FSU Chat Summary: Springing Into Action

On January 31st, New Student and Family Programs hosted an FSU Chats session titled “Springing into Action” which featured representatives from the Career Center, the Center for Leadership and Social Change, and the Academic Center for Excellence. The purpose of this chat was to provide families with resources to help their students spring back into action following winter break. The representatives shared tips that covered a wide range of topics, including preparing for a career post-graduation, how your student can get involved in the community, and different tutoring resources on campus.

Tory Dellafiora, the Senior Assistant Director of Outreach and Assessment at the Career Center, kicked off the chat with tips that will help your student prepare for their future career. The Career Center encourages every student on campus to plan ahead when it comes to finding resources and engaging with faculty at the Career Center that can help them launch their career. Students can visit advisors and counselors that will help them assess their values, interests, and skills in order to find the perfect major and career path for that individual. The Career Center also offers a career planning course—SDS 3340: Intro to Career Development—which can be taken for up to three credit hours. Students are able to gain experience through experiential learning provided by the Career Center, including internships, externships, part-time jobs and job shadowing. By engaging with experiential learning, students can develop their resumes, gain professional skills, experience interviews, etc., but they can also do these things within the Career Center through mock interviews, resume review, workshops, and more. In addition to these resources, the Career Center also houses the ProfessioNole Clothing Closet, a resource where people in the community can donate professional clothing for students in need to use at no cost. You or your student can visit the Career Center in the Dunlap Success Center on campus or find additional resources on their website at career.fsu.edu. 

David Bateman-Schieler, Program Coordinator at the Center for Leadership and Social Change, spoke next about the resources that his office has to offer. The Center for Leadership and Social Change is split into two offices: CoRE, Community-Rooted Engagement which is located in the Dunlap Success Center, and RISE, Representation, Inclusion, Student Equity which is located at The Globe. Through these offices, the Center has three main principles through which they operate: identity and inclusion, leadership, and community engagement. Under identity and inclusion, the Center hosts the Multicultural Leadership Summit and houses different agencies that help students find community and a sense of identity on campus, including the Asian-American Student Union, Black Student Union, Hispanic/Latinx Student Union, Jewish Student Union, Pride Student Union, Women Student Union, and the Veteran Student Union, all of which are operated internally. For more information on these resources, visit this page. Under leadership, Leadership LOGIC and LeaderShape are two programs that students can get involved in through the Center. Leadership LOGIC takes place at the Rez and is a peer-facilitated day-long retreat to engage in leadership development. To register for the next session happening on March 5, visit this page. For information on LeaderShape, visit this page. Under community engagement, the Center offers programs like EngageTLH and PeaceJam. For more information on these programs, visit this page.

Finally, Dr. Courtney Berry, Director of the Academic Center for Excellence, closed out the chat with information about ACE. ACE is a university learning center that focuses on helping students develop the study skills and success habits that are necessary at a large research institution that is valued by future employers. ACE offers tutoring around campus, including peer tutoring, course-based tutoring, group tutoring, study skill tutoring, and more. The main focus of ACE is to improve your student’s study habits so that they are able to develop success skills on their own that will benefit their future. In addition to tutoring, ACE offers academic consultations, workshops, studying tools and tips, study rooms with helpful resources to students, computer labs and more. For information about the Academic Center for Excellence, visit their website at ace.fsu.edu. 

New Student and Family Programs hosts FSU Chats monthly and invite partners from across campus to share information and insight to family members about how to best support their student(s) while they are here at Florida State. We are excited to be joined by Advising First and the Center for Global Engagement on February 28th to discuss changing your major and study abroad opportunities! To learn more about FSU Chats and to view all prior session recordings, check out our website at https://dsst.fsu.edu/nsfp/family/fsuchats. Be sure to be on the lookout for more information regarding this FSU Chat and all the other programs that New Student and Family Programs.