The advertisement sent to students through email
Photo courtesy of St. Bonaventure University
BY: TUCKER REILLY, ADVISOR EDITOR
reillyt19@bonaventure.edu
As the fall semester enters its final months, many students are forced to take account of their current grades. With what seems like little time for improvement, they panic or give up, leading to a disappointing finish to the semester. GPA 911, a workshop program provided by the Student Success Center, is designed to help with that situation.
Kate DeGroff, a student success specialist at the Student Success Center, described the services available through the program.
“GPA 911 started out as kind of a reality check for students who might think that doing all right and then midterm grades come out. They become very alarmed that they’re not doing as well as they thought,” said DeGroff. “So far we’ve done workshops on note-taking, organization and time management. Soon we’ll be doing workshops on how to register and test-taking strategies right before finals week.”
While the program has been available for several years, many students are hesitant to reach out for help. DeGroff explained the more active approach that the Student Success Center has adopted this year.
“This semester we moved to a more targeted outreach: the Student Success Center created a campaign through the Navigate app,” said DeGroff. “It flagged students who have under a 2.0 GPA and sent out targeted emails for them to make appointments with a professional staff member.”
Even with this new targeted approach, many students are in need of help without reaching the threshold for referral. DeGroff described the integral role that students play in monitoring and convincing their peers to access Student Success Center resources.
“Right now most of our audience and participants have been HEOP students, FRES 100 students (a non-credit course that focuses on study skills and successful habits) and transfer students. We’ve actually had huge support from our peer coaches and RAs, who have been a huge help with recruiting students to participate,” said DeGroff.
Although many students come to GPA 911 for help with grades, there are a number of skills outside the classroom that they may need assistance on as well.
“I think with COVID-19, a lot of the incoming students are struggling with some of the softer life skills,” said DeGroff. “There was a lot of ‘push them through’ happening [in high school]. So activities like checking grades, planning courses or having a conversation with professors were not things that they were front-loaded with. We’re kind of trying to backdoor that and help them be successful.”
GPA 911 is just one part of the larger umbrella of the Student Success Center. Students that were unable to attend previous workshops can use the Navigate app and set up individual academic counseling through the Center. As for upcoming workshops, there will be events on Nov. 2 and Nov. 4, focusing on class registration and designed for freshmen. All are welcome to attend.
reillyt19@bonaventure.edu
