[Orgvpdue] June 2024 UE Spotlight

Mon Jun 24 10:38:08 PDT 2024

Undergraduate Education Monthly Spotlights
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The UE Monthly Spotlight Series aims to highlight important advances across the Division of Undergraduate Education. The goal is to ensure that our fellow UE members stay in the know as we collectively work toward UE's strategic goals, including boosting graduation rates and reducing equity gaps, among others.

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ARC's Annual Student Employee Appreciation Luncheon
On Thursday, May 30, the Academic Resource Center (ARC) hosted its annual Student Employee Appreciation Luncheon that recognized outstanding student employees. During the luncheon, student employees were acknowledge by each program, in addition, to a special recognition of graduating seniors.

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2024 Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities Symposium
(May 7-10)

This campus-wide event allowed 329 UCR undergraduate students from all disciplines to share their research and creative activities with the UCR community. Students presented their work as a virtual oral or an in-person poster presentation.

The Symposium highlights faculty-mentored undergraduate research conducted in all of the schools and colleges. The highest student participation was in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS), which represented 46% of total presenters, followed by CHASS with 33%. Biology students made up the majority of presenters; Life Science was the leading area of research; and more than half were in-person poster presentations.

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This year, UCR's Office of Research and Economic Development (RED) generously donated funds to the Center for Undergraduate Research & Engaged Learning (CUREL) to award students for "Best Presentation." Eight students were recognized on June 3 at a celebration hosted by CUREL and the Division of Undergraduate Education.

The best presentations were:

  *   Alondra Valencia's (SOB) virtual oral presentation on "Social Media and Leadership Authenticity"
  *   Joshua Harnett's (BCOE) virtual oral presentation on "The Role of Environment in the Evolution of Cranial Capacity in Humans"
  *   Sarah Ochoa's (CHASS) virtual oral presentation on "The Evolution of Educational Opportunities of Native Peoples"
  *   Angie Lopez's (CNAS) virtual presentation on "Higher-Order Learning Strategies In Organic Chemistry Courses"
  *   Samantha Solkowitz's (BCOE) poster presentation on "Bioengineering for Kids: A Graphic Novel to Educate and Inspire"
  *   Tara Gao's (CNAS) poster presentation on "The Role of the Medial Amygdala for Innate Fear-related Behavior Response to Olfactory Predator Cue"
  *   Dallys Cobian's (CHASS) poster presentation on "The Cost of Becoming a Nun: Dowries, Class, and Gender in 18th Century Mexico"
  *   Holly Kong's (SOE) poster presentation on "Embracing the M-FIT: Participant Perspectives"
The success of the annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Symposium is only made possible with the support of UCR faculty, students, and staff. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the campus partners, who helped moderate and judge the presentations. Special thanks goes to our top volunteers: Linda Leemus, Aaron Bushong, Beth Claassen Thrush, and Miriam Villazón Valbuena. Please save the dates for next year's symposium, scheduled during the national celebration of Undergraduate Research Week (URW) April 21-25, 2025.

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Student Innovation Fellows
Through the leadership of Israel Fletes and Nelly Cruz, the VPDUE's office is launching the Student Innovation Fellows. This group of students and UE staff will conceptualize the UE Visioning Space in the Student Services Building, along with innovative student success initiatives for UCR.

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UE's First Course To Open Spring 2025
The VPDUE's office continues to collaborate with Academic Senate, the Registrar, other campus partners, and the UE staff to build the infrastructure for UE course offerings now that we secured academic status. UE's first course will be offered in the Spring 2025.

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HPAC Student Ambassador Earns Full Scholarship
Congratulations to Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC) student assistant and ambassador, Kathryn Maebori! She earned a full scholarship to Samuel Merritt University.

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2023-2024 HPAC Student Ambassador End-of-Year Celebration
Ambassadors support first year students (and beyond) to explore engagement opportunities and map-out pre-health prerequisite courses. First year students are encouraged to meet with an HPAC Ambassador at least once per quarter. The event recognized (12) Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC) Ambassadors who served during the 2023-2024 academic year. [https://mcusercontent.com/16b960a15758a2e9f6cc8140d/images/e9be98da-05b9-0c99-f1f8-fdc990522beb.png]
HPAC Ambassadors are academically high-achieving third and fourth year students and a alumnae/retired physician who posses a strong resume of involvement in academic coursework, clubs, clinical experiences, and service opportunities.

To Learn More<https://hpac.ucr.edu/team>

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First-Year Retention Grant Application
The VPDUE's office is leading a campus-wide grant application to focus on first-year retention. According to UCR's Office of Institutional Research, approximately 1000 students will not advance to year two without significant academic and non-academic support systems. We are leading an effort that bridges academic, wellness, mental health, and social support efforts to boost first year retention efforts across UCR.

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Congratulations to Sheena Thrush!
Sheena Thrush, University Writing Program (UWP) Counselor/Student Academic Specialist, was promoted to Student Academic Supervisor. Sheena has been with UWP since 2015. Among her many responsibilities, she helps thousands of students (and academic advisors) navigate the Entry-Level Writing Requirement and the Writing breadth requirement each year.

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UWP Lecturer Gives Keynote Address/Teaching Fellow Receives Award
Corrine Knight, University Writing Program (UWP) Lecturer, delivered the keynote address at the R'Ability Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, May 28. In addition, Gabriela Almendarez, UWP's Teaching Fellow, received the Outstanding TA Ally Award. Congratulations and appreciation to both Cori and Gabby for supporting UCR's students with disabilities!

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Analytical Writing Placement Examination (AWPE)

>From May 18-19, the University Writing Program (UWP) offered the Analytical Writing Placement Examination (AWPE) to incoming freshmen using an online modality. Nearly 600 students wrote the exam over the two days. They expect many more students will complete the exam in June. Among the innovations employed with this new process, the UWP piloted the use of Respondus - a lock-down browser to ensure exam security.

Prior to 2023, UCOP coordinated the AWPE. The exam was offered to all eligible incoming students at locations throughout the state. In 2023, the statewide exam was retired. In response, UCR held 21 in-person writing placement tests during Highlander Orientation.

In addition to creating a more sustainable model, online writing placement will contribute to:

* International Students: Our population of international students will be able to take the placement exam earlier than September, which is when many of them arrive in the United States. This will help them to enroll in the classes they need.
* Student Access: Students will not have to travel to campus to take the exam.
* Logistics: More students can test at once since we will not be constrained to the physical classroom spaces we can secure.
* Timely Placement: We hope to encourage more students to take advantage of early testing. This will enable students to build accurate course schedules, which include writing courses, during their orientations. More so, it will allow more students to consider summer school.
* Course Projections: UWP course planning and the configuration of course offerings can be more accurate with earlier placement.
* Security: Dr. Lash Vance has researched how lock-down browsers can help to ensure academic integrity and accurate placement.
* Staffing Demands: More reasonable demands on staff time are possible with online administration.
* Processing & Scoring Speed: Online administration will allow for the quicker processing of placement exams.

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