With many sophomores exploring other universities to attend, Loyola’s University Planning Team is looking to replace and expand its first-year orientation program to include year-long programming for first and second-year students.
The new program, the Ignatius Loyola Institute for Values Education, intends to turn what some call “the sophomore slump into the sophomore jump.”
UPT intends to build upon the first-year orientation programs already in place, which consists of Wolfpack Welcome and Loyola Lagniappe. Through iLIVE, students will continue to use their strengths from the Strengths Quest program they participated in during freshmen orientation.
“It will be mandatory but hopefully this program will help students see the value in it. I guess one thing that’s always been a problem is retention, and this comes back to it,” said Sarah Cooper, Student Government Association president and marketing junior. “They wanted, in a way, for everyone to see how Loyola could develop them and how people can find the leader in themselves and Strengths Quest is a really great way to do this.”
Josh Bouterie, psychology freshman, said Loyola didn’t explain to freshmen what the five strengths meant during orientation. He would be interested in carrying over the program into sophomore year if Loyola clarified their importance.
“It lacks applying because they told us what our strengths are but they haven’t really reinforced what all this really means,” he said.
Kim Buras, graphic design freshman, agreed and said she thinks Loyola should take the time to develop them a little more instead of only saying what each person’s strengths are.
“I think this would be a good thing to reinforce sophomore year as long as we don’t have to take away from our credits. I find that the freshmen seminar thing is already kind of taking time away from me because I already have enough things to do,” she said.
According to Roberta Kaskel, director of career development, Loyola intends to move Strengths Quest beyond the initial orientation week and help the first-year students understand why these strengths are essential to building relationships with people and helping find a career path.
There will also be more emphasis placed on the first-year experience throughout the entire year, not just in freshmen orientation.
“The first six weeks those students are on campus is pivotal time where they are forming relationships and getting acclimated,” said David Gunn, associate director of Co-Curricular programs. “We look at our emphasis on the first-year student to include new programs and more resources for programming for first-year students and then carry that on into the second year where the focuses shift a little more to career focus groups and planning.”
The second-year initiatives include activities for career development, a vocational discernment retreat with Mission and Ministry, a series of lectures and peer career coaches. Nearly every campus office such as Residential Life, Co-Curricular Programs, Career Development and University Counseling Center will be incorporating some aspect of the initiatives in their programs.
The first and second year engagement is one of the ways Loyola is addressing sophomore retention. Another is improving the college experience for sophomores.
“The intended result is that the sophomore experience for our students is of such meaning that students don’t want to leave at the end of sophomore year,” Kaskel said.
“One of the things we want in doing that is to make sure that Loyola remains the college of choice for returning sophomores because we are providing an education that’s working both inside and outside the classroom.”
According to Gunn, Loyola is planning to begin piloting these initiatives as early as the spring semester. During this time, they will be assessing attendance of some events and looking at student satisfaction.
“We want work with students, gather data and conduct focus groups and say hey, what’s working, what needs improvement and what did you like about this program,” Gunn said.
Craig Malveaux can be reached at
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