Spring Update from the Student Success Center

Dear Meredith families and supporters,

Happy beautiful springtime! We in the Student Success Center hope you are doing well!

We are in the middle of our fall registration season, and each member of the Student Success Center staff from our administrative assistant to our associate director is at least partially turning her or his attention to the 2023-24 school year. Success coaches and tutors are still meeting with our students to prepare for exams in less than a month, but we are also thinking about welcoming new students and making our Meredith family even bigger and more vibrant. 

We are working with departments across campus to plan our pre-orientation StartStrong events during which our incoming class will meet with a faculty advisor serving as an enrollment counselor, their success coaches, and their student advisors. During these important days, we learn about the students’ preferences for scheduling and we help them leave their first day on campus as deposited students with a friend they can find again in August when they return. We spend all of June preparing for, hosting, and debriefing these important events for our campus.

You may remember a time in college when you stood outside the Registrar’s Office in a long line with a paper schedule, fervently hoping that the classes you wanted weren’t full yet, or you might remember setting an alarm to make sure you could register for classes online. At Meredith, all incoming freshmen are guaranteed fifteen semester hours that will help them progress toward graduation, and the Student Success Center makes that possible in the month of July by taking the information the students provide us and working with deans and department heads to create an individual schedule for every student who is starting in August. This takes a lot of time and planning, but it helps us make sure that all students have equitable access to the classes they need. The schedules aren’t set in stone though, and the students all have the chance to meet with their faculty advisor in August to make any changes that they might need.

Finally, in August we prepare for our Summer Bridge program and Orientation. The Summer Bridge program will start two weeks before classes begin and give students the chance to adjust to college life and move on to our campus early. The Student Success Center will work with faculty to make sure that these students know all about the web of support Meredith is building around them. 

You may have students working with us this summer as peer tutors, summer squad members, or bridge mentors. We rely on our students to help us create the best possible experience for our incoming class, and we hope that they are learning new things about leadership and community building from working with our office. We are so grateful to our student workers and to our student advisors and Orientation Crew members who make the transition to Meredith as wonderful as possible for all students.

It’s a full summer! And we can’t wait to work together to grow our amazing community of Meredith Angels!

As always, please email us at success@meredith.edu if you have any questions or if there is anything we can do for you or your student!