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Student Leadership Alliance
The CNHS Academic Advising & Support Office provides academic advising and holistic services in support of all first-year nursing and MLS students' academic, professional, and personal goals. We do so by achieving the following objectives:
- deliver holistic, evidence-based practices that assure quality when addressing student needs;
- promote the shared responsibility of academic advising between individual student and advisor;
- develop and sustain campus and community partners to promote first-year student success; and
- evaluate and assess programs and services that lead to continual improvements that directly benefit our students.
SLA structure
This year’s Student Leadership Academy (SLA) will be held prior to the start of the Fall 2022 academic year. Students will participate in various workshops instructed by university and community professionals. In addition, students will receive their academy group and wingman assignments.
Student teams will be led by academy graduates throughout the year as the academy is designed to encourage student leadership with “students leading students.” The wingman will serve as a partner throughout the academy so that students learn to encourage and support each other.
Student leaders will model professional behavior, practice effective communication, maintain positive teamwork, encourage students to meet academic standards, and work with their teams to achieve deadlines before their sophomore year. They provide meaningful opportunities to share their experiences of success and failures in nursing school. Student leaders mirror success by volunteering their time to lead, support, and develop their teams.
Year One Requirements
First-year nursing and medical laboratory students will engage with student support services staff beginning in June before the start of their first year. First-year students will complete a select number of requirements that will prepare them for academy weekend that usually takes place either the weekend before the start of classes OR the weekend after the first week of classes. Those requirements include:
- Completing their intake and assessment packets
- Acknowledging their assigned SLA group via email
- Acknowledging their assigned SSS advisor via email
- Purchasing two books for required academy readings (please note: this requirement is separate from other reading assignments from the College of Nursing & Health Sciences and/or the university)
- Rise by Daniel Rodriquez
- Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
- Complete an APA paper based on the readings to be submitted at academy weekend
Academy Weekend
Academy Weekend is a two-year long experience that all students in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences must complete as part of their educational experience. Academy Weekend consists of 2.5 days where CNHS freshmen are engaged through hand-on activities and workshops that focus on teambuilding, critical thinking, reading comprehension, math and science, and health and safety.
At the conclusion of Academy Weekend, freshmen will be required to participate in academy benchmarks throughout the year that are comprised of class meetings, the Wingman Experience, meetings with their advisors and student leaders, and participation in academic enrichment activities (i.e. tutoring and workshops that focus on academic success). The total experience will be two years, from the start of year one to the end of year two.