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The First Year Seminar Faculty Fellows and the First Year Steering Committee are teaming up to launch the 2024 OWU Passport. The passport is a guide to the many opportunities that we hope incoming students will take advantage of in their first year on campus. The passport includes academic and advising milestones (like meeting with a Writing Tutor or attending a study session), along with co-curricular opportunities (like attending a campus performance, club meeting, or SNC event). The basic idea is that students will collect stamps as they complete activities that we think contribute to first year student success.
The OWU Passport is designed to address two issues that arose in our discussions about the first year experience: first, we wanted to articulate a holistic understanding of a student's first year experience to help them see how their academics and co-curricular activities all contribute to college success. Second, we worried that students taking CNX100 in the spring might miss out on important milestones in their first semester. The passport is designed to highlight the things that successful students do, while encouraging students to explore the campus community.
All first year students received a physical passport during orientation. They can bring it with them to events to earn fun stamps, but the primary tracking is digital. Students log their events using the OWU Passport Log. At the end of the semester, students who complete their passports will receive prizes.
Direct them to the OWU Passport website. Answers to your questions can also be found there.
Look through the list of milestones and think about how your events might fit. Mention that the event is a an OWU Passport milestone in your publicity, tell students about it in class, or set up a Stamp Booth at your event. You can pick up a Stamp Booth Kit at the Student Involvement Office. Alternatively, you can print out the QR codes in the digital Stamp Booth Kit (COMING SOON). Remember, students have to log their events to make them count; the stamps are for fun.
No! There is no official list of OWU Passport events, and the milestones can be fulfilled in many different ways. For example, one of the milestones is "Experience one of OWU's cultural events"; students could go to CultureFest, to a lunchtime event sponsored by OMSA, or to an international film shown by the World Languages Department. Similarly, students are encouraged to "Connect to potential majors by attending a department event"; they could go to a peer advising session, a department social, or a lecture sponsored by your department. The only rule is that no event can count twice.
In your publicity, mention that the event is a Passport milestone, tell students about it in class, or set up a Stamp Booth at your event. In addition to the OWU Passport, we are piloting a newsletter directed specifically at first-year students. More information about this newsletter and how to submit it will be coming as we get closer to the beginning of the semester.
There's no official paperwork or stamp you need to have on hand. Remind them to log the visit using the QR code on the back of their passport. If you want to sign their passport so they have a physical artifact, go ahead! Or they may ask you to take a pic to upload into their log. Remember, logging milestones is their responsibility.
The passport is a joint venture between CNX100 and the First Year Steering Committee. This Steering Committee grew out of the Moving the Needle module devoted to improving the first year experience. If you have questions, contact Ashley Biser (anbiser@owu.edu) or Brad Pulcini (btpulcin@owu.edu)
Students will earn prizes for completing each section of their passport. Students who collect enough stamps to complete the entire passport will earn prizes. The idea is to make it fun. We are less concerned with accurately tracking student participation than with students with a sense of the opportunities available to them.
Pending the results of the fall pilot, students will get a new passport at the beginning of spring semester, with new milestones and opportunities to collect stamps.
We love suggestions for new milestones! Use the OWU Passport – Milestone Nominations formto nominate events for future inclusion.
Each milestone listed has been shown to be associated with first year student success. If there are some you think we left out, use the OWU Passport – Milestone Nominations form to nominate events for future inclusion!