Registration Now Open
Click here to register for the conference and pre-conference workshops. Early registration for the conference is open through November 12. Register today and save $75!
Full-Day Workshops (9 a.m.-4 p.m.)
Presenters:
John Gardner, Executive Chair & Founder - Gardner Institute; Founding Director & Senior Fellow - National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition
Betsy Barefoot, Senior Scholar & Co-Founder - Gardner Institute; Senior Fellow - National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition
About this workshop:
For over 50 years we have been making choices for how to improve first-year student success. We will collectively and individually reflect and act on these choices in our very interactive day together. Two of the founders of the FYE movement will elicit from you: What are the choices you made for improvement? How did these work out? What were the problems you were addressing? What could/should you do differently? What are the specific improvement actions most needed? The facilitators will offer responses to these questions and elicit yours. Together we will advance the cause of first-year student success.
Half-Day Morning Workshops (8 a.m.-12 p.m.)
Presenters:
Rajeeb L. Das, Texas A&M University
Ann Bernhardt, Texas A&M University
Chelsie Hawkinson, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
About this workshop:
This workshop is designed for student success professionals seeking practical approaches to assessing and improving first-year initiatives, regardless of prior research experience. Participants will engage in hands-on activities focused on four key areas: leveraging existing research, designing and visualizing survey data, collecting and analyzing qualitative data (including AI-supported approaches), and understanding quasi-experimental design for evaluating program impact. Activities are accessible, interactive, and grounded in common student success challenges. Participants will leave with practical tools, templates, and resources that can be immediately applied to support continuous improvement, evidence-based decision making, and stronger demonstrations of program effectiveness.
Presenters:
Dan Friedman, University of South Carolina
Katie Hopkins, University of South Carolina
Sandy Greene, University of South Carolina
About this workshop:
The first-year seminar is among the most enduring and effective strategies for supporting student transition and success. Drawing on decades of research and national best practices, this interactive workshop will examine the key ingredients of high-impact first-year seminars.
Participants will explore the purpose and evolution of first-year seminars; the essential characteristics associated with relevance and excellence; and approaches for building the campus partnerships, instructor development, and assessment practices necessary for long-term sustainability.
Designed for both new and experienced seminar leaders, the workshop will combine evidence-based principles with practical application, helping participants evaluate their current seminar model, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop actionable plans to create and sustain a first-year seminar that remains relevant, impactful, and effective.
Presenters:
Dottie Weigel, Messiah University
James Winfield, Southern New Hampshire University
About this workshop:
How do we translate academic milestones into the dynamic skills employers actually value? The answer lies in purpose-driven engagement. This preconference session explores how FYE programming can help students discover the core beliefs driving their career goals.
Participants will analyze the critical disconnect between institutional outcomes and workforce expectations, while reflecting on how their own educator positionality influences student growth.
Attendees will gain concrete strategies to refresh their first-year seminars, advising sessions, and student transition programming to help students look past the digital noise, anchor themselves in their values, and build a compelling narrative for future employment.
Presenters:
Yolanda Reyes Guevara, Northwest Vista College
Barbara Smith, University of Texas at San Antonio
About this workshop:
Teams looking to develop or enhance a transfer mentoring program to support student transition, persistence, belonging, and success should attend this session. Participants will explore best practices in designing sustainable mentoring structures that address the unique needs of transfer students within community college and the university setting.
Through guided discussion, teams will examine key components of building a successful transfer mentoring program, including goals and outcomes, student engagement, assessment practices, and cross-campus collaboration.
Participants will leave with an action plan to strengthen or launch a transfer mentoring initiative that promotes academic success, community building, and seamless student transition across institutions.
Presenters:
Jennifer Collins, Florida A&M University
Allyson L. Watson, Florida A&M University
Stephanie Henry, Bethune Cookman University
Vanessa Anagbo-Dowetin, Albany State University
About this workshop:
First-year students do not experience college as an organizational chart — they experience it as one journey. Yet on most campuses, first-year support is fragmented across advising, student affairs, academic support, and enrollment services. Students can fall through the cracks between departments, systems, and unclear ownership structures. This four-hour pre-conference workshop, co-facilitated by student success leaders from three HBCUs invites participants to move from isolated first-year programs toward intentionally designed, coordinated first-year success systems.
Drawing from Tinto's persistence research, Schlossberg's transition theory, sense of belonging scholarship, high-impact practices, and proactive advising models, participants will map the first-year student journey, identify structural gaps, and design proactive workflows using data triggers, warm handoffs, escalation protocols, and shared accountability structures.
Participants will leave with practical tools and an action plan immediately applicable at two-year, four-year, public, private, broad-access, and minority-serving institutions.
Half-Day Afternoon Workshops (1-5 p.m.)
Presenters:
Christine Harrington, Morgan State University
Laura Dorsey-Elson, Morgan State University
About this workshop:
First-year educators and student affairs professionals often face the challenge of needing to convey far more information than students can realistically process, retain, and apply. Whether teaching a first-year seminar, leading orientation, facilitating workshops, training peer mentors, or conducting presentations, how information is delivered matters.
This interactive workshop introduces a practical playbook for designing better learning experiences. Grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, participants will explore simple strategies that help students focus on what matters most, stay engaged, and remember key information.
Participants will leave with a ready-to-use, practical framework that can be immediately applied across first-year experiences.
Presenters:
Ron Johnson, Northwest Indian College
Jenny Serpa, Northwest Indian College
Justin Ketah, Northwest Indian College
Alisa Smith-Woodruff, Northwest Indian College & Saint Martin's University
About this workshop:
Gen Z and Gen Alpha students arrive in our classrooms as AI natives, for them, AI is all-inclusive, not exceptional. Yet most institutional responses are policy-driven, not culture-driven. This four-hour preconference workshop equips first-year experience faculty and staff from two-year and four-year institutions to move beyond academic integrity policies toward building genuine ethical AI cultures in the FYE classroom.
Grounded in digital literacy research and generational theory, participants will engage in structured activities, cross-institutional dialogue, and collaborative materials development.
Participants will leave with practical tools, a ready-to-use classroom AI culture framework, and a network of peers facing the same challenges.
Presenters:
Brad Harmon, Furman University
Thomas Price, Temple University
Nii Kpakpo Abrahams, Butler University
About this workshop:
A cornerstone for first-year seminar success is the utilization of peer educators (Friedman, 2019). How can institutions build, sustain and improve high-impact, peer educator programs? A small, southern, private liberal arts university; a mid-sized, midwestern, private liberal arts institution and a large, urban, northeast public R1 offer participants diverse perspectives on how research and theory guide practice.
Using Rethinking Student Transitions (Young & Bunting, 2024) and Toward Peer Leadership as a High- Impact Practice (Bunting & Young, 2024) frameworks, participants examine critical program components; identify key success factors; and develop targeted, actionable plans to initiate or elevate their programs.
Presenters:
Stephanie Bannister, FirstGen Forward
Qua'Aisa Williams, FirstGen Forward
About this workshop:
Move beyond isolated programs to build an institution-wide approach to first-generation student success. Grounded in research and national trends, this workshop will explore national trends in first-generation student outcomes nationally alongside Florida-specific data, helping participants better understand student success patterns and inform data-driven strategies, while showcasing lessons learned from FirstGen Forward Network institutions.
Participants will engage in institutional self-assessments, collaborative discussions, and action-planning exercises designed for institutions of all types.
Through practical worksheets and evidence-based resources, attendees will identify opportunities to strengthen policies, practices, and partnerships and leave with a customized roadmap for advancing first-generation student success on their campus.
Presenters:
Brad Garner, Indiana Wesleyan University
Amy Baldwin, University of Central Arkansas
Jonathan Fuller, Virginia Commonwealth University
About this workshop:
Higher education faculty invest significant time preparing learning experiences. Yet some of the most memorable teaching moments emerge unexpectedly. This interactive workshop explores how principles of improvisation can help educators respond effectively to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of teaching and learning.
Participants will discover how spontaneity can enhance engagement, foster creativity, provide a welcoming classroom environment, encourage learner participation, and create opportunities for deeper learning.
Through experiential activities, reflective exercises, and practical teaching applications, attendees will learn how to balance intentional course design with the flexibility needed to adapt to emerging opportunities, challenges, and student needs.