Paul Szmal: Good morning 836, it's FLX Morning Wednesday, it's guest-o-rama edition, all four slots are filled today and it's time for Scholastically Speaking with FLCC. We are Zooming today with Sarah Whiffen, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at the college, and Nyssa Youngren, who's the Assistant Director of a new program called ASAP that we're going to learn about. Good morning you both.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Good morning. It's great to have you here.
Paul Szmal: I want to start with you, Sarah, and just talk about have the obstacles between students and success changed over the years or have they changed since the pandemic?
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: They absolutely have. We have seen a much higher increase in student basic needs support, so students who need assistance with securing housing, transportation, adequate food. We also know that they, coming directly from high school specifically, are still lagging behind in their academic progress, so they need additional assistance with tutoring or ensuring that they understand systems. And so it absolutely has continued to grow that need and that is why this program is so exciting. And we're going to talk about advancing success and Associate Pathways called ASAP. So is there one or two key things you've identified that if students get, their chance of success goes way up?
Yes, two things. First is if they have someone on campus that they have a connection with, they are much more likely to remain enrolled because they have their questions answered. And two, if someone can intervene earlier and often in a student's career, we can keep them on the path to success.
Paul Szmal: So tell us a little bit about this ASAP program and then we'll dive into the details with Nyssa.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Sure, such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having us. The SUNY ASAP program began in 2007 in the CUNY schools and this is a replication of that great program. Since 2007 in the CUNY schools there has been more than a hundred thousand students served and they discovered that students were graduating at twice the rate as similar students. And so in the spring when Governor Hochul set aside 75 million dollars for her transformational fund very graciously, we have been fortunate enough to take advantage of that. 25 schools, four-year and two-year SUNY schools, benefited from that fund and we were able to replicate the program from the CUNY schools.
So ASAP is open to any students who qualify for a federal Pell Grant or a TAP grant. And one of the things that's great about this is direct payment of cash for $1,150 to take care of some of those side things. Because if your mind is on finding housing or your car breaking down or getting a babysitter, it's hard to have your mind on academic success.
Paul Szmal: That's exactly right Ted. That is a primary goal of this program is just taking the top layer of stress out of a student's life and that helps them help propel academics and gives them a sense of belonging, just takes away some of their worries so they can focus on school.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: So this started as a pilot program last academic year covering 34 students. Now you're up to 150. I would imagine that people when they hear about this are saying, wow, this is just what I needed.
Yeah, it's my colleague Bryce and I have now had, we were just counting it up, we've now had over 125 individual meetings with students since beginning of this the school year. And it has been such a pleasure to not only meet them as people but to also feel how the gratitude and appreciation they have for being a part of this. Simply having someone to come to to know that there's a specific person that they can ask a question of instead of having to navigate the community college to figure out who they need to ask that question of has been extraordinary. And as Sarah mentioned, simply having some cash to buy groceries and to be able to get here and know that they can get here has been an amazing lift for them.
Paul Szmal: And one of the things I know that you found over the years is that it can be particularly tough for first-generation college students because they don't have anybody in the family to serve as a guide or a mentor.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Yes, that's absolutely something that we're finding. They just don't have someone who knows how to answer questions or to help them, to share with them what comes up as a college student They simply, so many of us simply don't know what we don't know. So having somebody to help them has been an enormous gift.
Paul Szmal: And lest anyone think this is just free money for students, talk about the requirements on the student side because they have to keep up their work and they have to have meetings with a coach.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Yeah, absolutely. They have to be full-time students so they need to be earning 12 credits or more and they have to make connections with Bryce or I at least twice a month. They also are required to participate in three events throughout the year and these events can can be anything that helps propel their professional career or academic well-being. So it should be something that's absolutely appropriate to their trajectory. So no hoop jumping, trying to help them connect with resources and across campus and what's available to them. So these are the things that we know because of the track record of this program, we know helps connect them to college and helps them continue their academic momentum.
Paul Szmal: We're talking this morning with Sarah Whiffen, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at FLCC and Nissa Youngren, who's Assistant Director of the ASAP program, Advancing Success in Associate Pathways. And a big part of this program is to help the students when it comes time to discuss transferring to a four-year school or going into a career. So how do you help students make good decisions in that regard?
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Sure, yeah, well FLCC is lucky enough to have a great academic advising and transfer and career service department and so we are literally across the hall from them and we all work closely together to make sure that we know what opportunities are arriving on campus and to connect people with the appropriate folks so they can find internships, they can find jobs, they know how to set themselves up well for transferring to a four-year institution, they know what schools are out there and what might meet their needs academically and to accommodate their lifestyle. Many of our students are online, don't live right here, they have families, they have jobs and so their needs are vast and we have a whole net of folks that we can connect them with to make sure that those needs are met.
Paul Szmal: You have some success stories from your first group of students and it's really interesting because some of these obstacles seem so simple but they can seem insurmountable to a student.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Yeah, that is absolutely right and I am humbled by so many of the family situations of these students but we have the gamut of life experience, we have people of all ages, people who have all different family configurations so recently we onboarded a young woman who is the mother of a four-year-old and she has been away from school and they're in the midst of adopting children into their family. It's just kind of extraordinary that she's carving out time at all to go to school and she, by being able to offer her money for groceries, we all got teary. The appreciation is so vast. It's just kind of extraordinary, all the different folks, all the things people are contending with in their lives and their desire to go forward with school and achieve their goals and dreams.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you had one student in the conservation program who didn't have the appropriate outdoor gear, clothing and tents and things to do outdoor activities.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Yeah, and I think that this is one of the unique things about this program because it's not just a scholarship where a student is getting money for tuition and cost of attendance, fees and such, but it's a recognition that students have barriers that many of us don't even, it doesn't even occur to us that a student might not be able to participate, so they might not show up for a class or an activity because they don't have the things we, so many of us are privileged to take for granted. So this student may very well have appeared to be absent and not dedicated to her program because she didn't show up to a necessary part of the course and that was simply an outdoor activity and she didn't have boots, she didn't have mittens, this was an overnight trip, she didn't have a sleeping bag, so she just wouldn't have gone and had nothing to do with her desire to learn or be a part of the program.
Paul Szmal: Tell us about the Brightway Foundation which is supporting this ASAP program.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Yeah, the Brightway is a private foundation that we have been lucky enough to work with and they have a specific focus on students who are parents and they are offering to support, to pay the family contribution for families who have children who are receiving child care assistance money through the Office of Children and Family Services, they will pay the family portion of that and also uniquely they have a emergency fund open to parents, so not only does FLCC have an emergency fund to help with unexpected things that come up that are unexpected and cannot be covered by the regular budget, but these parents have the opportunity to apply for an emergency fund to make sure that they can overcome barriers that arise.
Paul Szmal: So Sarah, there must be some lessons that you can take from this program in your everyday duties in your office, just helping all students.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Absolutely, so one of the the wonderful privilege we've had is as we've been trying to fill the 150 students as I'm talking to a student about a particular event or something that's transpiring, I'm able to kind of look at them and offer this and walk them over and say you I think you you qualify, which is a bridge that we haven't had before, so faculty and staff as they're working with students are able to identify maybe this student is someone who can take advantage of the ASAP program. You know it is, to some of your conversation, the basic needs piece is huge and just taking away some of those barriers of do I have to get gas today or do I, you know, do I miss class has been huge, so as a student's talking, you know, we ask them those questions, we give them a cell phone carrier for minutes so that they can keep their phone active. It's just those little things that are really making the big difference.
Paul Szmal: Boy, it sure is. Advancing Success and Associate Pathways, ASAP is the program through the SUNY system and you can find out more about it go to flcc.edu and just in the search box type in ASAP and you'll see all about the program. We've been talking with Sarah Whiffen, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at FLCC and Nissa Youngren, Assistant Director of ASAP. I love doing these segments because I'd learn about these neat things. That's such a great program. Thanks for sharing it with us today.
Sarah Wiffen, Nissa Youngren: Thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
