The Lion's Roundtable (Guest: Mindy Notariano)
Download MP3Good day. This is Amber Narro on KSLUs ninety point nine FM, The Lion. I am here at the Lion's Roundtable today with my friend, Mindy Notariano. She's gonna talk to us today about first year success and in all things, students coming from high school to the big world of college. Welcome, Mindy.
Mindy Notariano:Hey, Doctor. Narro. Thank you so much for having me.
Amber Narro:You're call me Amber. I'm gonna call you Mindy.
Mindy Notariano:Alright.
Amber Narro:Sounds good. Just like at school. So very good. Good to see you. Alright.
Amber Narro:So first year success. What is this? We're gonna get to know you a little bit later in the show as well, but tell me what first year success is.
Mindy Notariano:Alright. So first year success is our first year advising center at Southeastern. The nice thing about Southeastern is we have an entire unit dedicated to helping students who are transitioning into their first year of college, coming from high school to college, or whatever their previous experience is, but having that first year experience. And so what we do in First Year Success is we teach our First Year Success course which we have different versions of that. We have our advising and our advisors in that department are connected with the course so we really try to be intentional about connecting the student to a person, an advisor in that first year that understands our first year students' needs.
Amber Narro:So the advisor actually teaches the course then?
Mindy Notariano:Correct, so there's a connection between the instructor for that course and the advising. So we do everything related to that transition to college.
Amber Narro:Now when you say advising, what does that mean?
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. So, you know, I think we probably can think back to some of our experience with advising. I know me. I don't want give my age away, but my experience with advising It's
Amber Narro:the same as mine, so I won't say.
Mindy Notariano:You go and pick out your classes and then you go and get your hold lifted and on your way. What we think of with advising in our unit is more holistic, you know, it's looking at the full student. What are the students needs or challenges, helping them to understand their degree and their progression to being able to get to their goal which is ultimately graduation, but helping them to kind of navigate through that to be able to make a straight path toward that goal.
Amber Narro:Nice. When you are in high school, just for those of you who may have not gone to college or or this might be your first time coming to college, when you're in high school, you typically get your schedule on the first day. Right? Or a week out, you can kinda see what your schedule is. And you're you might be stuck with it.
Amber Narro:Right? Mhmm. Here, though, the big thing is when your student moves from high school into college, you might get your schedule, but the issue is is you can change that schedule if you want to. You are an adult. You may take the classes that do not even apply to your degree.
Amber Narro:This is why an adviser is so important. Right?
Mindy Notariano:Right. Correct. You know? And and I can speak to my own experience. You know, I really didn't know how to college coming in.
Mindy Notariano:I was a first generation college student.
Amber Narro:Same year.
Mindy Notariano:So, you know, I took a lot of classes. Even though I got
Amber Narro:a class I'm saying good luck with that.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. I went and scheduled whatever I wanted and it took me longer to graduate, you know, because of it and I think that informs what I do a lot because I don't want students to make those same mistakes. Yes, they can change and do anything they want to, but there's a reason why we're helping them to guide them along the path that's going to get them to their goal. So yeah, they can go and change it just like I did and take whatever they want, but it might take them longer to get to that goal.
Amber Narro:Right. Thank you for saying that. Last year, I just want to kind of explain how the process was this year versus last year. Last year, students would meet with an adviser. They'd sit down with them.
Amber Narro:Large amount of that time was spent with trying to explain to students how to use the systems, how to navigate their schedules, how to, log in for crying out loud, whatever it was. Right? But this year what we did was went in and did a step ahead of that where we gave them a schedule based on the information that we had about that student. We surveyed them ahead of time and said, do you have any commitments outside of this that we need to know about? Number one, are you bringing in dual enrollment credit if we may not have seen that post yet?
Amber Narro:Because sometimes it takes a minute for us to get that information from high schools or from from wherever they're coming from that they've got prior credit, and we wanted to make sure that they had everything in that schedule that they needed. I was one of the advisors in in the group. The the student would get their schedule and they can they can now, if they think that they've got credits on there or something hasn't posted, they can call and those check those schedules can be changed.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah.
Amber Narro:I do want to explain to parents, if you are helping with your students and their schedules, I would very much encourage them to contact their advisers before they make changes there to make sure it's very important that we see those, credits that have come in because that might keep them from registering for a class. It's very important that we know what's what they're changing to so that we can give them advice that maybe a class that they're changing to right now is going to affect something in the future because of the way that course is offered in the future, you know, or that it might not be offered in the spring for you to take it. It's better for you to wait and take it in the spring so that you take it immediately after in the fall. Whatever it is, timing is an issue. We know those things.
Amber Narro:We have seen them. So please make sure that your your students reach out to their advisors before they change schedules.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah, our advisors are trained to kind of think from a 300 foot view of what the schedule looks like. Not just looking at this one class that might, you know, they want to change on their schedule, but like you're saying, other factors that might be a consideration. So you know, there's other factors that we might look at. Like she said, reach out to your advisor, we can kind of help you move it because I've seen a few students this semester that dropped it thinking they're gonna pick up another class and then automatically that class got picked up on a wait list and the student no longer had that class available to them and they were kind of out of luck, you know, with having a full schedule. So, we kinda had to rework it, you know, which can sometimes be done but it it creates a little bit more stress, you know.
Mindy Notariano:On everybody. On everybody.
Amber Narro:So let's be nice and and give a call to the adviser before you before you jump ship because it's important for us to get those things.
Mindy Notariano:And and the other thing I would say is, you know, if you're a parent or a student listening to this and you came through this summer and you want to change your major, please let your advisor know too, because a lot of students think it's just general education in the first semester, it's not going to impact anything, but you'd be surprised how many things can be impacted by a swap of a major, it can mean a different math that you need to take, it can mean some core courses, so that's an important thing to definitely know. We probably, we get so many, our advisors right now are probably meeting with students every day who are changing majors and changing schedules.
Amber Narro:Right, and general education is important, let's just say. There are some major areas where general education is general education. Right? It doesn't matter if you switch your major, you'll have the same general education in one that you had in another. But you can imagine things like biology.
Amber Narro:I need to have a certain biology if I'm going to make it in the next level. So the class that they take as freshmen in biology, as a biology major, is different from the biology that another student can take that is for non science majors. They just have a little bit more in there, and that way they don't have to double up on their biology offering because they didn't get enough of what they needed in a biology for non science majors. They can they can start that early in there. So sometimes there's some little things in there that your adviser will know that you're that that you won't as a student or your that even as a parent that you might not know.
Amber Narro:So definitely call the adviser. Ask the questions. That's what they're we're there for. Ask the adviser to put it in writing. Ask them to show you it in writing.
Amber Narro:We are more than happy to do that, and we probably do that in the beginning anyway. But if if for whatever reason you're talking to them on the phone, just tell them, hey. Can you send that to me or show me where that exists? Mhmm. We are here because we wanna educate you.
Amber Narro:It is not because we think that, you know, we know more than you do, even though we probably do as far as advisors are concerned, let's just face it. Right? But we we want to educate you on this process and show you why these decisions are being made. So ask the question. That's a okay question.
Amber Narro:Please ask, why am I doing that? We love those questions, they're wonderful.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. And our advisors have had a lot of fun with making schedules this summer. It's funny as we've gotten toward the end of the summer and we're kinda slowing down on making schedules, we have advisors that are like, can you, do you have any more schedules I can create? They're they're they're just they're enjoying it. It's like putting together a puzzle.
Amber Narro:It is a puzzle.
Mindy Notariano:We we really enjoy like the opportunity to kinda find that perfect schedule. You know, think students sometimes think that we're just willy nilly picking classes for them and
Amber Narro:It is a little rewarding.
Mindy Notariano:It is. It's like once you get that perfect schedule, you stand back and you're like, this
Amber Narro:It's student's got a perfect like, you know They're gonna love that.
Mindy Notariano:They're gonna love this schedule. Yeah.
Amber Narro:Indeed. Indeed. And it's because we've talked to them Right. And had those conversations
Mindy Notariano:And we
Amber Narro:know and or looked at their wants and their desires on that survey. So we're not just going out there just, you know, putting a bunch of people in into a place. It is very holistic, and the it takes time. You know? This is not done by machines.
Amber Narro:Here, the schedule was not put together by a machine. It was put together by a human and and someone who really was impassioned about that. So you serve lead and serve a team of about 30 advisers. Yes? Tell me about this team.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. So we we have a a pretty big team, you know, because we have a total of there's 105 secondtions of our SE courses this fall. Right now, we have about 2,700 incoming freshman students enrolled for fall, which is huge. So with 2,700 students, that means we have a lot of people who have to teach those classes, so we have about 25 to 30, kind of depending on different areas that also teach the class, but yeah, so under us, it's a lot of advisors in our unit, having to know a lot of information, having to keep up with changes that are constantly coming at us within different degree programs and things like that, so we have a pretty good group.
Amber Narro:Very good. What are you looking for when you hire advisers in your program?
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. When I hire
Amber Narro:Just to comfort some of your parents' concerns about this being a hand holding thing. We're not a hand holder. Right? We're we're the bridge. Yeah.
Amber Narro:We're we're the the people I often tell the story of my sweet little daughter, Alex, who went to another school, not Southeastern, who went to another place. And she said, they're asking me to choose my major, and they're forcing that on me, and I'm I don't know what I wanna do yet. Six months ago, was asking for permission to go to the bathroom and now you want me to tell you what to do for the rest of my life. Right.
Mindy Notariano:You
Amber Narro:know? And that's what we are. The bridge that says, yes, for you know, six months ago, you were asking if you can go to the restroom in class. Now we let you get up and go do that. It's fine.
Amber Narro:You know, you can go whenever you want to.
Mindy Notariano:Schedule around on your own.
Amber Narro:We are going to shepherd you through the process of making big life decisions.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. Because it is a transition, you know, and, you know, not all of our students are are just coming out of high school. You know, we have adult learners who are coming as well but the majority of our students are, you know, just coming from high school. So, you know, we understand that they're coming from a completely different different world where they had classes all day and their schedule was pretty much made for them in terms of like this is what you're taking until a schedule where they have these big gaps in their schedule during the day and they're like, well, I guess I'll go take a nap. I guess I'll get a job and plug time in between all these times not realizing how different it is, how they have to kinda create time to learn, how to create time for for doing things and getting involved, you know, going to different different groups.
Mindy Notariano:There's so much to do on campus, you know, and we try to we try to let them be exposed to all of that so that they to make the most of this opportunity, you know? Right.
Amber Narro:I do think that they'll also do things like stockpile classes right on top of each other and forget that they really need to eat lunch. And one thing that parents and students need to know is there's a lot going on here at lunch, and it's a way for you to get plugged in. All the research first, let me just remind everybody that all the research says that First Year Success is the thing that that can really pave the way for any university that's got a first year success program. They they get their retention numbers up. Those students are more successful in other classes.
Amber Narro:It is all the research is there that supports this program first. The second thing, and even most importantly, as important, is their engagement on on campus. That also is something that we're looking at when we're putting advising schedules together.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah.
Amber Narro:Because if they've scheduled classes in the middle of the day from ten to 02:00 Yeah. Every day because they wanna sleep in and then they wanna leave school early, that's fine. But that's where all of our engagement opportunities happen or a lot of them happen around that lunchtime. There's Strawberry Jubilee, there's Gumber Yaya's, and and things like that. There's the recruiting events get out there and start telling them about activities that are happening on campus and get them plugged in.
Amber Narro:And all the research, again, there is there's a straight line up in students who get engaged on campus and those who complete and do better.
Mindy Notariano:And then also those who use the resources, you know, I'll tell you, we, our advising team, will generally not build a student schedule for two days a week. That's something that we generally don't do. Not to say that a student isn't gonna go and change it and do that anyway, but generally speaking, we try not to give them classes, like you're saying, from 08:00 to 04:45, and that's generally what a two day schedule would look like for a student. But then you ask yourself, where do you get tutoring? We have a wonderful tutoring center here on campus that provides tutoring for all of our students.
Amber Narro:So when do you do that
Mindy Notariano:if don't have any breaks? And let
Amber Narro:me tell you when they end up doing it. Parents, listen to me and hear what I'm saying. They decide which class they can skip that day. Mhmm. So they can go and spend more time with this other class that's giving them trouble.
Amber Narro:They start skipping another class, and then their grades start suffering in that class as well. Yeah. That is what happens.
Mindy Notariano:And it's a slippery slope. That's what we tell our students. It's like, you know, obviously students who go to class are gonna be sick, more successful, but it's a slippery slope because students kinda miss a class and they think, oh, I didn't miss that much today, I'll miss the next one, and then before you know it, it becomes a pattern, and we try to like nip that really quickly in the bud because we know that if they're not going to class, they're not getting the material, they're not gonna be successful and that is probably the probably the one of the biggest indicators for a student that's gonna fall off and end up struggling a lot, you know, and it's just getting up and going because again, high school, you kinda had to go. If you didn't go, your parents or someone knew about it. In college, no one's calling mom and saying, hey, know, Jimmy's not in class today.
Mindy Notariano:What's going on? Our advising team might email Jimmy but if Jimmy isn't responding to emails and checking in, he can completely fall off the radar and so that is so important for us to try to instill in students that you've got to go to class, you've got to be engaged, you've to try to take advantage of the resources. Just that level of engagement, whether it's in the classroom, going to class, outside joining organizations, getting involved, going to tutoring. We have a wonderful counseling center on campus that provides services for students. There's so many things to do on campus that doesn't just involve taking place in the classroom.
Amber Narro:And these are all things that you cover in First Year Success. So not First Year Success, yes, a large part of it is looking at your degree plan, making sure that you are scheduling the classes, that you know what's coming up, and that you learn about your major area of study.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah.
Amber Narro:But the First Year Success program, also includes a major minor fair
Mindy Notariano:Mhmm.
Amber Narro:Which is where students can go explore other opportunities to major in things. I've absolutely had students in my set my SC ten seventeen classes. That's the honors version of the ten ten class. But I've absolutely had students in my ten seventeen class who've gone and gone, I just didn't realize there was gonna be this much chemistry in in what I'm saying. So I think I'm gonna switch my major.
Amber Narro:I'm like, oh, Yeah. That's good. If you hate chemistry and you are struggling right now and you do not wanna do this for the rest of your life, probably don't wanna be a chemical engineer, Shane Nero, by the way.
Mindy Notariano:And and we try to plan our curriculum and our topics aligned with what's going on in the semester. We start off strong in the beginning of the semester in our essay classes focusing on just that transition. What are the expectations for college? What are the resources? We have a resource expo that all the students go to where they learn about things like the counseling center, they learn about the tutoring center, the writing center, all the different resources that they can utilize while they're here on campus.
Mindy Notariano:That usually takes place around week three when they start to realize maybe I need to go tutoring. Then around week five is when we have our Majorminor Fair, and Majorminor Fair is, this has become such a great event, we love it in our unit, I think the academic departments love it because they get an opportunity to connect with our students, but what we do is we kind of talk to our students about learning more about their major, about minors at Southeastern, but also looking at parallel plans because what happens around week four is our students usually have their first round of test, first round of exam, and you have a student who's coming in who wants to be, let's just say, a nursing major, and nursing sounds great, and then that first round of test hits and maybe they realize I'm not loving biology that much and I'm going to have a lot of it and I'm going to have a lot of these classes that I'm not really feeling. Maybe the reality hits at that point that like you're saying, chemistry isn't for me and I sure have a lot of chemistry in this biology major.
Mindy Notariano:They start to second guess that at that point. It gives us an opportunity to lay out the menu and help them look at, I usually tell my students when we're looking at curriculum, looking at their major, it's kinda like looking at a menu. You know, if you're looking at a menu and you read the description of the menu and you're like, I don't really like the ingredients of this dish. You know, you're probably not going to like that dish. It's the same thing with we talk to them about majors.
Mindy Notariano:If you're looking at what you gotta take in that major and you're like, yeah, don't think I like this, that's probably not gonna be the major for you. You're gonna be miserable the next four years if you dive into that. Gives them an opportunity to, you know, kinda test some, it's like, it's kinda like a, let's just say a, you know, like a a food service kinda thing for for majors where they can kinda sample a few different things at a time.
Amber Narro:Indeed. That's not the only thing that you do as far as getting them together and kinda trying to figure some things out though. You also have a resource fair. You've got the opportunity for students to go to events and things like that on campus which you require of them. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You also, share, department heads come to these Yeah. Classes. You also bring professionals in. You have a big health care panel where students come in Mhmm. Where students come and listen to 10 people who are in the healthcare field.
Amber Narro:Talk to me about some of those opportunities outside of just the scheduling and getting involved on campus. What about career exploration? Because you do that too.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. We do that too. We build that into the course. We do like what Amber is saying, we do some things like panel, we have these courses for living communities, and so we have several living and learning communities that are tied to our SE courses. We have quite a few of them in the honors program, so honors has Yes,
Amber Narro:we have, and what a living learning community is is when people when students come in their first year, they live with people who are majoring in the same thing that they are. They often have a couple of classes together, and we're building a community is what we're doing. And they are responsible for participating in the or there are consequences if they do not participate in the community. So you we require them to be active community members.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. And it's teaching them how to live in a community because, you know, there's good things and they learn some how to how to engage and how to talk to each other, how to communicate with each other. But what we do with some of those things is we build some content into it. One of the things you were mentioning was the healthcare professionals panel and this is something that we do later in the semester and we'll have healthcare professionals, we have usually a doctor, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and our students are kind of prepared, they prepare in advance what kind of questions they have for these professionals, and it gives them an opportunity to just engage and learn a little bit more from the people in their actual career fields. It's a really good event that we've been doing now for about six or seven years now, and it's one of my favorite events that we do with our living and learning communities.
Amber Narro:Very good. Mindy, when you're looking toward the fall, you've you've been in this position now twenty years. You've been working with students for twenty with with freshmen, first year students for twenty years. What how did you go about saying, man, I wanna apply for that job? Yeah.
Amber Narro:Where'd you come from? What happens? I don't even know this the answer to this question. We've spent a lot of time together.
Mindy Notariano:I tell I tell people that a lot. You know, it's like, I don't think anybody goes to school and says, I wanna be an academic adviser. You know, it's generally not something that most people like they pursue, generally speaking. I haven't met anybody that has. You know, but for me, I just, I've always loved Southeastern.
Mindy Notariano:I did my undergraduate degree here. I had my Masters in Counseling, not from Southeastern but another school, but I always knew I wanted to come back to Southeastern, was my home. So whenever I saw a position for an advisor that came available whenever they were creating the unit. Our department for first year success comes out of a department that was called Center for Student Excellence and Center for Student Excellence started around twenty years ago really as exactly kind of what we're doing now with teaching the first year success class, advising first year students, and the initiative was really to kind of create that first year experience for students. So when I saw the position, I was like, I wanna do this, and so I applied, the first time I applied, I didn't get the job.
Mindy Notariano:But then it came available again. Shame. I know, and then whenever I applied the second year, the next year I applied, and I had a little advising experience under my belt at that point, and so I started. And so I started as an advisor, and I love doing this, and just kind of, I've been with the department now since I started, and just kind of worked my way up to being the director. A, you know, I like to come up with new solutions to things, and so I kind of, I guess, I don't know, I stumbled into it.
Amber Narro:Well, take your earphones off a second if you can't stand this because I'm gonna talk awesome about you. But Mindy is certainly somebody who understands data and every decision that she makes is data driven. She is mad when it comes to a as to the spreadsheet, and her entire staff makes fun of her about that. All the gifts that they give her at Christmas, something has to do with a spreadsheet. And she organizes this effort in a way that really appreciates the staff and what they're going through.
Amber Narro:And and having I have the opportunity because, honors is in the same, area as first year success under the College of Honors and Excellence. And we sit in a lot of staff meetings together. And to hear Mindy truly talk about her staff and how hardworking they are and wonderful they are, that is the mark of leadership there is unbelievable. And you do it from a very organized standpoint, but you also celebrate your staff as well and and share what awesome things that they're doing and how they and and have those particular stories in mind where you say, this staff member helped this student do this thing and I'm super proud of them. And I just wanna acknowledge you and tell your staff and and the community as well that we've got a leader on top of this who is truly passionate about this.
Amber Narro:This is not a job for you. This is this is a calling Yeah. And and you show it every day when you when you come here to Southeastern. We appreciate you so much.
Mindy Notariano:Thank you so much for that. Like, I really do believe that it it is a team effort. You know, I have a great staff that works with the advising team. We had a kickoff this past week where we started looking at our semester and we all were together and just had an opportunity to kind of share our ideas for the semester, we don't just, every semester, every year, we don't just repeat the same essay content, we're always trying to look for what our students, what do our students need, are we still meeting the right needs of the students, Do we need to build some new things into it? And my staff, they're the ones that are coming up with content, they're the ones that have their ear to the ground, you know?
Mindy Notariano:I continue to teach every year because I feel like it's important for me to stay connected to our students, to like know what our students need even though I'm I'm in an an administrative role now. I feel like that's super important, you know, to be able to still be connected in that way but you know, I I have a great team and I can't speak highly enough of of how hard they work and you know, it never stops either. You know, we're all semester. We're either teaching or we're building schedules in the summer and you know, I think our staff, it works probably harder than most anyone I can say on campus. I mean, I I'm a little biased, but I I have to brag on them a little bit.
Amber Narro:They are a hardworking group of people for sure. And I I see them just pouring their hearts into the things that they do, and and and I see what time they're emailing me, and it ain't during office hours. Okay? They're they're on the weekend and they're working at night. They wanna they see they see the anxiety and the nervousness that students have.
Amber Narro:And if a student emails them, they're gonna get on top of it as soon as they can. And we totally appreciate them. That's not to say that they don't sleep. They sleep, y'all, and sometimes they might be doing stuff. They might be out to dinner or something, might have a night where they don't turn on the computer.
Amber Narro:But I promise you, if they see an email come in with a student who is who is freaking out, if they if they open that email, it will get responded to. Right. So, we appreciate all that they do. Mindy, with this with this position, what is your vision for the First Year Success Office? And, like, if you you know, your mission is the thing that you do every day, which is the thing that you do.
Amber Narro:Right? You come in, you work hard for students. In your in your dream for this department, what would you be your vision for the First Year Success Program? Big question.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah, I know. I feel like we're living our dream every day, you know, I mean, we really do, I continue to, you know, our goal is really to try to help our freshmen to be successful. I usually like to say that our goal is to set a platform of success for our students so that they can be successful after they leave us that they're gonna continue to go on and be successful. I'm just trying to think. I mean, like, I feel like that we continue to push on and, you know,
Amber Narro:Make it better every time.
Mindy Notariano:Make it better every day. Like, we continue. I think the the biggest thing for me is to continue to have we've been really blessed with this, is to be able to hire new advisors that are coming in. Have quite a few starting this year, new people learning, and so continue to be able to hire new staff who are dedicated. Like you'd asked a minute ago, and we got off track, but you asked about what makes a good advisor, I'm looking for people who really love students, who really want to do this job, who want to work with students, who are dedicated to seeing students succeed, who have flexibility, because I'm gonna tell you what, as we've talked, you know, our students are emailing us all the time and not to say that I expect them to be emailing people at midnight but you know, it's about being flexible because you know, things change, our students change or they're gonna email you to change your major and we kinda have to not get frustrated with that and just kinda go with the flow.
Mindy Notariano:So, you know, for me, I think it's just being able to continue to to find and retain staff that really just love doing this.
Amber Narro:And you've done it, by the way. Your staff looks great. They're they love you. They love they love working here at Southeastern. They love their students.
Amber Narro:And this truly we lose some of them because, unfortunately, they're great and people figure out they're wonderful and pick them up to do other things. So fine, whatever. But we trained them up and they remember where they come from. So we're we're glad to have them as long as we do. But I appreciate that very much.
Amber Narro:Mindy, you gotta be excited about this this semester coming up. I feel like it's bigger. You know, doctor Wainwright doesn't like to talk about numbers until the fourteenth day, and I appreciate that totally. Tell me what you are feeling about this fall. Just, you know, no promises here, but does it feel I feel like there's been a lot
Mindy Notariano:of people on campus. Yeah. I mean, I, like I said, we have right now, our over 2,700 people in SC right now, our SC classes. So, I mean, that's that's a pretty big number. You know, hopefully that we have a lot of freshmen that are gonna be starting this year.
Mindy Notariano:I think that's promising. You know, it shows that we have a lot of new students who are gonna be on campus within two weeks, we start in two weeks, less
Amber Narro:than two weeks. That's crazy.
Mindy Notariano:So, you know, I think that we're gonna be seeing them on campus and we're gonna be welcoming them very soon. So, what's move ins? Is a week from today, and so they'll be moving in soon. I'm just excited, I can't wait to see our new students on campus actually here. It's been quiet all summer, we've had orientations, being able to see regular campus activities again, that's what I'm looking forward to.
Amber Narro:Indeed. We've we've been we've been moving and shaking though. We've had lots of activities on on campus this summer as well. And on those Wednesdays when we've had orientation, we go home tired y'all. We go home tired.
Amber Narro:We drag in. We'd like somebody feed me, please, because I don't even have the strength to pick up my fork. So it's awful. Wednesday evenings have been awful. They have been awesome, awful.
Amber Narro:Let me just say that. We leave fulfilled because we have seen awesome things. We're all staying late, not because we have to, but because we want to Yeah. Make sure that we address all of the questions. That's not an expectation that we put.
Amber Narro:It's just what we do.
Mindy Notariano:Right.
Amber Narro:You know? Nobody asks us to stay beyond. We just do
Mindy Notariano:Yeah.
Amber Narro:Because we love it. Yeah. And we all are talking to each other after it's over with and then finally going, you know, I I just realized I I gotta come back tomorrow. I need to go home and get some rest.
Mindy Notariano:Yeah. And I think that is a great thing. You know, we all get along so well, you know, between our department and honors and all the other departments under our college of honors of excellence. I just feel like we have such a great group, and you know, I think that's what makes a great team too, and I think that having that camaraderie is what that pours out to our students, and they see that same type of level of energy.
Amber Narro:You know, need to talk I need I need to get doctor Procopio here to talk about the college as a whole. I haven't done that yet. Isn't that crazy? But, I need to to have her on to talk about what the College of Honors and Excellence is and why it's so important so that we can acknowledge the tutoring center, transfer success, ACE, which is our academic coaching component, am I forgetting anybody? You.
Amber Narro:Oh yeah, right, I understand. Well we said that already, but I think that for our listeners to understand that we truly put the student first in that in the College of Honors and Excellence work with all of the other colleges on campus to make sure that the handoff from first year success to those colleges is also equally gentle. So we really work hard to make that happen. Hear us say that we truly care and we, you know, that is, that it is, everything's done by a human in that space who really cares. Absolutely.
Amber Narro:Thank you so much for being here. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming to talk to me and getting everybody excited about the first, day of school. Give us a message for all our first year students.
Mindy Notariano:Alright. Alright, first year students. We are very excited to welcome you. You've got what it takes and you're going be able to do it and we can't wait to see your success and we can't wait to line up with you.
Amber Narro:Very good. Thank you, Mindy. Thank you for joining us here on KSLUs nine. Nine FM, The Lion. We've been at the Lion's Roundtable today with Mindy Notriano and Notriano.
Amber Narro:Notriano. That's how she says it. I told her before the show. I was going to try to really say it how she says it instead of how everybody else says her her name. God bless her.
Amber Narro:But thank you for being here. We appreciate you. Mindy Notariano has been here on the Lion's Roundtable. Join us again on Thursdays and Fridays at 09:00. Y'all have a great day.
