The Kreisler Impact: Creating
High-Impact Experiences
The Kreisler Impact: Creating High-Impact Experiences
Dear Amy and Nevin,
Thank you for your generous contribution to the Poole College of Management and for co-creating this vision for High-Impact Experiences (HIEs). As I step into the director role, I am excited to amplify all of the great initiatives that already exist in Poole and help our faculty and staff develop new signature experiences that can positively impact the trajectories of our 3,700 undergraduate students and their families.
Prior to coming to Poole, I spent the last seven years building the undergraduate professional development program at UNC Greensboro’s Bryan School of Business and Economics. Before that, I was a project manager at a technology startup. Throughout my career I have learned a few important lessons that I think will help bring our vision for HIEs to life:
› Make it matter: Students have a lot on their plates, and they are becoming increasingly aware of their ROI as they navigate opportunities presented to them. Everything we do needs to be meaningful to their journey. It is imperative for Poole students to be able to craft a personalized experience that is tailored to their career interests and goals. To that end, we will create a clear map to success that scaffolds their learning with accessible, digestible and tangible experiences, all with a student-centered approach.
› Empower to excel: I survey students about their biggest takeaway following a high-impact experience, and one word usually bubbles to the top: confidence. Confidence is a product of going outside of your comfort zone and gaining new skills and experiences. It is also the impetus for creating real change — for students themselves and for their communities. When we are just as purposeful about building up the “person” as we are the “student” and “professional,” we see an empowered individual who believes in themselves just as much as we believe in them. We see someone who can confidently walk into an interview and believe they belong there.
› Create a culture: When you are part of a positive environment, you can feel it without anybody saying a word. You show up every day feeling excited, inspired and supported. With our goal of ensuring every student completes at least one HIE, students will simultaneously be modeling the way for others and lifting each other up along the way. Faculty and staff won’t have to require or highly suggest engagement in HIEs — it will become ingrained in the culture, to the point where it is a defining characteristic and a point of pride for what it means to be a Poole student.
In this impact report, you will find more detailed information about what we have already set in motion during the 202324 academic year, our next steps for the near future and our plans for creating a solid foundation and sustainable system that ensures all of our undergraduate students complete at least one high-impact experience during their time at NC State. As you read through the report and get a sense of where we are headed, please know that my door is always open to discuss HIEs with you. I truly mean it when I say you are co-creators, and you are more than welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/tyler-wiersma/ or reach me at tjwiersm@ncsu.edu.
You are already making a difference, and this is only the beginning!
Tyler Wiersma Director of High-Impact Experiences
Stats and Facts
Initial Focus Areas
Our vision is for a future-focused undergraduate experience that keeps up with global trends and sets students up for success by developing their career-readiness skills. To do this, students need high-impact experiences. We identified two areas of focus to implement HIEs as a programmatic component of the Poole College journey:
› Develop an inventory of current HIEs to increase awareness among faculty, staff and students.
The core elements of an HIE include the length of the experience; a student’s engagement level; opportunities for mentorship or collaboration; a focus on access, inclusion, belonging or well-being; opportunities for reflection; and takeaways that a student can communicate. Current experiences include:
› Practicums
› Internships
› Co-ops
› Study abroad programs
› Faculty-led research projects
› Student leadership positions
› Mentorship programs
› Living and Learning Villages
› Personal/professional development programs
› Identify opportunities to elevate and expand accessible and equitable HIEs through collaboration with key stakeholders, including Poole faculty.
Poole Packways: Building on Impact
The Poole Packways app helps students explore HIEs early in their academic careers. In fact, it’s a key part of our orientation program. With experiences broken out into levels, students can take a stepping-stone approach to HIEs:
› Level one example: attend an information session
› Level two example: join an organization
› Level three example: take on a leadership role in that organization
› Level four example: apply those skills in an internship
34%
of Poole students studied abroad in AY23
Additional Accomplishments
30% of Poole students engaged on Poole Packways at least once in AY24
328
Poole students enrolled in practicum courses in AY24
This past academic year has been critical for formalizing the strategic framework around our HIE program. We’ve also put our ideas into action. In the spring, Pieter Verhallen accompanied a group of students to the Heavener International Business Case Competition at the University of Florida. Student attendees described this experience as “a celebration of learning, growth and fun” and “life-changing.”
We also used the Jenkins School of Management mentorship model to include more active mentorship in the undergraduate experience. Piloted this past spring, the program will roll out later this year.
We know the most convincing voices about the importance of HIEs are those who are undertaking them. From global experiences to curricular ones, our students can immediately see the benefit of these opportunities.
“For the last six weeks, I have been studying entrepreneurship at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. … I was able to apply what I learned by (1) pitching a venture framework for a business aimed at improving sustainability on college campuses, and (2) working as a student consultant for Cobber Technologies PTY LTD. A post about studying abroad would not be complete without mentioning personal growth, independence and cultural immersion. Living on the other side of the world taught me that, like a startup, sometimes you just have to hold on, get a little uncomfortable, and figure things out.”
— Australia study abroad participant
“To everyone involved in shaping the Poole Undergraduate mentor program, your efforts have made a lasting impact. Here’s to the promising future of the Poole mentorship program, and may many more students seize the opportunity to benefit from its immense value in the years to come.”
— Student mentee
Looking Ahead
Already, your generosity has helped transform the Poole College experience, and we are looking forward to accomplishing even more in the 2024-25 academic year. Key plans include:
Welcoming Jill Willett as a graduate assistant. Jill will oversee the day-to-day operations of the Poole Packways platform, including connecting with students who submit reflections through Poole Packways and providing real-time feedback to help students communicate the significance of their experiences more effectively. She will also work with students, faculty and staff to identify new activities; create unique app badges and an incentive schedule to encourage engagement; craft a marketing and communication plan to tailor messaging to specific populations to boost engagement; and seek out impactful HIE stories to highlight.
Creating an influencer model. We are working with Poole’s marketing and communications team to establish an HIE culture where students hear about the program from their peers. With weekly features in the Need to Know newsletter and social media takeovers, we are putting stories in the hands of students and highlighting peer mentorship.
Implementing rural internship opportunities. The NC State Foundation Board has awarded us a grant to help launch the Business HIRE (High-Impact Rural Experiences) program, in concert with the Career Development Center. Starting in summer 2025, we will send 10 students through an internship program that includes professional development workshops, in an effort to engage with rural North Carolina companies and empower our rural students to make a difference in their communities.
Identifying gaps and opportunities for elevation. Currently, there are a number of opportunities in Poole that would fall under moderate-impact experiences. By adding in the core components of HIEs, we can create more options and better identify our gaps in experiences. into levels, students can take a stepping-stone approach to HIEs:
“This experience has completely shifted my thinking about marketing. I’m not just considering strategies that work in the United States; I’m thinking about what can work anywhere in the world. It’s made me a more creative thinker and better at applying innovative ideas in a practical, real world way.”
— Spain study abroad student
“I think that any class that will help ease the process between going from the academic world and the business world is awesome, and I did not know how behind I was before taking this class, and how far I was able to come during this semester is amazing. I cannot stress how much this class helped me out.”
— M120: Professional Development and Career Planning student
