SCC Faculty HSS Projects

The TLC organized a Community of Practice around Holistic Student Support (HSS) in Spring 2022, and participants learned with and from each other, committing to developing a project that increased student support in their classrooms. Participants share their work in the pages that follow.

The purpose for sharing this information is to:

  • increase your awareness of the variety of ways that outside, non-cognitive issues impact student success
  • inspire you to increase your approaches to HSS yourself, no matter how you work with students

What follows are great examples of how people take the general idea of outside-of-class resources and apply it specifically to their own courses. The assignments, syllabi statements, and activities are openly licensed, and you are encouraged to to adapt and/or revise the materials. Please review the information and reach out to the project developers if you have any questions.

 

Amy Anderson, Communication Studies Faculty

Many students are unaware of resources on campus and don’t know how to advocate for themselves. My approach to address this problem was to create some informational materials to hand out at Student Success Day. This material could also be incorporated into a syllabus or Canvas shell to raise awareness on available resources for student success. 

AA HSS Project Interactive Campus Map.docx Download AA HSS Project Interactive Campus Map.docx 

AA HSS Self-advocacy flyer (002).docx Download AA HSS Self-advocacy flyer (002).docx 

 

Lynne Emenegger, ABE and Smart Start Faculty

My project was designed for my ABE 34: Cosmetology Smart Start Support class and addresses financial challenges that many students face, including: 

  • lack of information on funding for textbooks and related costs
  • managing and understanding their financial aid via their ctcLink Student Center
  • knowing who to contact for funding or financial aid related questions

I would approach this topic during the first week of classes when students need funds for purchasing their textbooks. Many students are unaware of financial resources they might qualify for. Students struggle with keeping up with or falling behind in their course work by not having textbooks at the beginning of the quarter.

To address these challenges, students can access information on financial aid including scholarships, grants, emergency funding, and the FAFSA in my Smart Start Canvas module, “Affording College”. If time allows, an option is to invite a financial aid specialist to present general information on financial aid and answer students’ questions regarding the FAFSA and the content in their ctcLink Student Center. Additionally, coordinators from Work Force Transitions can speak to students on specially funded programs. Finally, walking with students over to Work Force Transitions in Building 6 and Financial Aid in Building 15 (Bigfoot Central) helps familiarize them with the locations on campus. 

(see the Affording College module in the next sectino for more resources)

 

Pamm Haslebacher, Adult Education Faculty

I teach Social Studies and Writing/Grammar with Adult Education students. This population is systemically underserved. These students predominantly struggle with learning, motivation, and have many barriers to finishing classes. This exercise can be used in most courses, however, as most students struggle to complete classes. I will use this in the first week of my Social Studies and Writing classes. I will probably do this exercise the 3rd or 4th day to allow for first going over course content and expectations as well as time to establish trust in the class.

Purpose: To normalize barriers, surface student’s barriers to finishing classes/college and provide resources from both Community Colleges and the Spokane area.

  • Place on overhead the statistics of homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, depression, anxiety to normalize these issues.
  • Break class into small groups. I will ask the groups to write down as many things as they can that might get in the way of someone completing their education. This will allow students to discuss barriers without “outing” their own barriers if they do not want to, and it may be eye-opening to some who may not have realized what barriers their classmates are facing.
  • I then pass out copies of both SCC Resources and Spokane area resource’s contact information.
  • Under each barrier, students will write down a resource that may help with this barrier.
  • I will collate all their answers and put the categories on poster board. Under each item will be all the resources that students have come up with.
  • Go over barriers and resources together as a class.
  • I will leave the poster boards up on the wall. Students can add barriers and resources throughout the quarter.
  • At a later date in the quarter, we will revisit this exercise to see if any new barrier and/or resources have been thought of.

PH HSS Project DSHS-SpokaneAreaResourceList.pdf Download PH HSS Project DSHS-SpokaneAreaResourceList.pdf 

 

  

Brianna Khetlyr, Adult Education Faculty

This course was designed for any/all Canvas courses I teach (GED, HS+, etc.), but it would fit well in most Canvas courses. The problem that I am addressing is the lack of exposure of students to the available resources/supports.  Many times, my students have no idea (especially since we are not on campus) what is available to them.  My goal was to have an overview of supports that would be easy to navigate, with a round-up style assessment at the end to bring it all together.  This would give the students a broad overview of supports available as well as a resource that they could access any time within the quarter. This module would fit well at the beginning of a canvas course.

(see the "Holistic Student Supports" pages in the next section)

 

Samantha McCann, English Faculty

This assignment is intended for the first week of an English 101 course but could be easily modified to other courses. The information gained in the writing portion of this assignment could be used to help identify students who are struggling early in the quarter and intervene in the appropriate way.

Students, especially at community colleges where on-campus life isn’t as robust as four-year universities, often know very little about campus resources. Since there continues to be a stigma around asking for help, this assignment is intended to inform students about campus services in a more general sense before they need to access them. It will also give students the chance to reflect on their own experience applying for and attending college and realize there are common experiences in the challenges they may be facing.

SM HSS Project Holistic COP Directions.docx Download SM HSS Project Holistic COP Directions.docx

 

D. Kathryn McKenna, English Faculty 

In order to be successful in college courses, learners must first have their basic needs met, such as access to housing, food, financial security, physical safety, and mental wellbeing to name a few. Furthermore, knowledge of and easy access to campus resources, both on-ground and virtual, will help students connect with their college community, offering a sense of belonging and support, which ultimately leads to college success. As it’s been proposed that the campus resource page on each Canvas course may be difficult to navigate, a different format showing resources will be a useful tool, and being able to link to a resource map directly from a link in a Canvas module will reinforce the availability of these essential services.

KM HSS Project Interactive Map.docx Download KM HSS Project Interactive Map.docx 

Google Interactive Student Resources Map Links to an external site.

 

Angela Smith, Communication Studies Faculty

My name is Angela Smith and I teach communication studies classes at Spokane Community College. During and following the Covid-19 global pandemic there has been an increase in Domestic Violence calls in Spokane and in many other parts of the world. I have had more and more students who have opened up to me regarding intimate partner violence/domestic violence that they or their family members are facing. When I was made aware of the holistic student support Community of Practice, I immediately knew what I wanted to focus on. The area that I would focus on in this small project would be ways to connect students who are facing intimate partner violence/domestic violence (student safety needs) to resources.

This project is motivated by:

  • I have had more students who have been struggling with intimate partner violence/domestic violence. I didn’t know where to find the appropriate SCC and Spokane Community resources that are available.
  • It is imperative that we as instructors are aware of the resources that are available to our students who are facing domestic violence. Getting our students connected to the appropriate resources could ultimately save lives.

AS HSS Project Domestic Violence Toolkit.docx Download AS HSS Project Domestic Violence Toolkit.docx 

 

Susan Williams, Electronics Engineering Technology Faculty

The Electronics Engineering Technology program has several students a year joining under the LNI/Worker retraining program.  We get questions from counselors and students about workload, math preparation, and tools to purchase.  I have created a documents that can be modified for any program addressing some of the frequently asked questions.  The document is for distribution to counselors and students. They include a blank copy of the Academic Planning Worksheet and the degree path specific worksheets for easy reference.

SW HSS Project LNI support document.docx Download SW HSS Project LNI support document.docx

SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Mechatronics.doc Download SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Mechatronics.doc

SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Super Student.doc Download SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Super Student.doc  

SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Biomedical Equipment.doc Download SW HSS Project Academic Planning Worksheet-Biomedical Equipment.doc 

SW HSS Porject Academic Planning Worksheet-Applications.doc Download SW HSS Porject Academic Planning Worksheet-Applications.doc 

 

Susan Wilson, Adult Education Faculty 

I designed this project for the ABE Physical Science course that I will be teaching this summer. I designed two lessons; Early Alert and Resources to ensure that students are familiar with these services and understand how to access assistance and amenities. Most of my students seem to have no knowledge of services available and when in distress, cannot recognize any possibility of assistance available to them. The Early Alert lesson includes an introduction and explanation of Early Alert, as well as directions for submission and a scan button. The Resources lesson introduces the SCC Resources link and provides scenarios in which students search for possible assistance for the subject.

I have designed these lessons in Canvas and they could be used at the beginning of any course, to acquaint students with the services and resources available to them.  I believe it would be especially helpful to students that do not attend on campus.

(see the "Reources" and "Early Alert" pages in the next section)