a faculty/staff member who will act as an advisor. Groups will work together through guided weekly activities.
This program will be promoted during First Class and via PowerPoints shared by faculty during class at the beginning of the semester.
Below is a list of possible tasks to be assigned each week throughout the first semester. This program also may be expanded to an entire year. We talked to students that we surveyed when formulating this list of tasks, and they agreed that the idea of completing these tasks in groups will be well-received. Surveyed students also believe the timeframe given to the tasks seem reasonable.
The teams will compete to see who did the best in the weekly challenge and will earn points based on who did the best.
The team with the most tasks won at the end of the challenge will win a grand prize (yet to be determine), and weekly first, second, and third prizes (something small) will be rewarded to groups that show growth and perform well on the weekly tasks.
We will also have all participants complete a PowerPoint slide to contribute to a King's log in which students will record the highlights of each weekly task:
This King's log will be the map of resources and how to use them. This will allow students to refer back to the log long after they have completed this program.
We will encourage the students to be as creative as possible and to personalize to their experiences in the King's log, as it will be used to determine the weekly first, second, and third place and overall program winners.
We have created a Twitter page that will show pictures of students doing their task and prizes they have won for knowing and using ODU resources. Again, we want to work with First Class to get the word out about this program to freshmen and specifically would like to target first-generation college students to provide them with mentorship through their college journey. We also would like to work with Admissions to promote this to transfer students.
In addition, we would like to work with instructors to ask them to use Zoom background visuals when they have their cameras turned on as a way of promoting the different resources highlighted within the program to students. We will ask students who participate in the program to create these Zoom backgrounds as one of their weekly competitive tasks.
This program offers a way for students to have a controlled environment in which to approach others for help. Everything just seems a little easier when it's in a group, and we have formulated our tasks so everyone must asked for help at least twice and used ODU resources several times throughout this program. We will help students form bonds with someone in their major which is really important because it helps to form connections beyond this program and even after graduation.
We want students to be more hands on when we talk about our resources because you can always lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. This program gets students out of their comfort zones and ensures that after you complete your time in our Map quest you will have Earned your Crown.
Earn your Crown
We will use Group Me for photos and submission of completed tasks, as well as to communicate important updates about the tasks sent to students.
Students' hard work will be shown on the Twitter page to advertise to others about the program and show how fun and exciting it is to use ODU resources.
We will make the groups based on the application form so that students can form bonds and continue to rely on each other after this program ends. Each person in the group will have someone that shares a common major, year, transfer, or first-generation status with someone in there group. Groups will be coupled with a faculty member and upper-class student to help guide the teams.