Click here to download a complete list of educational sessions and learning labs.
NOTE: Click on the session title to download presentation slideshow. We will update this page as we receive information from the presenters.
Educational Sessions from the 2016 University Life Professional Development Symposium. This page will be updated in late December, early January with finalized session titles and descriptions.
Educational Session #1
@MasonHousing Creative Content: Engaging with Students in the Digital Age
Location: Johnson Center, Room G
Presenters: Joey Allen, Housing and Residence Life
Join us @MasonHousing as we discuss emerging media, our best practices, and strategies for engaging with our students. How do we work together to continue building bridges and streamline our processes to better serve our students in a high touch digital age.
Building Relationships through Professional Writing
Location: Johnson Center, Room B
Presenter: Robyn Madar, Human Resources and Payroll
This is a written communication workshop with a twist: the goal is writing to strengthen relationships. Through a series of exercises, we will explore techniques to develop a more professional tone; how to ask for things and explain policies (and sometimes say no) in a direct and empathic way; and how to practice gratitude through daily writing.
Navigating Cultural Context in the Student Services Setting
Location: Johnson Center, Room C
Presenters: Sonya Henry, International Programs and Services, Satoko Odagawa, International Programs and Services, and Judith vanBever-Green, International Programs and Services
The changing demographics of Mason’s student body will challenge the assumptions that underlie our work in all areas of the University. In particular, the cultural assumptions that guide communication, both verbal and non-verbal, will come to have an increasing importance in the success of our, and our students’, work. This session will offer an opportunity to explore cultural context as it relates to student services in higher education.
Student-Centered Design: Solving Student Problems Together
Location: Johnson Center, Room D
Presenter: Stephen Monroe, University Career Services
Student-Centered Design is borrowed from the concept of Human-Centered Design, a creative and effective problem-solving approach for teams to develop solutions to peoples’ problems. Organizations across the world have begun to apply Human-Centered Design to tackle real problems -– pop-up playgrounds for underserved children in the UK, a new Innovation Lab at the US Office of Personnel Management for staff to tackle tough problems together, LEGO’s Serious Play method to spur innovation within their business, and more.
Connecting the Dots: A Division-Level Approach to Assessing Our Impact on the First-Year Student Experience
Location: Johnson Center, Room E
Presenters: Ashley Sieman, Assessment Research and Retention; Elysia Lash, Assessment Research and Retention; Sally Lorentson, Orientation and Family Programs and Services
By connecting data points across units and over time, we are able to develop new insights about the profile, expectations, experiences, and needs of Mason’s first-year student population. Join us as we present and solicit feedback on a developing model for assessing University Life’s impact on the first-year student experience. Insights will be shared from recent data collected from University Life programs and initiatives.
Leveraging Federal Work-Study to Support Undergraduate Research
Location: Johnson Center, Room F
Presenter: Denise Nazaire, OSCAR
The Students as Scholars initiative at George Mason University provides opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research and creative activities. This initiative is designed to be inclusive, encourage students from all disciplines and all academic levels to participate. In order to increase opportunities to participate in research for all Mason undergraduate students, we collaborated with the Office of Financial Aid in Spring 2013, to pilot a program using Federal Work Study funds to support undergraduate research assistant positions. This program offered experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate students by introducing them to the concept of scholarship and the research or scholarly methods in their field. Faculty were given “free” research assistance, with the understanding that they would involve students in research discussions and regularly evaluate them. Using institutional and program data, this presentation will highlight the diversity of disciplines and students, demonstrate the process of establishing a program such as this, and define what students learn in these introductory roles.
Educational Session #2
A First Responder Look at Violence on Campus
Location: Johnson Center, Room A
Presenter: Zachary Pope, University Life Safety and Emergency Management
The Coming Storm, a Federal Bureau of Investigation feature training film, was developed in conjunction with experts in law enforcement, fire, rescue, victim advocacy, and George Mason University. This session will review the video and research conducted by the Department of Education, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies to review the concepts of first response to an act of violence on a college campus and the impacts of an incident. The session will additionally review the measures that the university has taken to prepare the campus community for an act of violence.
Recreation Reconsidered
Location: Johnson Center, Room B
Presenter: Charles Nicholson, Mason Recreation
FREE T-shirts, GAMES, FUN, FOOD. This session aims to take you beyond the “hook” and into the real benefits, achievements, and experiences that are possible when collaboratively incorporating recreation into as many aspects of the campus environment as possible. Come prepared to move, think, and share in this interactive educational session. A portion of the time spent during this session will be donated to a charity selected by session participants
Co-curricular Programs and Non-Cognitive Variables
Location: Johnson Center, Room D
Presenters: Dr. Amy Swan, Higher Education Program and Dr. Jan Arminio, Higher Education Program
Higher education has been criticized by employers for not preparing students for the job market. How valid is this criticism? How might educators respond to such criticism? According to the literature, how does the co-curriculum prepare students for employment? What are best practices to ensure students gain employment skills?
Who Participates and Why It Matters
Location: Johnson Center, Room E
Presenters: Ashley Sieman, Assessment Research and Retention, Elysia Lash, Assessment, Research, and Retention, and Michael Galvin, Assessment Research and Retention
This session will provide an overview of the variety of ways that University Life’s is working to collect, organize, and analyze participation data. We will demonstrate how units are using participation data to inform decisions and how this information can be leveraged in the future to generate division-level insights.
The Evolution of Career Readiness
Location: Johnson Center, Room F
Presenters: Matt Meyers, University Career Services and Saskia Clay-Rooks, University Career Services
President Cabrera has included in his strategic plan a goal of 100,000 career-ready Mason graduates over a 10 year period. But what does career ready actually mean? This session explores the history behind the term “career-ready” from the early 20th century to today, as well as how generational differences can affect how the idea of career-readiness is seen throughout campus.
Educational Session #3
From the Shenandoah Valley to the South Korea coast: Challenges and Opportunities of Student Affairs Delivery Across Distributed Campuses
Location: Johnson Center, Room B
Presenter: Lori Cohen-Scher, University Life and Erin Brandt, Science and Technology Campus
This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities of student affairs delivery across a distributed university. We will highlight our provision of student affairs at each regional campus of George Mason University and will consider ways student affairs can more effectively and efficiently support this effort in a time of shrinking resources. The interactive format will allow participants to reflect on their own practice.
Universal Design: Making Services Accessible for All of Our Students
Location: Johnson Center, Room C
Presenters: Naomi Martinez-Jones, Disability Services; Jessica Machado, Disability Services; Lisa Campo, Student Health Services; and Erin Harpine, Student Health Services
George Mason University serves a diverse population with a broad array of needs. Using principles of universal design to provide access for all students – not just “typical” students – can help reduce the micro-barriers that can add frustration for students seeking services. Reducing barriers can help keep students engaged in their learning and feel better supported when seeking services. Participants in this program will learn the principles of universal design and the benefits to students. Participants will gain basic tools needed to conduct an accessibility review of their programs and services to identify areas that can be designed to better benefit everyone.
AnyOne Can Step UP! Bystander Engagement Workshop
Location: Johnson Center, Room D
Presenters: Angela Johnson, Wellness, Alcohol and Violence Education and Services and Kathryn Walker, Wellness, Alcohol and Violence Education and Services
Learn the ways you can be an engaged bystander in professional and personal settings. AnyOne Can Step UP! is a bystander intervention training that shows you strategies and techniques for interrupting troubling dynamics as well as directly and indirectly intervening when necessary.
What Are Students Really Learning Outside of the Classroom, and How Do We Know?
Location: Johnson Center, Room E
Presenters: Ashley Sieman, Assessment Research and Retention; Elysia Lash, Assessment Research and Retention; and Lauren Long, Student Involvement
Student learning is a critical component of student success and a desired outcomes of many, if not all, of our programs and services. Today, a variety of learning frameworks are being used throughout the division, making assessment of overall impact difficult. Join us as we present and solicit feedback on a proposed division-level student learning framework and assessment model. Data from a current pilot project (the Student Employee Rubric Project) that is being used to test the framework will also be shared.
Cultivating a Culture of Career Readiness: What Role Do You Play?
Location: Johnson Center, Room F
Presenters: Kimberly Bellamy, University Career Services and Charlotte Strauss, University Career Services
There is typically much discussion surrounded around the number of students who are able to secure employment after graduation and students’ level of professionalism or lack thereof, but how much discussion takes place during the early stages of their college education? How many initiatives take place across campus to prepare them for post-graduation? George Mason University has made a commitment to this by setting a goal within the university’s strategic plan to produce 100,000 career ready graduates. Participants of this session will learn the national definition of career readiness, discover how University Career Services contributes to students’ career preparedness and determine how their departments/units can assist with this institutional goal.
Learning Lab #1
What is Needed to Maximize Success in Integrating Work, Education, and Family
Location: Johnson Center, Room A
Presenters: Angie Hattery, Women and Gender Studies; Bethany Letiecq, Human Development and Family Science; Heather Aleknavage, Office of Sponsored Programs; Coleen Vesely, Human Development and Family Science; and Toya Frank, Mathematics Education Leadership
Students, especially graduate students, staff and faculty continue to struggle with managing the demands of life–work, education, and family life. This session will provide participants an opportunity to identify primary stressors, best practices, and strategies and policies the university can provide/create to increase successful navigation of work, education and family life.
Finding Joy: Lessons from “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”
Location: Johnson Center, Room B
Presenter: Patrice Levinson, Student Health Services
Join us for a lively discussion of this revolutionary style of organizing your space. Participants are encouraged to discuss their own decluttering challenges, perceived benefits and possible “life-changing” outcomes from organizing, as well as perceived barriers to utilizing this method in the office and at home.
Diversity at Mason – First or Second Order?
Location: Johnson Center, Room C
Presenter: Jan Arminio, Higher Education Program
According to Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller (2014) most diversity initiatives are individual first-order change whereas structural changes to create a campus climate conducive to social justice requires second-order changes at the group and institutional levels. Where is Mason along this Multicultural Change Intervention Matrix?
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Identifying and Correcting Common Data Visualization Mistakes
Location: Johnson Center, Room D
Presenters: Ashley Sieman, Assessment Research and Retention and Elysia Lash, Assessment Retention and Research
We are often called to demonstrate the impact of our work via formal presentations or reports which require sharing data in a visual way. Are you making common mistakes in your data displays? Join us to find out! This lab session will demonstrate a few simple principles you can use to ensure that your data displays are designed to communicate clear messages for maximum impact.
This is Your Life: A Model for Cultivating Well-Being
Location: Johnson Center, Room E
Presenters: Lewis Forrest, University Life
Declining student Resilience and employee satisfaction are serious issues at Mason and other campuses. How do our Life/Work connections can serve as examples of Well-being for students and colleagues?
Learning Lab #2
Free Speech: Screaming “FIRE” and Political Correctness
Location: Johnson Center, Room C
Presenter: Dr. Dennis Webster, Campus Climate Committee and University Life
Free Speech has become a contested issue at many universities across the country. The First Amendment of the Constitution, related Virginia State Codes and university policies are considered as participants discuss challenging climate dynamics (i.e. visiting evangelist preachers; and increasing student advocacy). This session will explore ways to better educate the Mason community.
Tying Media to Goals with Google Analytics
Location: Johnson Center, Room D
Presenter: Karen Wolf, Technology Integration
Many of us manage a multitude of websites, social media channels, and other marketing media. But how do we know if our efforts make a difference in achieving our unit goals? How can we measure impact, or improve our marketing in a data-driven way? Please bring a copy of unit goals and a piece of marketing media (or link to one).
The Festival of Marketing
Location: Johnson Center, Room E
Presenter: Charles Nicholson, Mason Recreation
The Festival of Marketing was the most wonderfully overwhelming marketing conference that I’ve ever been to. I have more resources and information than I know what to do with and I would like to share them with you in hopes that you can put them to good use. Join me in an active presentation developed with the “marketing nerds” in mind. This session will not go over what Instagram or Snapchat is and will not cover how to post to any social media platforms.
The Importance of Women and Gender Studies in Student Affairs
Location: Johnson Center, Room F
Presenters: David Corwin, Women and Gender Studies and Nancy Xiong, Women and Gender Studies
The Women and Gender Studies Center at George Mason University is one of the only fully integrated programs in the United States. We are both an academic program and a University Life unit which both take place in the same space and are administered by the same group of faculty and staff. In this learning lab, we would like to see what other academic areas could build similar models and how University Life units can begin these discussions.
The Secret Sauce: Creating Career Focused Student Work Opportunities
Location: Johnson Center, Room G
Presenters: Joey Allen, Housing and Residence Life
Students are looking for jobs outside of traditional work-study, administrative jobs. They are looking for jobs with academic related and major specific outputs. In our @MasonHousing Creative Team we have provided our students with a unique opportunity to receive real world creative career experience and getting some really amazing collateral in return.