POP - the New Student Experience Model

At Lake Erie College, creating a positive student experience is at the heart of everything the Office of Student Affairs does. They recently launched a new campus-wide programming initiative titled “The POP Model.” Standing for “Place of Purpose,” the goal of the POP Model is to promote individual student growth, personal achievement and reactive character development through a wide range of programs and services, intentionally designed to complement and enhance the student experience. With this goal in mind, the initiative will create a unified model for experiential learning opportunities to better serve students.

Realizing that employees and students wear many different hats and collaboration is not as strong as it could be, Kimberly Robare, Executive Director for Student Affairs, spearheaded the new initiative. “The new model was created as a way for individuals to feel supported in their engagement efforts while encouraging collaboration between areas and student organizations that do not normally work together. The model and engagement group that was put together to oversee it, now has the ability to share all aspects of the college experience with the campus and through programming that is not competing with one another,” said Robare. Keeping the students at the heart of the initiative, Robare explained that the topics chosen in the POP model were created based on pre-existing engagement models from various locations on campus and feedback from students of what types of topics were meaningful to them.

According to Robare, much of the activities within the POP model have been already in place, but now they will be formalized for students. “The emphasis with the POP model is to make sure we are marketing and promoting important topic programs each month, essentially highlighting them to the campus from various angles (academic, library, student orgs, career development, P2E, Student Affairs, etc.),” said Robare. The office of student affairs feels this model will be most effective and impactful for students. “Many times, students come to college and are so overwhelmed, they don’t know where to start when it comes to personal and professional development. They look for the ‘easy finds’ through a faculty member, staff member or peer group they are comfortable with, and they are not aware of everything the College has to offer them. It can lead to a lot of missed opportunities,” said Robare. Students are now seeing more collaboration in areas that didn’t exist before making it easier for them to participate in engaging activities.

One of the key points of the program is a centralized calendar listing all the events students can participate in on campus. This allows the student engagement committee to know more about what is going on around campus and can easily promote these opportunities to students.

In addition, the new model creates consistency with other departments. For example, the Athletic Department’s, in applying the new mission statement, strives for wellrounded individuals. This model works around practice schedules as much as possible and allows student-athletes time to find out what they are passionate about. There are a wide variety of topics, ensuring that each student will find something they like in which to participate. “Our focus is on academics, but we are working on further developing the other aspects of a well-rounded student through this initiative like giving back to others, being social with one another as well as covering difficult topics like Title IX to keep them knowledgeable, healthy and safe,” said Robare.