Belonging Champions Program Overview
The Belonging Champions program is made up of faculty communities of transformation centered in love, dialogue, problem solving, and praxis. The program seeks to build relationships between faculty members and explore student success from the dimension of key conditions for thriving, such as belonging. Participants in these communities of transformation have the opportunity to apply easy-lift, high-impact, evidence-based practices shown to improve student belonging and success, to gather real time student feedback on the key conditions for thriving, to explore the larger contexts in which this work occurs, and to empower efforts to support student success in the classroom and beyond. All full-time and part-time faculty teaching at least one course are eligible to apply.
Key Learning Conditions
The Belonging Champions Program is centered on the seven evidence-based learning conditions that have been shown to support more equitable classroom outcomes for all students, as highlighted by the Student Experience Project:
- Social Belonging
- Trust and Fairness
- Institutional Asset Mindset
- Self-Efficacy
- Identity Safety
- Social Connectedness
- Purpose and Relevance
Expectations
The expectations for community participants are as follows:
- Availability to meet for orientation meetings and weekly community meetings.
- Willingness to implement evidence-based practices to improve belonging and student success in at least one of your concurrent semester courses.
- Use of a validated online survey tool (ASCEND) to gather formative feedback from students that can be used in real time to improve the student experience in your classes.
- Commitment to engage as a full member of a Belonging Champions community of transformation, working together to explore and confront difficult issues, sharing ideas and supporting each other in our work.
Application
Information on Summer and Fall applications coming soon!
Leadership Team
This program was developed through the collaboration of a leadership team, including Denise Bartell, Jenny Marcinkiewicz, Nicole Willey, Eric Taylor, Hayley Arnold, Charmaine Crawford, and Fancisco Torres. The program is modeled on the Equity Champions program designed by the University of Toledo.
For more information, contact one of the following:
- Denise Bartell, dbartell@kent.edu
- Jenny Marcinkiewicz, jmarcink@kent.edu
- Nicole Willey, nwilley@kent.edu
- Eric Taylor, etaylo18@kent.edu