Orientation Feedback

We hope you had a chance to process the information from the orientation and are well on your way to completing the first assignment due for ORLA 5018. We processed your thoughtful feedback and also received a few great questions in the intervening week. Thank you for taking time to let us know how we can improve the orientation and address issues that will help you to be better prepared when you return to campus in June. We will continue to use this blog as a way to facilitate overall information distribution and we will use other venues as well where appropriate (e.g. ClassWeb postings and CubMail email broadcasts). If you have specific questions related to the courses please feel free to send an email through the ClassWeb message facility to either a faculty member or GA.

Here are some of the really valuable insights we took away from the orientation:

The Orientation

Your feedback indicated that you almost unanimously agreed (94%) that you were well received and that the ice breaker set a great tone for the day (97%). We are aware of the large amount of information that you were processing and wish that we had more time to spend in each of the sessions. We did allocate a little extra time in the morning which gave us an unexpected breather. Our experience shows time after time that if you try to do too much your best efforts lead to high anxiety. Your feedback indicated we had a good balance, that faculty were available and helpful (100%) and that our staff was responsive to your needs (100% with the highest 63% in strong agreement).

Areas for Improvement

Several suggestions indicate that you would prefer that information on syllabi be provided in advance and that you be given time to process it beforehand. We take these suggestions seriously and will look for ways to provide a timely introduction to materials. We also encourage you to continue to peruse the materials we handed out (Handbook and Internship Manual) so that you can formulate all your questions in this intermediate period.

We will continue to look for ways to accommodate our cohort members who are traveling great distances to attend the orientation. We appreciate the sacrifice you made and appreciate your suggestions for ways to make it better.

Remaining Questions

Many of you had remaining questions regarding financial aid. We will provide more detailed information during the summer regarding the Americorps grants and how to manage financial aid issues across the length of the academy. We encourage you to contact the financial aid office at Teachers College with your specific questions as we are not able to field many of the detailed concerns you may have.

We will also provide you with more detailed information on the certification process. Our office of certification will conduct a session on one of the Thursday afternoons during the summer intensive. We will also have a session with our Career Office and provide advance information regarding our February Career Fair.

Calendars

We encourage you to take time to prepare your own calendars carefully as time management is a valuable skill and the various responsibilities of SPA will challenge you to be mindful of multiple commitments.

Bios

Your brief bio will be added to our website with a photo of you during the first week of the academy. We realize that you may not see your entire self in the brief bios. We commissioned a public relations firm to author the bios so that they have the same look and feel as well as focus on the same common issues. If there are factual errors in the bios or information that you would like to modify in within the text limit you can send your modified bio to Whitney Bates (web2105@columbia.edu).


Future Events

Some of you asked if there would be future opportunities to meet current cohort members or graduates of the program. During the second orientation on June 23 we will have a panel of current cohort members available to offer their perspectives and field your questions. We are also pioneering a new feature of support this year with five members of our founding cohort who will be returning to join our staff as peer coaches. We will provide more information on their role during the second orientation as well.

We will also be introducing you to your small groups at the second orientation and providing you with more opportunity to meet the rest of your own cohort. Feel free to contact each other via CubMail in the meantime.