About the Conference
In 2023, the FYE crew at Southern was looking for a way to connect with local FYE colleagues at Connecticut colleges and universities. We were in touch with some friends, but we knew there were many more out there who were building or re-imagining FYE programs, and we wanted to hear from them.
So, we did what all good educators do, we asked for some money to host them by writing a Faculty Development Grant. Luckily, it was granted, and we sent out emails. To our surprise, we ended up welcoming over 70 colleagues from 20 Connecticut colleges and universities, as well as friends from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey.
We were able to offer 16 exciting presentations and workshops from colleagues at seven different institutions, including public and private universities, as well as the community college, on topics that included in-and-out of classroom experiences, practices, initiatives, and ideas related to supporting and educating first-year students.
The diversity of our presenters and attendees reflected the core of our FYE program at Southern, which we built with the intention to find a way include everyone who wanted to be included – including faculty and student affairs professionals; enrollment management administrators and Academic Advisors, as well as students, and others.
For us, the experience was powerful. We learned a lot, laughed some, and truly enjoyed every conversation. For this reason, we knew we had to make this an annual thing.
We also learned, in 2023, that the conference organizers were spending nearly all of their time attempting to use the Hi-flex technology so that some colleagues could attend remotely, and that, even after all the time spent, it was glitchy. For this reason, we decided to move fully on ground for 2024. I guess you could say that like our first-year students, we just want to be face-to-face again while learning from each other.
We hope you’ll join us this year!