Connect, Collaborate, Champion!

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered spring activities and college orientation for the class of 2020. Those young adults are this year's graduating college class. In this two-part episode, Liz Yates, dean of campus life at Moravian University, and Nicole Posluszny, assistant director for student engagement and leadership at Nazareth University, will talk about how their institutions planned special events to make up for the shortcomings of 2020.

Law students at St. Mary's University of San Antonio are gaining real-world experience by assisting renters who are facing evictions and homeowners struggling with title issues. In this episode, Genevieve Fajardo and Greg Zlotnick, both professors at St. Mary’s University, talk about how students move from the classroom to the community in a way that creates a winning combination for their education and the clients they serve.

Grant funding can provide resources that allow colleges and universities to achieve goals they otherwise couldn’t without external dollars. In this episode, we delve into ways that institutions might leverage outside support to navigate the funding process. We’re joined by Jessica Gerrity, a senior vice president at McAllister & Quinn, a federal grant consulting and government relations firm in Washington, DC.

College honors programs are different than the honors classes that high school students encounter. Forrest Clingerman, director of the Honors Program at Ohio Northern University, and Haley Brown, an honors student also at Ohio Northern University, discuss the ins and outs of college honors programs, including the benefits and experiences they offer, and who should and who shouldn’t consider enrolling in them.

Before you grab another plate of the nachos, listen to Aaron Mansfield, an assistant professor of sport management at Merrimack College, discuss his research into the connection between sports fandom and its effect on our physical health, especially in regard to the ways it shapes our eating habits.

This episode dives into the critical conversation of cultivating faculty diversity, an action that benefits not just underrepresented populations but rather the entire campus community. Two distinguished Provosts, Tarshia Stanley of Wagner College and Leanne Neilson of California Lutheran University, will share their challenges, successes, and innovative approaches to recruiting and retaining faculty that better mirror their student demographics.

In this episode, we talk with Lisa Jasinski whose book “Stepping Away: Returning to the Faculty After Senior Academic Leadership” looks at the benefits and challenges of transitioning from senior leadership to faculty, a scenario that is both unique to yet common in higher education.

Wine-making is synonymous with the Willamette Valley in Oregon where Linfield University is located. Linfield recently the Acorn to Oak Wine Experience, a wine tasting room that affords real-world experience to students across different majors. In this episode, Acorn to Oak’s manager, Paul Johnson, talks about working with students in this college-owned business.

Colleges and universities are well-positioned to tackle challenges facing the world, but when the issue is as large as climate change, it can feel insurmountable. Matt Packey, associate vice president for sustainability and institutional planning at Queens University of Charlotte, joins us to discuss their efforts to move the needle on campus sustainability. While it’s a major undertaking, the institution is steadily implementing initiatives to shift the campus culture toward a greener future.

Brandon Slade, founder and CEO of Untapped Learning, shares how his personal history led him to create a company that helps students with ADHD and dyslexia improve their executive functioning capabilities to achieve better success in school and college through research-backed strategies.