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Rebels, tune in to 'Let's Talk UNLV' with Dr. Sammie Scales. Your express pass to everything UNLV — campus highlights, programs, and the latest buzz. Join us weekly as we chat with student leaders, administrators, and faculty, diving into the core of what makes us Rebels.
The program brings guests from different areas of UNLV every week to discuss campus highlights, programs and services, research interests that are essential to being a Rebel. Let’s Talk UNLV places its emphasis on connecting with student leaders who represent the voice of students on our campus. Guests also include administrators, faculty and staff responsible for upholding the mission of the university, which is teaching, research and scholarship.
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Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u and v studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Unknown Speaker 0:20
Hello, UNLV Welcome to another another episode here at K U N. V. 91.5. Public Radio. And today we have a very special guest, we have Dr. Lauren Gatto, Dr. Gatto is assistant director over in FYE Program. Welcome to the show. Dr. Gatto, thank
Unknown Speaker 0:37
you so much for having me.
Unknown Speaker 0:38
Well, the way that we started, I like to start out the shells is you know what the guest telling us their origin story, you know, your education and how did you end up here at UNLV?
Unknown Speaker 0:48
Sure. So education wise, it's pretty diverse geographically. So I started receiving undergrad experience at Chico State and California. And then I went ahead and pursued my master's in higher education administration in Miami, Florida, Florida International University. And I recently just finished my doctoral program and educational leadership in Texas at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:13
wow, you've been all over from California to Miami, and then to Texas and back out here in Nevada. Yep. Wow, that's, that's good. Let's go. What did you get your doctorate in?
Unknown Speaker 1:25
Educational Leadership?
Unknown Speaker 1:26
Educational Leadership? Okay. How long have you been here at UNLV? For a little over a year? A little over a year? Okay. Fantastic. Fantastic. Let's dive into some of these questions here. Can you explain the role of the orientation leader during this new student orientation? And how do that help the four year experience for the student? Sure.
Unknown Speaker 1:46
So that is a critical role or orientation leaders. So all of our students or incoming students are required to attend New Student Orientation, what we call NSO. We love acronyms here. Our students are coming here, maybe for the first time. And once they are with us, they spend the whole day with us learning about different resources. I'm one of the speakers so I have a wonderful opportunity where I get to welcome everyone in, as well as all of the families, I have a separate opportunity to meet with the families just to get them familiar of what it means now for my student to attend a college. And what does that mean to attend college at UNLV. So our orientation leaders are really the individuals who are there with the students to help guide and lead them for the day. What's great about our orientation leaders is those are undergraduate students. So those are students just like they're going to be. So we're hoping that that creates a level of comfort, a little familiarity so that they can have those conversations so that it's a little more organic, because the majority of the day they're having to do breakout sessions lecturing, they meet with academic advisors. So we find that having that orientation leader gives them an opportunity to maybe ask some of those tough, honest questions that they don't feel comfortable doing in a large setting.
Unknown Speaker 3:10
Excellent. Excellent. So you said this is for all students is that for like, students coming from high school and transfer or just those coming from high school? Yes,
Unknown Speaker 3:18
it's any new incoming students. So that includes all of our kind of traditional first year students, right from high school, but then also, our large transfer population also has an opportunity, and they actually get their own designated, and NSOs, a new student orientation. So we have ones that are specific for transfers, because we know that they're coming in with some unique uniqueness.
Unknown Speaker 3:44
Wow. Excellent. Excellent. So when these students come in, so what kind of support and advice do these peer mentors offer to these students? What kind of perspective today give them? Sure.
Unknown Speaker 3:54
So our orientation leaders and peer mentors potentially are different individuals. Ideally, it would most likely be the same person, but we do serve so many students. So for our peer mentors, those are also undergraduate students. And we employ 150 of those students. So those 150 are deployed out to all of the colleges. So that gives the students not just an opportunity to start to find that sense of belonging at UNLV. But there's an additional layer for them to understand, well, what does it mean now for me to be a college of Urban Affairs student or a college of engineering student? So those peer mentors are really helping the students get familiar with the campus that could be resources, specifically for maybe academic support, professional support, looking for an on campus job. We're really here to serve the student and we know that everyone is individual. So the peer mentors are trained. I trained them over the Summer throughout the summer, at the beginning of the semester, throughout the year, we train them to really have an opportunity to meet every student where they're at and find out what are the goals of that student? And then how can the peer mentor close that gap?
Unknown Speaker 5:13
Wow. Excellent. Excellent. So some of the strategies, what are the strategies used to make sure that the students during this orientation and during the pinch for the peer mentor, ship? What strategies are employed to make sure that these students actually get connected with the campus? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 5:30
great question. So we embed a lot of our peer mentors in the first year seminar course, we know that we need to meet students where they're at not just developmentally, but also physically. So we actually have the peer mentors in the first year seminar course. And those peer mentors act as kind of a role model, they're basically showing this is that behavior of what a student should look like in college, as well as potentially offering workshops so that they can see, okay, now I'm creating some more credibility with this peer mentor, we also encourage the peer mentor to share and be vulnerable and say, this is when I failed a course in this is what I had to do, we understand that being able to admit mistakes, is creating a psychological safe environment for the students, which is critical for them to then combat that imposter phenomenon that there many of them are coming in. And so what we make an effort to do is meet with that student and ask them, what is it that you're wanting to get involved in. But we also are very, very understanding that you don't know what you don't know. So what we try to do is balance that by asking what their goals are and what they want to get involved in, but also sharing intentionally and timely knowing when to offer some of that support. So maybe during midterms, that's when we have a more kind of robust conversation about tutoring. And maybe during homecoming, that's when we start to talk about events and Involvement Fair.
Unknown Speaker 7:07
Let me ask you this that question, what are some of the key elements and traditions during weapon week that you recommend for these students?
Unknown Speaker 7:15
Gosh, there's, there's so many things. I also want to kind of add in there, even before Welcome Week. Now UNLV is starting this new tradition of rebel ready week. Oh, yes. And it's just a second year. And so that's really a unique thing that's happening here at UNLV, where it's a full week of events and experiences for students to really be able to kind of help with that onboarding. And so on Monday of that week, it's going to be college day, so all of the students will be able to go to their college, get an idea of what that space looks like, meet faculty meet the deans, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is passport sessions. This is really cool. Because we have it very similar to a conference where it's Choose Your Own Adventure, you get to look at all of these different sessions and determine do I want to learn about the radio? Do I want to learn more about doing something at the makerspace and creating something with my hands, or maybe I want to go do meditation for the time. And so we offer a variety so that students can get exposed to different things here in a fun kind of comfortable space. And then on Friday is our big student convocation, which is creates. So then, when they all come back, we still kind of keep that energy going. But we're hoping that now they instead of their first day showing up, where they're a little nervous and a little scared, they already have had a chance to spend a whole week walking around campus, meeting new people seeing new spaces. And so we really hope that that's going to make them feel more confident during their first week.
Unknown Speaker 8:56
Excellent. Yeah. And that can that can actually foster a sense of belonging as well. Now what I want to toggle back to what I was going to ask you earlier, you spoke about peer mentors, being honest with students, and you know, saying, hey, yeah, I failed this course. But this is what I did to get it correct. I think it's important to make sure that students know it's okay to make mistakes. There are gaps, there are things put in place to help you succeed. You know, we have tutoring we have you know, you're able to go your professor or get peer mentoring something to make sure that you're able to improve. So that's something I want to circle back to this less what I was going to ask earlier about the honesty and openness of your peer mentors, being able to share with the students what is really is like to be on a college campus. So because, you know, of course, being in college is totally different than being in high school. So you want to know, you know, I've met students also that think that it's not okay to make mistakes once they come to college because it's quote unquote, college you got to do too well, but, you know, people will fail classes or, you know, come close to failing classes and able to go and get You know, tutoring or whatever they need to make sure that they pass those classes. So we're gonna keep keep moving forward here. So how do you innovate, create and contribute to a student's first year experience? What do the school do itself to make sure that they're creating and contributing to that first year experience?
Unknown Speaker 10:15
Yeah. So within FYE, again, we have the peer mentoring support, we also oversee the common read. So many universities will have that common intellectual thread among all of their first year students. So this is a book that's selected by a committee of members here. And that is a book that all of the students will receive at rebel ready week. So they all receive a physical copy. And we try to make sure that that is embedded not just in the classroom, but also co curricular. So we partner with the Student Diversity Programs lounge, and we offer book discussions where we're able to just kind of almost like a fireside chat and just read a chapter together and talk about it. And then try to understand how does this potentially relate and resonate with me, another way that we do it is we curate a lot of different events that happen on campus can be a little overwhelming with the amount that is happening on campus. So what we do in our FYE office is we curate a menu of different experiences that we really encourage our students to participate in. From there, students are able to choose which which specific experience they want to participate in. And then just by participating, they are entered into a scholarship opportunity at the end of each semester. So from just attending one of these events that we are highly encouraging you to attend, we pull 10 names, and those 10 people receive a scholarship that goes directly to their tuition. So just last week, we were able to pull 10 names and those individuals all received a $500 scholarship. Whoa, just for attending just for attending these events. Well,
Unknown Speaker 11:54
I didn't know about that. No, I didn't know about common read the book, I've gone to, I think I've gone two or three times to that an SDP lounge, and that is excellent. And I still have the book in my office. And you know, when I have some downtime, I do read read through the book as well. So when you're selecting your, your, your, your leaders or your peer mentors, how do you know? Well, what's the criteria in selecting them to make sure that they are prepared for that role.
Unknown Speaker 12:21
So what we do is we do a very traditional process where we work on handshake, and so we post the position, and then we go through the interview process. So some of the colleges have decided to do a traditional interview, where maybe it's a panel. And we also really try to include our returning peer mentors. So who we call our lead peer mentors to also be included in that selection process. We also have some colleges that do a really cool thing where they do group interviews, and they're able to incorporate questions and answers, but then also have a group kind of team builder activity to really be able to see what what are these students look like when they're working on a project in a team? And so it's also important for us to ask those questions and ask exactly that about, can you tell us about a time that you made a mistake? And how did you overcome it? Or what did you do? Can you ask us about about a resource that you weren't familiar with? And how would you share it with someone else? So we're making sure to really make an effort to ask these students, those problem solving critical thinking. This is a hypothetical question that potentially you could come involved in. But we also know that we can expect these students to come in 100% if we're only doing a small amount to prepare them. So where I come in is, a lot of my dedication is towards preparing our peer mentors in order to serve our students. So right now, during this summer, all of our new peer mentors are currently taking an online course that I developed so that our peer mentors can start to get familiar with peer mentoring concepts. What does it mean for active listening? What does it mean for asking those questions? What are some red flags to be aware of? And then, the week before rebel ready week, we have an opportunity to all come together all 150 of us. And that's when we do some more kind of case studies, role modeling, role playing when it comes to peer mentoring. So we do a lot of training to prepare our peer mentors.
Unknown Speaker 14:30
Wow. Wow. That's excellent. I didn't know that. It sounds like it was a kind of a I won't say rigorous but it sounds like it's a process where you're just not going out and just selecting, you know, the first student that comes on the program. Yeah. How involved are the parents and these are parents involved at all in this process when bringing them in bringing their students here, so
Unknown Speaker 14:49
they they have a separate track when it comes to New Student Orientation. So at New Student Orientation, all of the family members are with us at the beginning and then they breakout into a separate area where we have dedicated space for the families. So we have a family engagement coordinator, and they talk a lot about how do you have conversations with your students at this point? FERPA so the family rights, Education Rights and Privacy Act? What are we allowed to share with you? What can we not share with you? Homecoming, when is family day networking opportunities on Facebook, they have a separate page. So really trying to make sure that the families are included. And right now what FYE also is doing with partnership with admissions and New Student Orientation is we offer a summer connect series. So what we know happens is students come for New Student Orientation, and they can be very overwhelmed. And they might think, gosh, now I really have questions about a specific area, and I need to get in contact with them. Or I don't really know what to do next. We know that summer melt can really happen. Our students who attended maybe just this weekend, when they come to new orientation, we might not see them again until August. So to get them to be continuously engaged with us, we offer summer connect series. So it's a handful of different events. It's all they're all virtual. And every single one is purposefully, it's kind of designed for a specific topic. So for example, tomorrow, we have one and it's all about rebel success hub, which is our platform for our students who needs to set up advising appointments. Then we have another one with for housing just for housing, housing is gonna go on and talk a lot about what it means to live in housing, what can you bring, what can you not bring, we also are piloting a FYE. Floor in housing. So that themed community is really important. So we really make an effort to make sure that we are with those students from admission on until they're with us for the full year.
Unknown Speaker 16:57
Wow. So in the beginning, how do students get connected with FYE? Let's say a student, you know, decide, okay, I'm a senior in high school, I'm gonna apply at UNLV. They apply at UNLV they get accepted, then What's that process like with getting them connected with FYE? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 17:14
so that is where that partnership is so critical with admissions, because we want to make sure that it's a warm handoff, and we don't do it too soon. But it's not too early to be able to have that communication. So what we do is, when a student enrolls in New Student Orientation, they automatically are enrolled in a pre New Student Orientation Canvas shell. And that's just to kind of get them familiar with some policies and procedures. And they're also at the same time enrolled in an FYE course. Now I say chorus, which sounds a little intimidating, but it's really just a hub. So it's a hub with resources. That's where we pretty much break down what is FYE. So it's really self paced so that students can visit, come back to it, see it, once you're enrolled in that specific shell, you're with us that whole year, and we do something called Friday previews. So every single Friday at 10am, you get an email in your inbox, and it says, Hey, this is something to look forward to next next week. These are some really cool events, we encourage you to do. Don't forget, this is the last day to drop classes. So we're trying to make sure that we're not bombarding you with information, but we're giving you information that's timely and relevant.
Unknown Speaker 18:34
Yeah. Wow. Excellent. Excellent. So you spoke about having an FY 18. Floor. Is that is that pilot program taking place this coming fall or spring? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 18:43
this coming fall? Yes. In Tonopah. South? Yes. Yeah, it's my understanding is it's Tonopah. Don't quiz me on all of the locations. I've been there a couple times. So we're really hoping to beautify it with maybe some some kind of decorations and stickers, and we are going to be creating welcome bags. So all of our students who are living in the FYE themed community will all receive special T shirts. And we actually will have office hours right there on the floor. So you can roll out of bed, literally in your pajamas. And we'll have Academic Success Center coaches, their peer mentors will be their first year seminar instructors. And then my student staff will be there. We call them FYE Program assistance. So we really again, want to make sure that we are removing all types of barriers to help with these students. Wow,
Unknown Speaker 19:40
that is excellent. So how can students personalize their first year experience to qualify for the FYE Connect? Connection award? Yeah, so that is that the one you spoke of earlier with the scholarship? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 19:53
Yes, that's the one with the scholarship. And so again, what we encourage the students to do is I love that you use the word personalized, because that is really what I want to encourage the students is that you are you need to personalize your FYE. And so a lot of times that means that self reflection, that means who do I want to be? Where are those gaps that maybe I need to fill? What are some areas that I've been curious about, and I just kind of need some additional nudge to get involved in those spaces. So the students are able to participate in those. And then that is how they enter for that connection award. Which again, is that scholarship?
Unknown Speaker 20:35
Wow. So do the students get comfortable enough with their peer mentor, where if they do have an issue, let's say in class, that they would go to their peer mentor to try to get you know, as a first step to get this resolved? Yes,
Unknown Speaker 20:46
yes. I don't know about you. But it is so frustrating, right? When you send an email, and you just like, never hear a response, or you you don't know where to go. And so you have this kind of decision fatigue from the whole day, or you have you become paralyzed from those decisions. And so we really want to make sure that they utilize the peer mentors as that guide as that resource. So when they do have trouble kind of understanding, where do I even start, instead of them saying no to themselves? Because that's sometimes what they'll do. They'll say, you know, what, I got an F, I guess I'm not fit for this, I guess that's it, they start to have those beliefs that they've just seen from society, or from something that someone told them one time. So it's always important to get really what are the facts, not just relying on your friends, because their experience is different? Absolutely. But also being able to go to someone who is credible, so that if you go to the peer mentor, the peer mentor most likely will say, You know what, I think we should talk to the academic advisor, let me show you how you can set up that meeting. Let me show you where that office is. Let me our pure our academic advisors might be the same person now I can talk and tell you that they're super chill and easy to talk to. And so that's where it's really important to have that peer to peer relationship. Yeah, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 22:12
You know, and I'm just sitting here thinking as you're talking, you know, that could be the difference in a student staying here at UNLV. And leave and leaving, you know, having that extra support, you know, feeling like they have someone that they can actually talk to, are you able to share at least one success story from the FYE Program? Have you seen students from the start to graduation? Or how does that work with the success? Can you share success story with us?
Unknown Speaker 22:36
Yeah, you know, I have, I have a lot of them, I think that is probably one of the most rewarding parts of my position is I get to physically see some of those changes. And so for example, at the end of our summer connect Series events, the last one that we offer is an ice cream social. And that's in the Barrick museum. And so when we had it last year, students came and they didn't really know anybody. And so we kind of chatted with them. And there were a couple students who were present, but they just didn't really know like, how do I behave or what's okay to say and what's not okay. And that's where that role modeling is so critical from our student employees to be able to kind of show like, listen, it's okay, like, this is a good space for you to be in a brave space. And so what I was able to see with a couple of those students is, I saw them at other FYE events, and they started to become friends. And then I started to see those students go together at different events. So they were creating that sense of belonging in that community. And then those specifically those two students, one want our scholarship. And so it was really cool to be able to see that name constantly come up from attendance, but then really, to physically see what they were like in the summer where it was just a little nervous and scared, and then all of a sudden to start to see that they expanded their friend group.
Unknown Speaker 24:02
Wow, that's excellent. Excellent. Excellent. So that's a success story. So are there any challenges that you've seen, or feedback that you've gotten from students on how to improve the program, anything to that effect? Hmm.
Unknown Speaker 24:15
So I think when it comes to our students, so we do a lot of assessment, so we do assessments, specifically for FYE. And then we also do peer mentoring assessment. And I think the feedback is kind of funny, because the feedback from some of our students who complete their peer mentoring opportunity in the fall, we assess them and we asked, Would you come back for the spring? Or is this something that you want? And a lot of the responses? No, because I don't need it anymore. And that's actually the best thing that we can do, though is create autonomy is create independence. That's what we want to do. We want to start kind of a hand holding, and then kind of being their shadow and following along, but then We want them to go, you know what? I'm all set. But we're hoping that we've taught them lifelong skills such as, What do I do when I don't know the answer? Who were the resources? Those are those skills that will continue on that resiliency that will continue on for the rest of their lives, I hope.
Unknown Speaker 25:17
Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. You know, if money wasn't an issue at all, in your department at all, here at UNLV, what would you like to see for this program? Wow,
Unknown Speaker 25:28
that is a tough question. I think, you know, it's funny, because another feedback, of course, is food, right? Students love food. And so we've we've made an effort to really make sure that we have a fun kind of variety of food at all of our events. I think, again, right now, we're focused on the population of First Year Experience. And so our first year students, but I would love to expand this to all of our students, and have it easily be accessible to all of our students who are really looking for mentorship. Because we understand that as a first year student, you potentially might have changed your major. And now you're going in a different direction, and you're a junior, and you need some help, and you don't know. So I think that's something that I would like to see is for it to expand to all students, so that we're here when they need us. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 26:24
I think that's an excellent idea. You know, because if you start out, let's say, for instance, a English major, of course, you're gonna seek out the support for that particular major and you major support, you got your support system gone, and you're doing fine. And then you decide, you know, what, I think I want to be a fifth major now. And so you're changing, and now you got to start over. So always having someone there to, you know, support you and point you in that in that direction that you need to go. So that's, that's always important. So if a student wanted to contact you, how would a student contact you for the FYE? Program?
Unknown Speaker 26:56
Sure. So all of our information is on the UNLV website. So you can just type in first year experience or type in FYE, you can reach us by our phone number. We also have a physical office here on campus, and the f th building on the fifth floor. So if you physically want to come in and meet with someone, we are available in here all summer. As I mentioned, we have those summer connect Series events which are open. So if someone wants to just pop in and kind of get an idea of what are those look like? Or who are these people? That's kind of a fun way to do that. Our phone number, our email, and then we're very active on Instagram and Facebook.
Unknown Speaker 27:36
Excellent. Excellent. So they can follow you on your social media platforms. Yeah, you met you didn't mention SDP department is student diversity programs. Are there any other departments that you've partnered with to make sure that this program is Fy is a success, all
Unknown Speaker 27:50
of them, we definitely crossed the line when it comes to our faculty, to our staff to athletics. So when when you have a chance to look at our menu, it's really representing every single piece and corner of UNLV. And so we know that that partnership is really critical, because they might be intimidated by the name of some of those offices. So if we're able to kind of be the familiar face, and then show them, then it's really helpful. So for example, we were able to do an event with summer term. And so many students were like, wow, I would have never just reached out directly to summer term. But now we're in this kind of roundtable opportunity where we're having snacks and we're chatting, and they were able to feel a lot more comfortable asking those questions. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 28:36
Excellent. Just sitting here thinking, you know, I would definitely like to extend an invitation for you and one of your peer mentors to come back and talk to us, as you're on the show. So we definitely want to extend Oh, I would love that. Excellent. We'll talk about that off air and we'll get you booked for that. And that is a wrap for can you envy 91.5
Dr. Renee Watson 28:58
For more or less talk UNLV Be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook and let's talk about all the podcast Twitter and let's talk UNLV and Instagram and let's talk UNLV
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