If you’re looking to get involved and connected from your first week at AUS, you’ll want to learn more about the fantastic workshops available in the ASC. This episode gives a sneak peek into all that you can gain from attending workshops- including resume boosters and other incentives!
Ms Rama’s Workshop Recs:
Ms. Erica’s Workshop Recs:
Follow @asc.aus
Erica: You’re listening to FYE Chats, an AUS podcast, where we have candid conversations with fellow AUSers who want to see you thrive during your first year. Today, we’re chatting with the Academic Support Center outreach coordinator about the amazing variety of workshops offered to students at AUS. Ms. Rama is one of my close friends. She is passionate about making learning fun and I am SO excited to have her on our show today.
Welcome to the show, Rama!
Thank you so much for having me here!
Erica: Most of our listeners have not attended any workshops as of yet, so let’s start with the basics. What happens during a workshop?
Rama: Okay..so! Let me start off by saying that our workshops are open to all AUS students and our mission is to provide them with interactive opportunities to learn about, develop and master fundamental concepts for academic learning and lifelong success.
Almost all of our workshops are hosted by our ASC advisors, sometimes co-hosted by our awesome Peer Advisors. Workshops usually start off with a fun activity or an ice-breaker and then we go on to presenting the workshop material. Sometimes there are group-work opportunities with other workshop attendees, which means there is always an opportunity for some new friendships to be made!
After the workshop, we usually share with the students who attended a fun Kahoot activity to review what was shared in the session along with a feedback form because we always love to hear back from the students.
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell!
Erica: Love that. They really are so much fun- and a great way to make new friends and develop some soft skills. Which brings me to my next question- What types of workshops do you offer?
Rama: We actually offer a wide variety of workshops, around 29 different topics to be exact. WOW! The workshops fall under four themes: Aus Essentials, Self-Care, Time Management and Study Skills. So the topics that fall under these themes range from things like time management solutions and resolutions, to learning how to say no guilt free….to things like public speaking, how to work well in a group and how to take notes in class. We have a list of all our workshops on our webpage (www.aus.edu/student-success-workshops) if anyone is interested in checking them out. You can also just go to google and type AUS Student Success Workshops and it should take you to that page!
Erica: Perfect. I’ll link that page in our show notes, for those interested. Of course, we know that students will be pretty busy when they start at university. Why would you recommend first-year students prioritize these workshops?
Rama: Well, when I think back to my first-year experience...I think about some of the challenges I faced coming into university such as not knowing how to manage all that free time on my schedule, managing my life as an adult, not realizing how much I procrastinated and why, getting lost with all the college lingo….honestly, the list can go on and on. When I look at the workshops that we offer, I realize how different my first year experience would have been had I attended workshops that addressed these common first year experience challenges. They would have saved me so much time and frustration. These workshops are set to provide students with most of the tools they would need throughout their university life and beyond actually...they help provide that framework for success.
Erica: Well, you’ve convinced me! Those sound like really meaningful reasons to join. For those still skeptical...are there any other incentives?
Rama: Of course! We actually have a certificate program for students who are interested in earning certificates during their university experience.
Basically, there are 3 different types of certificates. The Limited First Year Pathway, the Advanced certificate and the Expert certificate. The Limited First Year Experience Pathway is limited to first years. First Year Students would need to complete four different workshops or projects with different learning outcomes. For the Advanced certificate, students would need to attend 10 different workshops. And for the Expert certificate, students would need to attend 16 different workshops. To summarize, for the first year experience pathway, students would have to complete the requirements during their first year. However, for the advanced and expert, students can complete the requirements throughout their time at AUS. If you’re working towards a certificate and you’re listening to this podcast, please make sure you’re keeping track of the workshops you are attending and make sure you are attending different ones!
Erica: That’s so great. So they can have a certificate on their resume before they finish their first semester! That’s awesome. How can students make the most of the workshops the Academic Support Center offers?
Rama: Well, I would encourage students at the beginning of the semester to check out our workshop schedule and plug in the ones they are interested in to their calendar right away. Most of our workshops are offered more than once during the semester, but some are offered only once so it’s always good to plan ahead. If you do not have a calendar or a planner - I will let you know from now….the first step to becoming better at managing your time, is to have some sort of planner or a calendar.
If you are not able to plan ahead, that’s okay!The ASC has an awesome google calendar setup that you can upload on to your gmail calendar. If you’re unsure how to do that, reach out to us at the ASC and we can help you navigate that. That way, you will always know when a workshop is happening and you can attend one during your free time.
My final piece of advice to make the most of our workshops is to attend the workshops on time and in full. While you’re at the workshop, I would encourage you to always have a pen and a paper handy to make notes as our advisors and peer advisors conducting these workshops are giving amazing advice and we can’t always depend on our memory to save these!
Erica:Those suggestions are so helpful. May especially the one about having a calendar or planner- I’ll just re-emphasize that if you go ahead and get one now, you’ll already be setting yourself up for success.
Erica: Now, because we have the workshop coordinator here with us, I have to ask. Ms. Rama, what is YOUR all-time favorite workshop and why?
Rama Ooooh...that’s a tough question because I love all our workshops and the all ASC
Advisors give such awesome workshops! I don’t think I
can choose one...maybe I can do 2. Can I do 2?
Erica: How about you tell us about one of them, then I’ll link the other one in our show notes.
The first one would be the “Ready, Set, Goal” workshop. That workshop is all about goal setting and motivation. I love breaking down the characteristics of a SMART goal and then working with the group on creating some personal SMART goals. The motivation part is also super fun because we get to talk about all these different motivation strategies and share all these famous success and failure stories.
Erica: For those wondering, my personal favorite i sone that Ms. Rama facilitates is “Public Speaking is a Piece of Cake.” It is so engaging and she does such a great job. You’ll also find that she weaves in clips of favorite tv shows and those are always such a fun surprise.
Rama: I would tell our first-years to keep an open mind and an open heart for all the adventures they are about to embark on throughout their university experience. I would remind them and encourage them and remind them to always DREAM BIG and to set regular goals that will bring them closer to their dreams.
Erica: Absolutely! It makes me excited just thinking about all of the opportunities that these students have awaiting them!
Thank you so much for your insight and information about workshops today- I’m sure that our audience is already looking forward to meeting you.
Erica: I hope you enjoyed chatting with Ms. Rama today. We’ll link the resources mentioned to our show notes. Be sure to follow us @ausfye for updates on resources and services like these. Thanks so much for listening to our show. See you next time, on FYE Chats.