Project 3: “Moving Away to College” Parent Workshop

Narrative

One of my favorite parent workshops that I have had the opportunity to take part in has been one that focuses on informing parents about college options away from home for their students and preparing them for it. I really enjoy this workshop because I plan and facilitate it, but I do very little talking on my own. Instead, I call on recent "parent experts" in this area. Since many of my students are the first in their families to attend college, many parents do not know enough about moving away and are hesitant to let their children do so. For this year's workshop I organized a panel mostly made up of parents of my graduates from the class of 2012 who are currently attending college away from home.

I put together a short Powerpoint presentation and prepared the parents on the panel ahead of time, however the majority of the workshop consisted of parents in attendance asking the parents on the panel questions. The discussion that followed was very meaningful to all in attendance.

Reflections on Leadership

As mentioned, this is one of my favorite opportunities to interact with parents. I was surprised how many parents were actually open to the idea of their children going away to college if that is what they decided. I was not surprised, however, how little parents know about college and moving away. For me, this workshop has been a learning experience because I always learn so much about the parents when they return to talk about their children in college. It helps me to speak to parents in the future about how recent graduates and their parents are experiencing college. However, I feel as though it is an even bigger learning experience for the parents in attendance. I think that one of the points that was stressed most was how much support and how many resources students have when they go away to college. Another point that was emphasized, which I think a lot of parents in attendance appreciated haring from the parents on the panel was how much parents are able to see their students mature when they are forced to be on their own in college, which is something that most parents fear. Below is some data I gathered from the pre and post workshop surveys.

As with all activities that call for parent engagement, I learned that I need to do a better job of getting parents to attend. Unfortunately, only about 16 parents attended, which surprisingly is up from the 7 that attended a similar workshop last year. One possible solution to have more parents attend would be to schedule some alternate dates. In addition, I will be adding the information that was covered to our school website.

CSPEL Standards

Standards 1.2, 1.3 - I met this standard by creating and implementing a specific activity that was geared directly at the vision of preparing students (and their families) for college. Many times one of the barriers preventing first-generation college students from attending college is their parents' lack of knowledge and/or support. This workshop was aimed at eliminating that barrier. I used the resources at my school, predominantly parents or recent graduates and technology in my presentation.

Standard 2.1 - This standard was met because I'm trying to create a culture where all parents understand the college system, especially as it applies to moving away. Some students do not attend college simply because their parents are misinformed. To increase equity, I have attempted to inform as many parents as possible about all of their options.

Standard 4.1 - I am most proud meeting this standard, as I brought in community members (parents of recent graduates) to be the experts on this topic. Their personal experiences and stories are much more valuable and meaningful to their fellow parents than anything I could say. The parent panelists were proud to sare their stories and experiences and it was clear that they were very proud of their children. Parents in attendance ere very thankful and some panelists gave me a hard time for not organizing a similar panel for them a few years ago when they were stressing out about the possibilities of letting their children move away to college.

Standard 5.1 - I met this standard by looking at how I had previously tried to communicate this information to parents and being more creative in my approach. I know that I still have a lot to grow personally, in how I engage parents, however this workshop engaged more parents than ever before. Additionally, in previous workshops, I have simply presented information. This times around I used pre and post surveys to see how much growth I saw in parents. More importantly, I allowed parents to provide feedback on how I can improve my message in the future. I will incorporate this feedback when I conduct this workshop again next year.

Standard 6.2 - By hosting this workshop, I was able to engage and interact with quite possibly the second most important stakeholders after the students, which are the parents. By acting as the facilitator of this workshop, the expert parents were providing the message, not the school. Additionally, I was able to gather valuable information from the parent panelists on how we could improve our practices as a school to help better prepare parents such as themselves for their students' college journeys.

Supporting Documents

I used this flier to publicize the event. It was posted around campus, on the school website, and was sent home in communication envelopes to parents.

These are the surveys I used before and after this workshop.

The Powerpoint presentation that I used included some basic tips from me, then it introduced each of the parents on the panel, their students, and included the guiding questions.