16 Fun College Orientation Activities & Icebreakers to Encourage Student Engagement in 2022!

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16 Fun College Orientation Activities & Icebreakers to Encourage Student Engagement in 2022!

For many students, college orientation can be their first experience on their own. As they embark on an exciting new journey, they are suddenly faced with some new pressures โ€” and without the familiar and structured environment of home and high school.

The obstacle? They may be feeling a little lost in a sea of new faces and places.

The good news? Campus and orientation leaders planning summer orientation can help relieve some of the pressure! By carving out time and creating opportunities for new students to be social and share more about themselves, they create a positive and welcoming atmosphere.

Why is this so important? Building campus community and cultivating a sense of belonging are critical for a studentโ€™s success and retention (especially for those at risk for dropping out).

In this article, we are exploring 16 of our favorite college orientation ideas, activities, and icebreakers to help incoming students get to know each other!

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Campus Spotlight: How MIT Sloan used CampusGroups to Host a Hackathon

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Campus Spotlight: How MIT Sloan used CampusGroups to Host a Hackathon

In early April 2022, MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan Undergraduate Education) used the CampusGroups (CG) platform to hold an Analytics Hackathon.

The event was designed to give undergraduate students exposure to data analytics. With over 60 participants, the Hackathon was a resounding success and is slated to happen annually.

To learn more about the event, I had the pleasure of speaking to the team that made it all happen. Based on this discussion, I will highlight how MIT Sloan used the CG platform to plan and hold the Hackathon.

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CampusGroups Joins Forces with Ready Education

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CampusGroups Joins Forces with Ready Education

CampusGroups has some exciting news to share! We are delighted to announce that we have now joined forces with the leading mobile-first student engagement platform in higher education-Ready Education (Ready).

This development positions us as the leader in digital student experience platforms. Together, we have over 700 campus partners and will work to help over 7 million students in 25 countries succeed.

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Team Growth: Get to Know Maria and Anthony

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Team Growth: Get to Know Maria and Anthony

At CampusGroups (CG) our team is our biggest strength. We believe in the importance of bringing people together to activate our collective potential.

This post introduces Maria Clark and Anthony Pires Jr. Below, Maria and Anthony tell us about their professional background, what brought them to CG, and what makes them tick.

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How to Enhance Your Next Alumni Event Experience

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How to Enhance Your Next Alumni Event Experience

The pandemic-era has brought monumental change to many aspects of our lives.

The way we conduct business, collaborate and engage with the world around us has changed and will continue to do so. Higher education technology for alumni engagement is no exception.

With a busy event season upon us, this is a great time to evaluate the event experience for attendees and administrators alike.

Improve your event experience using the CampusGroups mobile event app. There are many benefits for both alumni and administrators, to have a dedicated mobile-app for alumni events.

While face to face interaction will never be replaced, mobile apps enable a more engaging, sustainable event experience for attendees. They also create a more efficient event management experience, enabling staff to focus their time on engagement instead of logistics.

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That's a Wrap! CampusGroups Rendez-Vous '22 Conference Was a Hit!

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That's a Wrap! CampusGroups Rendez-Vous '22 Conference Was a Hit!

On Friday, April 8th, the CG team was beyond thrilled to host our 2nd annual virtual conference with our wonderful campus partners!

We were delighted to gather together and connect with so many creative and innovative campus leaders at CampusGroups Rendez-Vous โ€˜22! It was such a pleasure to see and hear from the incredible members of the CG community! ๐Ÿ’™

Over 400 attendees from 12 countries and 141 campuses around the globe joined us for an exciting day of discussions, inspiration, discovery and new connections!

11 presenters from 8 institutions shared creative ways they have been adapting and innovating to keep their students connected and engaged.

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How to Elevate Student Success through Mentoring

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How to Elevate Student Success through Mentoring

Iโ€™ve benefited from many great mentoring relationships throughout my career. Each relationship provided the support I needed at that life stage, helping me define and work towards personal and professional goals.

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, the benefits of mentorship are clear. Mentees โ€œperform better, advance in their careers faster, and experience more work-life satisfactionโ€. It is also important to remember that mentoring is two-sided, and that mentors also benefit from acting as a trusted advisor.

In higher education, mentoring contributes to retention and student success. However, college students donโ€™t necessarily seek out mentoring relationships or know how to establish such a connection.

Iโ€™m not sure I really knew what a mentoring relationship entailed when I was at university. My professors, parents, and friends supported. In retrospect, however, I would have benefited from the unique support a mentor provides.

To help break down some of these barriers, this article outlines what it means to be a mentor, the different types of mentors, and how to grow a mentoring relationship.

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Successfully Create Change on Campus with New Technology

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Successfully Create Change on Campus with New Technology

Change on campus is hard. You are up against decades of traditions and comfort in the norm that can be very difficult to battle. However, the world and our students are changing. Therefore, being able to create change on campus is necessary.

So how do we do it? How do we get people on board and find the time and resources to get the work done to actually make change?

I like to use John Kotterโ€™s Process for Leading Change methodology to guide me from ideation to reality. Letโ€™s take a look at the eight steps he sets out.

As we walk through each step, we will use the following example: a fictional universityโ€™s goal is to use CampusGroups to transition to paperless procedures on campus.

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