New But Not: Supporting Sophomores in 2021
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Get connected: This year’s sophomore class may need additional resources and more support after a remote freshman year.
New But Not: Supporting Sophomores in 2021
My sophomore year was hard. I had just been dumped by my boyfriend, which meant I needed to find a whole new friend group. I was transitioning into my role as an RA and trying to get more involved with organizations on campus. I felt pressured to declare a major and wasn’t sure what my career path would be.
But I had been on campus before. I knew my way to most of my classes and I knew which dining halls had the best food. I had already survived my first year in a residence hall and developed study techniques that didn’t require parental encouragement.
This year’s sophomores, however, may have missed out on the traditional new student experience last year, due to Covid and remote or hybrid settings. Starting this fall, they will face all of the decision-making associated with being a second-year college student as well as many of the traditional challenges of freshman year. They are making decisions about their careers, learning more about their own identities, and getting acclimated to a new campus and lifestyle.
As a field, we’ve researched the experiences of sophomores and grappled with the best ways to support them for years. Now it’s time to stop grappling and increase our support efforts as we have a class of sophomores who are facing the most challenges yet.
Understanding the Sophomore Experience in 2021 and Beyond:
Sophomore year is a time for intellectual change. We know from Molly Schaller’s work that sophomore students are focused on their self-view, their personal relationships, and their academic decisions. They are trying to define their identities and determine how their strengths fit into their relationships and career goals. They move from exploration to commitment at different paces throughout the year. And they are not always well connected to the resources available to assist with all of that transition.
This year, many sophomores are stepping onto campus for the first time. Their college experience has consisted of a laptop in their childhood home for the past year and now they are moving out and moving on. But how can we help them commit the campus map to memory while also trying to discover themselves and make plans for the future?
Recommendations:
Since this year’s sophomores are facing some of the same challenges as most freshmen, we’ve borrowed some of our ideas from our recent post about Supporting First Year Students. Some of the other recommendations are based on research about the sophomore year of college.
Normalize the Challenges They May Face
Sophomores often go into the year without the realization that they will face some unique obstacles. Some students may have heard of the “sophomore slump,” but they may not be aware that their experiences will be vastly different from that of their first year. This year’s students will obviously be aware that traveling across campus with all of their books will be a different experience than doing all of their coursework from their bedroom in pajamas. However, they may not know about all of the intellectual challenges that sophomore students routinely face.
In 2007, the National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition first administered the Sophomore Experiences Survey. Of the 2,856 students surveyed, 83.1% Agreed or Strongly Agreed with the statement “I like to learn about myself.” This indicates that if you share with these students what they might be feeling or might experience over the next several months, they will be a captive audience. This might be in the form of a session during a mini-orientation. It might be a video shared by the President to those in the Sophomore Class.
When I was a Residence Hall Coordinator, I held separate floor and building meetings for sophomores at the beginning of each year to share some information and resources with them about their unique challenges. There are many ways to share the message, but it will help to validate their experiences and provide resources before students need them.
Train Campus Leaders
It will also be helpful to encourage Student Leaders and Staff members to pay close attention to sophomores this year. You likely have support systems in your community who have not yet thought about this year’s sophomores and their journey to campus this semester. Help them to think about the challenges of any sophomore year, and then put that into context for 2021.
This year’s sophomores, in many ways, are used to being left alone. Many of them weren’t able to have the prom or graduation ceremonies they pictured when they graduated from high school at the height of 2020 lockdowns. Then they went through their first year of college via a screen. It’s important that we encourage all of our staff members to give them a bit of TLC and offer them as much focus as we can.
Offer Dedicated Outreach and Programming
Many campuses already offer Supportive Resources and Dedicated Outreach to their sophomores. Some campuses have Sophomore Living Communities or summer programs dedicated to sophomore students. If you are a campus that already has dedicated programming for students, ensure that this year’s programming looks different to support the fact that this year’s second year students are different.
Not only do you need to help them through making decisions about their academics, their relationships, and themselves, you must help them acclimate to campus culture. It will be imperative that you teach them strategies for in-classroom learning on a college campus and help them find personal motivation techniques.
If you are a campus that does not already have dedicated sophomore programming, or would like to expand upon it, look at your First-Year programming and see if any of it can be modified for this population. Perhaps you can create an online orientation for family members or host specific activities for families of sophomore students during Family Weekend.
Then look to resources that you already have on campus for sophomores and find ways to ensure that students know about them. You might also consider a mentorship program so that other Upperclassmen can assist your sophomores this year.
Get them Involved
In most years, second year college students will start making more commitments to on-campus jobs and student organizations. However, for many of this year’s sophomores, this might be their first opportunity to learn about some of the clubs they have been interested in or apply for jobs on campus. Find ways to encourage involvement.
Encourage Student Leaders to get sophomore students out of their rooms to attend an Involvement Fair. Send specialized messaging to sophomores about the importance of getting involved and how it might help them both personally and academically.
Ensure that advisors to sophomores talk with them about their academic plans and interests as well as their goals outside of the classroom. The more sophomores are involved, the sooner they will start to feel at home on campus and the more support they will have as they navigate the year.
If I could go back to my sophomore year, I would probably tell myself to enjoy it more and stress less. But I didn’t have the stress of a pandemic or learning a new campus. We need to find ways to help this year’s sophomores feel comfortable and safe enough to grow personally and academically.
Many campuses are already considering some sort of Orientation for this year’s sophomores. This is an excellent start and a way to help students find their way on campus. Now let’s look even deeper and help these students find their home on campus. Let’s find ways to give them the message that what they are facing is difficult and in some ways unprecedented, but they have a network of support on campus and many peers who feel the same way.
About Bridget:
I have a Masters Degree in Higher Education Administration and worked on campuses in Student Affairs for seven years. Now, as a Campus Success Associate at CampusGroups, I am excited to assist and inspire other Student Affairs professionals as they meet their goals. I am passionate about helping students to effectively engage in their university communities!
Are you a campus leader guiding students on a pathway to success? Reach out to learn more about using CampusGroups to support your student engagement goals. We’d love to hear from you!
