This past Thursday I was working with UMass – Boston on their newly formed Investiture for first year students. It’s a tradition they are hoping to continue on for many years to come. I’m a huge fan of their efforts since it’s a great way to set the tone for the year as well as build up the campus culture.
My Dance Floor Theory Keytalk was on the value and importance for the students to get involved because it’s a key factor to their success while in college. For those who’ve seen the Student Leadership Training version of Dance Floor Theory, my goal was to move these first year students from “Meh to Hmm” and eventually convince them that being a 5 on the dance floor (aka college campus) was the best place.
After an hour, the students were pumped and ready to get involved and make the most of their college experience. After the Keytalk, the first year students hung around, ate some food, and chatted with each other. Casually, students would come over to where I was standing with several staff and orientation leaders to introduce themselves. Then after we talked and took a picture, the students would hang around and start talking and laughing with the staff and orientation leaders. At one point, I leaned over to a staff member and pointed to a first year student who was laughing it up with a group of orientation leaders and said,
“That’s a motivation train, I’d sign her up right now to be an orientation leader for next year.”
The truth is, the whole room was filled with motivated trains ready for their next step, but there wasn’t a system in place yet to do so.
My unsolicited suggestion on how UMass – Boston can make their Investiture even better next year would be to have the Investiture crew and Student Activities coordinate a way to have student club/org representatives lined up around the room so that after the Investiture the first year students could turn their excitement into action by joining a group or signing up to attend an event right then and there.
Moving a student from “Meh to Hmm” takes a massive amount of resources, and it’s important for schools to have an action step attached to the orientation program, so it’s not energy that gets lost in the grind of daily school life.
– Tom
