"College Success" Supplemental Content: Actionable Steps

Actionable Steps:

Use your resources; remove unnecessary barriers.

While effective learning brings growing pains, characteristics such as your race, gender, or sexual orientation should never be barriers to academic success. Perhaps you tried to attribute your exam failure to factors in your control, but ultimately recognized it was partly due to racial discrimination. If this is the case, reach out. There is hope. Snow College has several resources to help every student thrive, including those with disabilities.
- - Disability Services. Links to an external site. The Office of Disability Services is designed to provide all individuals with disabilities appropriate academic adjustments, reasonable accommodations, and/or auxiliary aids when and where necessary. The office provides services and accommodations to all Snow College students who have a current and documented disability that limits one or more major life activities including, but not limited to walking, talking, seeing, hearing, and learning.
  - Counseling and Wellness Center. Links to an external site. The Snow College Mental Health Counseling and Wellness Center offers numerous services to help students with the challenges of life that can occur while attending college. These include anxiety, depression, stress, and other emotional, mental, and situational issues. They offer individual, group, and relationship counseling by state-licensed mental health professionals. It is their goal to support each student in their quest to obtain a college education by providing individual short-term interventions.
  - Title IX Office. Links to an external site. Snow College prohibits any form of sexual discrimination or sexual harassment, which includes but is not limited to acts or attempts of dating and relationship violence, domestic violence, discrimination or hostile environment based on sex, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender, sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and stalking. If you have questions about Title IX or concerns about possible discrimination based on sex or gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, or sexual misconduct, please contact their office.
Research the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Links to an external site.. What qualified (documented) impairments are listed? Do you qualify for academic accommodations?
Interview a professor. Arrange to meet with one of your professors outside of class at a time that is convenient for you both, perhaps during his or her office hours. Before you go, you should put together a few questions to ask that will help you learn about this campus "native." Think up questions that will get at what makes this person tick, why they do what they do, why they require that you complete certain assignments in a particular way, etc. Don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions that encourage deep thought, such as "What do you mean by that? Would you give me an example? Would you do anything differently?" Don't take notes during your meeting (and don't bring your phone), just listen closely. After your interview tell a friend or classmate what you learned to appreciate, admire, or respect about your professor. What else did you learn?
Job shadow someone who works on campus. Ask someone who works on campus (a professor or staff member—not a student worker) if you can tag along with them for part of a day and observe them at work. Try to arrange for a whole morning or afternoon (3-4 hours) if you can. You don't have to interact with this person or their peers during your observation, just watch closely what they do. Don't record them. In fact, leave your phone home. What do you notice about how they interact with other "natives"? How do they interact with "foreigners" (students)? What rituals or customs are unfamiliar to you? How do they feel about their work? How can you tell? After your observation tell a friend or classmate what you learned to appreciate, admire, or respect about this employee. What else did you learn?
Campus Research. After you have been on campus for at least a couple of weeks, identify a policy, procedure, (classroom) activity, or assignment that you would like to understand better. Identify the person in charge of that policy, procedure, activity, or assignment and approach them respectfully to ask about the rationale and process behind it. If you have a suggestion for improvement, ask this person if they would be willing to hear your ideas. After your conversation tell a friend or classmate what you learned to appreciate or respect about this policy, procedure, activity, or assignment. What else did you learn?
The "Top Secret Notecard" Study Guide. A concept coined by Nick Marsing, this is similar to a regular notecard that you might use to study, but it implements some of the components of metacognition that was discussed in "Thinking about Thinking about Your Success." Just making this can help you study, but having someone quiz you on it can deepen your understanding.
1. Example: