Centering student learning, fostering an authentic sense of belonging, and engaging “each of you” and “all of you” inside and outside the classroom meaningfully has been tugging at my mind and heart as the new Dean of Students at Salem.
Last week’s announcement that we will be virtual this fall semester brought a range of impacts and emotions to each of us uniquely, and all of us collectively.
Whether you are incoming as a new student or returning to Salem College, it is clear to me that we were all looking forward to joining together in community as a campus. In searching for the words to express how we will powerfully engage students this fall VIRTUALLY, I first thought of the need for compassion and care for one another, given where we find ourselves. Even when we are not sharing physical space on campus together, we can still thrive as a virtual community of learners.
Thriving in complicated and difficult circumstances calls us to learn about ourselves and the world around us. What better place to do this than as a college student with a caring and compassionate community of learners surrounding you.
Resilience is a human quality that we will be tapping into with one another, especially as we seek to be kind to ourselves, in navigating this fall together. Student development—even virtually—involves self-discovery, service to others, values clarification experiences, learning about self-agency, empowerment and change agent work in communities as you emerge as leaders in organizations and systems connected to campus and in life more broadly.
In fact, the planning teams on our campus have intentionally reshaped your learning opportunities virtually in ways I think will serve you well as we seek to thrive in difficult circumstances this fall. You can look forward to the opening events for this fall that have been specially designed to meet your virtual needs, from new student orientation and the welcome back activities for students, which will be centered around ways we can engage one another with a focus on Resilience, Compassion, Strength, and Humility as cornerstones.
Each student has a virtual team of individuals devoted to you, which has tailored your “virtual learning experiences.” Your team includes a full complement of partners including an academic advisor or your first-year seminar faculty member, new student orientation leaders, resident assistant leaders, the student government, and organization leadership.
One event I’ll draw to your attention coming up soon are the virtual watch parties for an event called “Women Take The Stage” on August 26, 2020. Centering women’s identities and empowerment, with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens is an exciting part of this national centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the legal right to vote. You will receive details soon about Salem’s virtual preview that will lead up to the beginning of the national event. This is just one example of how we will come together in community virtually at the opening of the school year.
Be sure that you also explore updates to the Salem Ready Salem Strong section of our website, and check out information on the website focused on our virtual student engagement center page, which provides resources and opportunities to connect with organizations, support services, and each other. Services like the Counseling Center are already offering teletherapy support and wellbeing programs and Chaplain services are posted on our website currently.
The Student Affairs staff have prepared virtual experiences and programs that are focused on wellness, multicultural competence, adulting in the kitchen, Netflix watch parties, and a video series entitled “This is Me,” which features your stories as students, to name a few. You will be offered skill development workshops and speakers series virtually that are focused on leadership development, multiculturalism and intercultural learning, career circles as pathways to explore career development, graduate school preparation, connections with Alumnae, employer networking and more.
You can follow along with social media, contact faculty, staff and student leaders and participate in online events already for you this fall. Together, we are #VirtuallySalem.
