Honors Projects

Abstract

I developed and piloted two 40 minute sessions for Bowling Green State University’s (BGSU) Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) Program, a one-day intesenive orientation program. After developing facilitation guides for these sessions, I trained a group of eight Orientation Leaders (OLs) to facilitate sessions for nontraditional and transfer students during SOAR, which occurred on January 8, 2016. Depending on how a student self-identified, the student attended among sessions for nontraditional, transfer, or traditional students. A facilitator’s guide for a session for traditional students was already developed and in use. The facilitation guides created for this honors project were designed using both student development theory and qualitative data, and addressed the needs typically expressed by transfer and nontraditional students.

While this is not a complete restructuring of SOAR nor a total solution to addressing the limitations of SOAR for transfer and nontraditional students, this project can serve as a starting point for more comprehensive future changes. Nontraditional and transfer students are of growing importance for colleges and universities throughout the country. My project addressed their specific concerns by prioritizing their needs in the creation of orientation materials.

Department

Education

Major

Individualized Planned Program

First Advisor

Jodi Devine

First Advisor Department

Honors Program

Second Advisor

Margaret Weinberger

Second Advisor Department

Sociology

Third Advisor

Jessica Huddleston

Publication Date

Spring 2016

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