First-year experience support at Clark ‘setting the standard for excellence’

The LEEP Center advising model at Clark University recently was recognized by the National Resource Center with the annual Institutional Excellence for Students in Transition Award.

The National Resource Center annually honors “institutions that have designed and implemented outstanding collaborative initiatives enhancing significant transitions during the undergraduate experience” and which demonstrate “the effectiveness of the initiative in supporting student success, learning, and development at a variety of transition points beyond the first college year.”

“I am so proud of the LEEP Center offices and staff for being recognized with this award. The LEEP Center advising model is a truly holistic and developmental approach to student professional development. It integrates best practices and key insights from the areas of academic advising, experiential learning, and career counseling in a manner that supports Clark’s LEEP approach to undergraduate education,” said Michelle Bata, Associate Dean and Director of the LEEP Center.

As a dynamic resource for Clark students, LEEP advisers collaborate with academic and University offices, employers, community and institutional partners, alumni, and families to connect students with life-changing opportunities and prepare them to become informed contributors in an ever-changing global society.

The LEEP Center at Clark connects students with, and prepares them for, transformative experiences that can be leveraged for future opportunities. LEEP Center offices and programs offer holistic advising, a range of pre-professional and civic opportunities, and a variety of resources and services designed to foster capacities of effective practice in an effort to prepare students for life after Clark.

Clark University’s LEEP Center advising model is one of only two institutions to receive the 2016 Excellence for Students in Transition Award; the other is the Educational Opportunity Programs at Goodwin College.

The National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition is committed to setting the standard for excellence in supporting students at critical junctures in the educational pipeline. A national panel composed of current and former members of the Advisory Board of the National Resource Center and other leaders in American higher education who are champions for students in transition reviewed nominations.

Pictured, above, are  LEEP Center staff members, from left: Kristina Nguyen, Jessica Bane Robert, Michelle Bata, Vickie Cox-Lanyon, Brian Hanna, Adriane van Gils-Pierce, Connie Whitehead Hanks, and Andrea Tymeson.