In this episode, we explore the New Vol Experience at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an innovative approach to supporting first-year student transition and success. This program guides new students through a multi-phase onboarding journey, from online orientation and academic advising to the six-week Big Orange Welcome experience and a first-year success course. The conversation highlights how extending welcome programming beyond a traditional orientation week helps students build connections, discover campus resources, and develop a strong sense of belonging. With more than 600 events coordinated across campus and impressive student outcomes, the New Vol Experience demonstrates how intentional, sustained engagement can transform the first-year transition and set students up for long-term success.

In this episode, we explore Purdue Global’s Best in Class Basic Needs Support Badging Program, an innovative approach to building a campus-wide culture of care for students facing non-academic challenges. Designed for a large population of working adult learners, the program empowers faculty and staff to identify students struggling with issues such as food insecurity, housing instability, and other basic needs, and connect them with trained Student Success Coaches. Through a four-tier badging system (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum), participants progressively deepen their engagement, from learning how to recognize and refer students in need to actively championing support initiatives across the institution. The conversation highlights how a relatively low-cost, scalable program can mobilize an entire campus community to support student well-being and success, while fostering a culture where basic needs support truly becomes everyone’s responsibility.

What do you do when you know a First-Year Experience course improves student success, but you don’t have the funding or institutional support to build one? In this episode, we explore an innovative workaround born from a simple idea: Thor’s Hammer of Knowledge.

This conversation covers how Susan Merrill and colleagues from Southern Utah University highlights created a low-cost workshop series designed to connect students with campus resources before they realize they need them. We discuss the power of proactive outreach, building belonging outside the classroom, and how small incentives (food, fun, and community) can drive meaningful engagement.

Join us as we unpack the results, lessons learned, and how this model might inspire new approaches to student success on your own campus.