Transition to college focus of first-year student survey

During his first year at Grand Valley, Patrick Brown said he felt homesick but a survey he took that year encouraged him to explore campus resources and get involved.

Brown, from Blissfield, Mich., became the president of his community council and has been a resident assistant for several years. As an RA, he encourages his residents in the South Apartments living centers to take the same survey.

The survey, which runs from September 16 through October 7, is through MAP-Works, an innovative, web-based program that helps to improve a student’s transition to college. First-year students are invited to complete the interactive web survey about support services offered at Grand Valley.

“We learned a lot in the past five years about what our students are looking for on campus,” said Nancy Giardina, vice provost for Student Success. “We have been able to tweak some of our student support services and resources to provide better service to students.”

When students complete the survey, faculty and staff members are given feedback and advisors may follow up, one-on-one with individual students after viewing their responses.

Brown said it’s a great self assessment tool for a student to evaluate how they feel they are succeeding as a student and provide feedback for Grand Valley. “It’s an easy 20-30 minutes that can help connect a student to campus in so many ways,” he said.