Retention: Exclusivity or Inclusivity?
In a series of brainstorming conversations with a fellow NY EOer we attempted to outline ways to increase retention within the NY EO chapter. After several rounds, he and I seemed to not be looking at the situation the same way. To figure out where the disconnect was, I drew the outline below to demonstrate […]
Education Reform: Feeling Like An Outsider
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the inaugural #140edu conference in NYC, which brought together several hundred educators for two days to talk about the future of education. Modeled after TED, each person was given roughly 10 minutes to talk about his/her topic. My topic was on leveraging social media to increase student engagement […]
Laying Tracks for Motivated Trains
Three quick stories, one important point. Story #1: Last week, before my soccer match, I watched a little league softball game on the field next to us. Surrounding the field was a collection of parents multitasking between the game, their blackberries, and babysitting their, even younger, offspring. One parent in particular was having a hard […]
Old Guard Looking Down On Leadership
I recently took on two leadership positions within the NY Entrepreneurs’ Organization. For me, it was a no-brainer to step up to a leadership position as I’ve learned multiple times in the past that the more involved I am in something, the more I learn and grow. It was interesting, however, to listen to the […]
Engagement Inbreeding
A couple of months ago, a debate erupted over the possible elitist nature of the popular online student affairs community, #SAchat. The discussion lasted for several days, before trailing off. But the idea of elitism stayed with me for a while afterwards because back in college, my student activities group was also accused of a […]
The Habit of Circling Up
In the 1800s, wagon circling was a strategic move by settlers to protect against Native American attacks. For our visual learners, here’s an image… In nature, circling up is also a strategic move used to protect the herd against predators. Again, for the visual learners… While it’s no longer the 1800s and we’ve evolved past […]
Anything is Fun as Long as You have Two Things
SuperCamp is a 10 day academic and life skills program that happens throughout the summer for various ages. I worked mostly with the high school students. As you’d expect, no high school student wants to spend 10 days of their summer learning about speed reading, memory tricks, and positive thinking. Most would much rather be […]
Last Week in Student Affairs [07/22/11]
It’s no secret that everyone at Swift Kick HQ loves to read…a lot. With so much great content around community engagement and involvement passing through our brains every day, we thought we’d try out a new series called “Last Week In Student Affairs” in which we highlight the highlights. Blogs: What will 42 years in […]
February #RRWebinar Recap: Video, Slides, and Stats, Oh My.
With attendees hailing from over 70 institutions across North America, and a lively Twitter backchannel discussion, we’re chalking up our February 15 Webinar on Social Media and Student Engagement in the “success” column. Check out the full video above, or download the slides—but there is one catch: if you download the slides, you have to […]
Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms [VIDEO]
Sir Ken Robinson continues to be a hero of ours for his ability to perfectly articulate how to imporve the educational system. In case you haven’t watched any of his pervious TED talks, check them out here and here. (via @NikiRudolph)