Social connections support well-being, belonging, and student success.

This week’s “Be a Strong Student” message asks students to “Make [Their] Own Community,” recognizing the multiple benefits that come from socialization and making connections with others, from general well-being to college success. Students who are connected to others feel they belong and are more successful; see more at Foster Belonging. 

For many students–such as students who are shy, who commute, who work, or who have social anxiety–making their own community by joining activities or clubs may seem daunting. For these and all of your students, your class can be a source of vital connections.

Community-building in the classroom

• Help students get to know each other through icebreakers and other activities.
• Have students form small groups of “essential friends”:
  • An essential friend (term adapted from Dr. Milton Fuentes’s concept of a “critical friend”) is someone in the class a student can contact if they miss class, for example, and who can contact them for information in turn.
• Build in activities that enable students to work with each other, from a simple, short “turn and talk” to group or team projects.
  • Try longer-term small groups or, in shifting groups, build an extra two minutes into small group work to allow students to introduce themselves.
• See Strategies For Building Community for additional suggestions.

Community Outside the Classroom

• Promote the benefits of social connection and community. Recommend that students schedule time to interact with peers as part of their time management planning.
• Remind students that community building takes different forms, from actively participating in a club to occasionally meeting with a classmate in the library to review notes.
• Recommend Engage: Engage is an involvement platform that connects students to organizations and departments, helps them learn about events, and gives them freedom to search and explore campus events, community service opportunities, academic-based clubs, social organizations, and cultural groups, among others.
• Use Engage: Promote your own event, club, or other opportunity through Engage. Simply contact your college’s Engage liaison (list forthcoming) or contact Casey Coleman, Assistant Director of Student Involvement. While reaching a potentially larger number of students, using Engage will also provide the opportunity to collect data that can be used in assessment.
• Promote events, activities, and organizations you, your department, program, or college are involved with in class or via a message to your students. Let them know what’s going on and explicitly invite them.

Last Modified: Monday, April 15, 2024 1:12 pm