Hi there! I’m Misha, your friendly email marketing guru. By day, I’m crafting emails from Academic Impressions that make institutions and students alike do a happy dance. My mission? To spread the word on how Academic Impressions can transform your institution and boost student enrollment. Fun fact: I once set a goal to meet Sir Paul McCartney, and guess what? I turned that dream into reality. When I’m not busy perfecting emails and shaking hands with rock stars, you’ll find me jet-setting to the Caribbean, lacing up my running shoes for thrilling races, jamming out to some seriously good tunes, and diving into captivating books.
If you are in an academic leadership position, you’ve encountered challenging faculty who exhibit unprofessional, unproductive, and even destructive behavior. When faculty decline in productivity, stop attending meetings, or criticize their junior colleagues, how can you deal with these inevitable and uncomfortable situations? In this two-part webcast series, our expert instructor will guide you through a four-stage process for dealing with difficult faculty personalities. You will learn to: Identify and address problematic behaviors early Use appropriate strategies for different behavior types Learn how and when to escalate your intervention Create written agreements that establish conduct expectations and consequences Minimize the impact of problematic behavior in your department
“I’ve been a remote, work-from-home fundraiser for five years now, for a school 2,000 miles away from my home office. I see so much worry out there in higher education advancement, and I’m here to tell you, it’s going to be okay. You may have to give up some of your ideas about what’s possible and not possible, but if you’re willing, let’s explore the opportunities and reframe our fundraising practices.” So much of the debate about whether and how to engage donors right now is coming from a place of fundraiser discomfort. This discomfort needs to be examined and reframed to continue to do our jobs with compassion and effectiveness. This reframing is an important practice during traumatic situations; it can help us bring meaning to events and give us the resilience necessary to move forward. We can and should reframe the COVID-19 situation as an opportunity that will lead us to: I’ve been a remote, work-from-home fundraiser for five years now, for a school 2,000 miles away from my home office. I see so much worry out there in higher education advancement, and I’m here to tell you, it’s going to be okay. You may have to give […]
Higher education does a great job educating others, but seldom do we work on ourselves. We don’t take the time to ‘sharpen the saw.’ As a result, colleges and universities are filled with very sharp people who possess rather dull blades. In a classic video vignette entitled “Big Rocks,” from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the late Stephen R. Covey invited an audience member to join him onstage for an experiment. In the experiment, Covey asks the young female executive to fit in all the big rocks he has provided into a bucket that is over half-filled with pebbles. The pebbles depict the day-to-day tasks, emails, meetings, and emergencies that we are all faced with and that fill up our lives. At one point, the participant looks at the rock labeled “Sharpen the Saw,” rolls her eyes, and places it back onto the table. Covey, who never shied away from a teachable moment, picks up the same rock asking the audience, “Who feels they don’t have time to ‘Sharpen the Saw’?” As several hands are raised, Covey then follows with a great line, “Have you ever been too busy driving to take time to get gas?” “Sharpen the Saw” was […]
CBE programs are becoming more ubiquitous in higher ed, but there is still a lot of gray area around ensuring accountability that experiential knowledge is commensurate with college-level learning. Many are still trying to answer questions like: what’s the best way to award and represent this learning and knowledge? How can we ensure an equitable experience for all students? Join us to gain a deeper understanding of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) and how to implement it at your institution. Assessment evens the playing field but must meet quality standards. During this webcast, our expert, Donna Younger, will demonstrate how PLA can address high attrition rates and achievement gaps as well as encourage students to kickstart their success outside the classroom.
Most advancement shops struggle with data governance, especially when it comes to data that is: duplicated across multiple fields or shadow databases erroneously put into one field versus another inputted in open text fields instead of predefined dropdowns These data challenges often affect the integrity of critical alumni and donor information that the entire operation depends on. You can significantly improve the quality of your data and solve problems across your shop by establishing a committee that is representative of all departments within advancement. Join us for this webcast to hear our expert walk through the steps of establishing an effective data governance committee. You will leave this training with a collection of practical resources, such as a sample committee charter, an example of written data quality standards, tips for auditing your database, and a sample agenda for a committee meeting.
Many application processes do not assess for persistence and grit, yet these qualities are often a better predictor of success than academic ability. Traditional admissions processes that focus solely on academics put some students at a disadvantage – especially first-generation or low-income students. Incorporating the right questions into your application processes will help you better predict success for students who might not meet traditional requirements. Join us online to learn how to enhance your own admissions processes. This webcast will provide strategies and tools to help you assess non-cognitive variables by rethinking: The questions you ask in applications How you phrase essay prompts The reviewal process of extra-curricular activities and recommendations
Campuses continue to struggle with coordinating and solving campus-wide retention and enrollment challenges. Yet, the University of Tennessee used a problem-solving approach to pull together key partners to address an enrollment challenge. This approach worked so well that they have continued to meet to solve enrollment and retention challenges across campus, such as: Understanding why students leave Increasing low-income student success Balancing enrollment targets with financial goals. Join us to explore an alternative approach to solving enrollment and retention challenges. Using a case-study framework, this event will walk you through several different enrollment and retention challenges to demonstrate how your campus can make a case for rethinking key collaborations, success goals, and decision-making.
Securing a principal gift can have an immense impact on the way an institution is able to meet its mission and serve students effectively. However, identifying and cultivating relationships with potential principal gift donors takes patience, intentionality, and compromise. In this useful question-and-answer virtual webcast, our expert instructor, Mitchell Spearman, will call upon his experiences working with philanthropic families who shared transformational gifts with institutions across the country. By engaging with participants and sharing his own insight and advice, Spearman will help advancement professionals to understand how to more effectively approach engaging principal gift donors and their families to secure transformational gifts. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to submit your questions in advance and we will do our best to incorporate these questions into the live event.
Why You Need This Resource As the number or size of your classes grows, you’ll likely find it increasingly difficult to meet the variability of your learners. Since research says neurodiversity is the rule (not the exception), one-off changes and accommodations will become tedious for both you and your learners. If you’re ready for a better way, use these resources to start serving many types of learners simultaneously through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). You will learn simple changes you can make today to both course materials and the overall learning experience. You Will Learn: How to apply UDL principles to digital course materials Simple changes to make your classes more supportive of diverse learners You Will Get: Downloadable Resources Instructional Videos Interactive Activities
