‘Unconference’ brings together Penn State’s student success professionals

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Bringing together student success professionals from across the University, the Penn State College of Education, Journey Success Center and the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts recently hosted the first Student Success Unconference at the Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building on the University Park campus.

“Together, we brought student success professionals from every college at the University Park campus, Student Affairs, Schreyer Honors College and World Campus into the same room — both literally and figuratively,” said Kevin Hulburt, director of the Journey Success Center at Penn State. “This collective effort underscored our shared commitment to supporting Penn State students in meaningful, practical ways.”

The event was titled an “unconference” because there were no keynote speakers, no pre-packaged panels, and no rigid schedule handed to attendees at the door.

Instead, this intentionally designed participant-driven format invited participants to co-create the agenda, bringing their own expertise, questions and ideas to shape the day.

“Inspired by the EdCamp model, which emerged from professional development in K-12 education and sought to honor the knowledge and experience of teachers, unconferences trust the room,” Hulburt explained. “Just as EdCamps harness the expertise of teachers, the Student Success Unconference taps into the deep, diverse expertise of Penn State’s student success professionals — advisers, faculty, program leads, coaches, counselors, administrators and staff — who support students every day.”

During the event, attendees identified topics that they felt were important to their work, including challenges they face, successes they have had and projects they would like to pursue. Artificial Intelligence then assisted with identifying common themes and ideas to generate small breakout discussion groups throughout the rest of the day. Hulburt said the program generated rich insights and potential opportunities for next step collaborations.

Topics of the sessions included data-informed student success strategies, identifying and supporting at-risk students, increasing student uptake of resources and support services, belonging and cultural responsiveness, best practices in student success programs, first-year experience and seminar reform, and collaboration across units to reduce duplication of services.

Hulburt said summaries from these sessions and insights from the topic generation process are being compiled and will be shared with those who attended with the hopes of considering future steps toward collaboration and innovation.

The Unconference planning committee also hopes this will become a growing annual event with more participation as word of others’ experiences reaches colleagues who may have wanted to participate but missed the registration deadline or otherwise did not learn of the event until it was too late.

"Our hope is that we can build on the energy and enthusiasm that people expressed they experienced at the event,” said Patty Klug, director of the College of the Liberal Arts Chaiken Center. “They found it valuable to be working collaboratively together, and we want to continue creating those opportunities for all of the wide range of professionals involved with student success at Penn State."

“Our hope is to see the Unconference grow and evolve,” Hulburt said. “That will not only allow student success professionals to share their knowledge and experiences with others but will allow those attending to network and collaborate with their colleagues to address shared student success challenges. At the end of the day, we all work to make our students’ Penn State experiences as positive and fulfilling as possible. That’s what the Unconference is about — a step toward equipping everyone with the best ideas and practices to give our students what they need to succeed.”

The event was organized by the Unconference committee members, including Hulburt; Klug; Kevin Conaway, director of the Office of Digital Pedagogies and Initiatives for the College of the Liberal Arts; and Brenda Martinez, director of the College of Education Office of Education and Social Equity.