Speaker 1 (00:02.862)
My benchers will go to bat for their students any day of the week. No questions asked. If a student has a question, they are invited in. If they are so likely to be in Adams Inn, they have tea. And they have a faculty member who is really invested in their success, and they feel empowered to go and use that resource. Like this is,
The most successful faculty student advising system that I have seen, I've been at three law schools as a professor, this is the most effective system that I have ever seen. And our benchers work really hard to make it that way.
This is Real Cases, a legal podcast presented by the Stetson University College of Law. We'll sit down with Stetson Law faculty and students to examine today's critical cases and debates in environmental, international, elder, and business law, plus the role of social justice in these fields. Join us as we open the case file.
I'm Daniel O'Keefe, Master of English Literature from Indiana University. Today we continue our exploration of Stetson's innovative new first-year orientation process, the Inns program, through a discussion with Associate Dean for Assessment and Professional Engagement, Anne Mullins, one of the Inns program's inaugural faculty ventures, William Reese Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, Kristen Adams, and Mariana Monforte, a third-year Stetson Law student and peer advisor who graduated in May of this year.
Thank you all, everyone, so much for being here. So we're here today to talk about the Inns program at Stetson. And I'd like to start out, Dean Mullins, by asking you a little bit about the program overall, about how it got started, how it launched, where the idea came from. So.
Speaker 1 (02:05.352)
Yeah, well, our Inns program, think one of my favorite descriptions of it comes from our dean who calls it Hogwarts for law students. And really, you know, what it is, is when our students arrive on campus, they are immediately placed into one of the Stetson Inns, which is led by a very senior faculty member and also in partnership with second year and third year law students.
who really serve as student leadership and peer mentors to our incoming 1Ls. And the purpose of the system is really to provide some core belonging and community for our students. We have a really robust campus and our entering classes are anywhere from, I don't know, maybe 300, 340 or so students.
which is small for a lot of our students who are coming from very, very large undergraduate institutions. But still, law school is an intensive experience. And it's a journey of transformation that people are both undergoing in a really intensely personal way, but also in a community of others who are on the same journey. And this was a way to really provide some foundational
community and peer support and faculty advising and support, along with some fun, some revelry, some just talking about the law outside of the confines of classes, talking about career paths. mean, the profession is so broad and there are so many paths. And, you know, when law students come in, this is certainly true when I was a law student, I didn't know the number of things, the world that was just about to open up to me.
We want to open that world as quickly as we can, as thoughtfully as we can with some intentionality for our students. So that's the very, very big picture structure and purpose of our Inns.
Speaker 3 (04:11.374)
Could you talk a little bit also about how about how Stetson fulfills this particular requirement from the ABA about professionalization for incoming students? Because I know that's one of the things that really sort of sets the program apart.
Yes. there's a few years ago, the ABA passed a new curricular requirement that says law schools have to provide professional identity formation for their students. And this is something that happens in any profession, the law, in medicine, in the seminary, in engineering, right? Whenever you are becoming a person who is highly educated,
in a profession that is self-regulated, where you generally have a knowledge base that the people you serve do not have. There are certain values that you must embrace. And it can be very, it can be sometimes challenging to integrate, say, your personal values with what is demanded and expected of you as a professional.
Um, and so that, you know, who you are and who you are becoming going from, know, sort of your pre law school, private citizen to law student to upon graduation, you are now a public citizen and an advocate. That's a massive shift. Um, so, you know, and so the ABA said, you know, a few years ago, you know, this shift is happening, whether we tend to it or not.
And we want law schools to tend to it actively and in a thoughtful way. And so in response to that, schools, I think the majority approach for schools is to have a required class in the 1L curriculum where students,
Speaker 1 (06:20.344)
come together and are required to learn about different career paths or different values or ethics of lawyers. And we decided not to take that approach, in part because we have a, our students really value sort of a bespoke education. They want something that is.
personalized and tailored to them and who they are. And frankly, our faculty is very much like our students in that respect too, right? And it's important that we provide an experience that resonates with all of us. And so we realize that a compulsory class that is, know, that is, you frankly, it's difficult to position among the first year curriculum because students are stressed, they're graded on a curve.
and I think sometimes the urgent overwhelms the important and the class doesn't, you know, that, covers these very important ideas and topics maybe doesn't get the priority that it, it otherwise should. Right. so we took a very different approach and we said, let's do this first by creating community, because if you're going to go undergo a transformation, you need to do it in a place where you feel vulnerable, where you're able to feel vulnerable with your peers, with your mentors, with your faculty member.
and also supported. We also don't require students to participate in their ends, which means that we need to be really thoughtful about what are we offering? Are we communicating the value proposition to the students clearly? Are they trusting us when we say it is valuable? Were we right that it was valuable? And sometimes the answer is, yes, we're right that it was valuable, just not at that moment.
So, you know, it really holds us to account in a way that sort of a compulsory first year class really doesn't, right? The students have to show up to that. And, you know, regardless of what we package and deliver, they're going to show up next week. The ends are different. And, you know, I think one of the things that we are appreciating is that our ends are scalable to where students are.
Speaker 1 (08:41.376)
Not everybody is at the same place on their journey at every moment. Not every offering is going to serve every single student's needs. you know, there is some sort of core foundational shared parts of this journey, but it's also deeply individualized. And we're not real comfortable saying you've got to spend your time on something that you're not ready for or that you've already really thought through deeply and accomplished through a previous professional path.
Right? You choose and that puts a lot of responsibility, frankly, on the students to think about what their path is and how they are choosing to grow. Right? We've got a required curriculum, but this is sort of the personalized experience of being a Stetson Law student that is very much in their hands and they decide how they're going to engage and they decide what they're going to get out of it. And our students figure out pretty quickly, like what you put in is what you get out.
Yep, Mariana, could you talk a little bit about your experience with the program?
Yeah, so I actually, so I'm a 3L right now, but going into my 1L year, which was fall of 2022, we didn't have the Inn program yet. So my orientation looked like it was two days long and they had split up the incoming class by last name. So I was grouped with like L through O or something like that. And we did two days in our great hall and it was,
largely lecture-based, and then you had a lunch and then you went back to lectures, and then that was sort of it. So that was kind of what I understood orientation to be. But then my second and third year, I had the opportunity to be a Stetson ambassador, which is the organization on campus that serves Stetson, but also serves in a mentoring capacity. We call them like readers.
Speaker 2 (10:43.094)
and they mentor the incoming students. So through my second and third year, I was able to participate in the Inns and there was definitely a really overhaul of orientation as a whole, which I think is pretty much obviously one of the really important parts for incoming students of their law school experience because that's the opportunity that they have to meet.
and network and communicate with other students and members of faculty and through the Inn system, they've been able to do that in a way that is so much easier and better facilitated than what it was for my orientation because they automatically know whether what or where they come from or their previous experience are placed into an Inn, which like Dean Lowen said is kind of like a Hogwarts house.
and they have their venture, right, who's their faculty leader like Professor Adams. And then they have a reader who's their mentor and they're separated into smaller groups. So maybe five, six, seven incoming students per mentor. then so automatically it's created this really equitable experience for each incoming student where it doesn't matter sort of where they came from or what their background is.
they automatically come in and have students who are just like them, incoming students with a mentor or reader that they can rely on, ask questions to, and also have a venture, somebody on faculty that they automatically have really valuable access to, which I think is definitely pretty unique and something that wasn't my experience at all. So then of course, throughout the year, when you come in already experiencing
that in automatically, like Dean Mullins said, you kind of get out what you put in. So I think that it's encouraged a lot of people to stay really close to the students around them, as well as their readers and senior readers, and then of course their ventures as well. So I think that it's just overall created a really valuable network for each individual students that's equitable and comparable to every other student, which is really, really awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:00.012)
Yeah, could you tell me a little bit about what the experience has been like being a reader for, for the end program and what, what it's been like helping to, to mentor other students in that way.
Yeah, absolutely. So I think that one of the reasons so many students want to become an ambassador is because they do want to mentor the incoming students. I think that it's such a fantastic way not only to give back, but to really kind of share the knowledge that you've accumulated over the past year or two years or three years if you're a part-time student with students who are just coming in. no matter what your kind of experiences before law school,
everybody definitely comes in with a level of not really knowing what's going on or what they're about to get into. So I think that it's been really valuable to be able to really connect with incoming students and guide them and help them and introduce them to your friends and your peers who they may not have had a chance to connect with otherwise. so, for example, if somebody has a question an incoming student about literally anything,
they automatically have me to go to where they can ask that question without feeling nervous or embarrassed or awkward or like they don't know anything. And it's created a really incredible system where even if I don't know the answer, I have somebody I can immediately go to to kind of get that issue or answer for them. And similarly, it's also kind of created this really nice system where I can also go to a member of faculty if...
they have a question that I think would be better for them. So it's just created this way for students to be able to have a lot of access to 2L and 3L and upper level students, as well as faculty and other people who they can easily, you know, ask questions to. There's not this really like hide the ball scenario. It's, know, everything's kind of out in the open and it's just really nice to be able to help people and, you know, show them and kind of demonstrate, this is what
Speaker 2 (15:02.592)
I wish I knew when I was coming in, that kind of thing.
Professor Adams, could you talk a little bit about your Inn?
What I love most about the Inns system is the way in which we've made it possible for our students to be put on a fast track toward replicating structures and relationships that took me about 25 years to fully develop through my own involvement with the American Bar Association and the American Law Institute. When I think about what those organizations have meant to me,
They allow me to be surrounded by people and experiences that make me very proud to be an attorney. And they also give me a second network that is entirely external to my place of work here at Stetson. And I think both of those things are very, very valuable. I love the fact that Mariana was talking about how the ends create a level playing field because that's exactly
What I see also thinking, especially about our students who are first generation law students, maybe first generation in college. I think it's really important to be able to say to them on day one and orientation. You've got people you have your venture and you have your reader. You have access to a broader network. You have resources, you have allies, and if you need it, you have an advocate. I've been on the faculty here for 25 years.
Speaker 4 (16:34.57)
I now speak fairly fluent Stetson and being able to decode the law school experience for students who are feeling disoriented or just need some good advice, I think is tremendously valuable. I also appreciated that Dean Mullins talked about the fact that students are not required to engage with their ends. And so we have group events.
I also have weekly drop-in office hours. Some of my Inns members do everything all the time. Some only come see me for tea in my office hours. Some only come to group events. Others maybe don't engage regularly with the Inn, but I believe they know I'm there for them. And if something comes up where they need a resource, they need some academic advising,
or they just need some good advice generally. I think they know that they have advocates, allies, and resources, and I think that's so important.
You were saying that one of the things that you like so much about the program is that it helps new students to develop the resources and opportunities that you feel like you kind of have spent your whole career trying to develop. Could you talk a little bit about just some of the challenges when it comes to that, about like entering into the law and what it's like trying to develop your own professional network, trying to develop a sense?
of what's expected of you. And as Dean Mullins was saying, how to balance your own desire to, you know, continue to be true to yourself, but to also fit into that, into the professional expectations that are expected of you. Could you talk a little bit about your own experiences with that?
Speaker 4 (18:35.406)
Absolutely. I think back to deciding what kind of law I wanted to practice. And I frankly wandered into commercial litigation and everything turned out beautifully. I'm so glad I don't have it to do over again because I would change so many things. And if I did, I might not be here having this conversation with you on this beautiful morning. But
When I chose litigation, I didn't really understand the choice I was making and didn't really understand the alternatives that were available. And I want our students to make more informed decisions than I was able to make. And I also think about opportunities that come up in law school and how helpful it is for students to have some guidance when they are presented with
opportunities. I think about their second year. To me, the world gets so much bigger in the second year. In the first year, we make all the big decisions for the students in terms of classes and experiences. We really curate that for them. And then the second year comes and all of a sudden there's so many courses from which to choose. So many journals and clubs and advocacy boards and
Other opportunities like being a teaching assistant or a research assistant and for a student trying to navigate all of that. I think it's really helpful to have a decoder available who can say, okay, this course is going to be offered every semester. So it's okay to wait on this one, but this one this you probably should go ahead and do and
You've been invited to be a research assistant. That's fantastic. Let me tell you what that means so you can make an educated decision. And by the way, it's OK for you to say, that's amazing. Could we do that next semester or next year? I wouldn't have known as a law student that when a professor presented me with an opportunity, I could say, thank you. And could we do that later on?
Speaker 3 (20:55.148)
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I understand that feeling of being in that situation where you're presented with some sort of opportunity and you don't really understand the context for it, right? You don't realize the, how big of a deal it is, right? Or you don't realize like, is this something that I can wait on? Is this something that I need to pursue right now? Like just, just some very basic kind of contextual elements like that, that can kind of elude you.
Mariana, could you talk a little bit about your own experience when it comes to going from your 1L year to your second year, of addressing a little bit about what Professor Adams was saying about how the world sort of opens up a little bit in that second year in terms of what you can pursue professionally and with your courses?
Yeah, absolutely. So going into my, well, first of all, what Professor Adams said is so unbelievably correct. And I definitely wish, again, like I said, my first year, we didn't have this sort of in system that was really, really helping facilitate each transition in law school. I definitely think it would have been really valuable if I had had a mentor who had been a little bit more hands-on, because I think my perspective was just try for everything.
and then whatever kind of works out works out. So I was definitely fortunate in that a lot of things did end up working out, which of course led to a pretty busy second year and hasn't really stopped. But I think definitely something that I've learned from that experience is, you know, now when my mentees are, you know, facing a similar transition, I spend a lot of time kind of sitting down and talking with them and really any student who
kind of comes for the same advice because nobody knows what to do, right? And a lot of students will definitely rely on their venture. And also a lot of them are nervous and want kind of the student on student feedback as well. So we'll talk through, you know, what exactly are your goals for your second year? You know, are you focused on getting a job? Do you want to get more clinical experience? Are you focused on taking a lot of classes that interest you? To try to work through what kind of things they can get involved with.
Speaker 2 (23:10.402)
that aren't going to overwhelm them or have so much on their plate that they're not able to do everything they want to to the best of their abilities. So I think that that's definitely something that's been a big shift, at least I've noticed. I definitely think that while it did work out for me, it definitely was a pretty rough second year just because you over-involve yourself because you don't know.
exactly what's going to be super valuable for you or what you want to be involved in yet. So, you you end up being a TA or you, you know, join an advocacy board or a journal or, you know, all three things you get involved to be a peer mentor. And then you're like, wow, do I even have time for, you know, the whole point you're here, which is law school. So that's definitely something that was really overwhelming for me and a lot of my friends who were, you know, in a similar situation to me as well. But I think that
has really been kind of decoded now and we can sit down and easily be like, let's work through exactly what you want to do. What's going to help you kind of get there the most. And this is my experience. This is what I would have done differently. That kind of thing.
Could you talk a little bit also about how you've narrowed down where your interests are from your own experience? like say if I were a 1L student, right, and I was asking you about this, about how it was that you came to the conclusions that you've reached about your own professional development and where you want to go with your legal career, how did you arrive at those conclusions?
So I think the thing that sort of helped me the most was definitely joining Moot Court. I was in Dean Mullen's R &W or research and writing one and two class. And through her research and writing two class, I realized that I really enjoyed both written and oral advocacy. And so then I was maybe thinking I would tailor maybe towards eventually doing litigation. And from there, it was kind of a shot in the dark whether
Speaker 2 (25:16.45)
I knew I wanted to do an advocacy board, but I didn't know if I should do trial team or moot court or dispute resolution. There's just so many options. I ended up choosing moot court because I thought it was the most similar to what I did in research and writing too. So I just kind of went with that and I ended up really enjoying it, which is definitely a good thing. So from there, I was able to sort of narrow down, okay, I think I wanna end up in litigation.
And then through your classes, of course, you recognize whether or not you think that you kind of have the stomach for, can handle criminal law, or if you want to maybe go a civil route. I also got involved in on-campus clinics. I did the Veterans Advocacy Clinic and also the Advanced Veterans Advocacy Clinic, which gave me a taste for how I would like working more hands-on with clients or whether I'd like to be more behind the scenes. So that all kind of did help narrow it down for me.
But again, a lot of the stuff was just, you know, I think I'll try this. I would look to some of my friends or older students who I thought maybe had figured their lives out well and just kind of copied exactly what they did. But I think that now I definitely try to, as well as all the other ambassadors who serve as readers to kind of be like, okay, this is what I did. This is what my friend did. This is what they're interested in. This is how they got there. And I think that that's been really, really valuable, but.
That's pretty much how I kind of narrowed it down. And I'm really fortunate in the firm that I'm working at after graduation will allow me to rotate through different practice areas. So I'll still be able to continue kind of honing my skills and figuring out what exactly I want to do. But definitely just kind of giving myself the opportunity to try everything was really, really valuable and letting me kind of figure out exactly where my strengths and weaknesses were.
That's great. And congratulations on having the job lined up with that firm for once you graduate as well.
Speaker 2 (27:16.194)
Thank you, very fortunate.
Dean Mullins, it must be nice to hear that your legal writing course had such an impact.
Well, think, you know, it's, it's amazing to hear that. and, you know, I think about our class and the community that we build in legal writing. I think it is part of what makes the experience meaningful and sets students up to find meaning in it and to discern, is this something I want to do? Is this something that's good for me, but I'd like to do something a little different. I'm a huge believer in.
learning in community and Mariana was a key member of that community.
Could you talk a little bit about what you mean by that about learning and community? Because I feel like on an intuitive level, I understand what you mean and value it as well. But I still think it would be interesting to talk a little bit about it in greater detail.
Speaker 1 (28:17.898)
So I think, you know, working in law is necessarily working with other humans and in relationship and in context. And several years ago, I remember reading a report from law firms that said, you know, one of the things they really wish that that recent hires could do better was work with other people.
And that really threw me as an educator. think, well, my goodness, like I have my students do group work. Like, aren't they, aren't they arriving to you like able to do that? And, you the answer was no, they are not. And so I reflected on, you know, why that was. And I realized that, you know, working with others is a learned skill and it's something that's that, that just like any skill, it requires practice and feedback.
So I started putting my legal writing students into permanent teams for the entire semester. So you arrive on day one, the three nice people sitting around you are the three nice people you're gonna be working with intensively for the entire semester. And you don't get to pick, I pick just like it happens in practice. And what I learned from that experience, and so I started doing that several years ago, I still do it to this day.
What I have sort of, the happy lesson that I have gotten from that is that my students learn better and they are more engaged when they learn together, when they are working hands-on together every single class. And they learn to lead in different ways. So there are ways that I can kind of ensure that somebody is a facilitator and I require that job to rotate.
other ways, you know, the students give each other feedback on, you know, here's how you are promoting our team's success and here's how you could better promote our team's success. And so that, you know, watching my students just learn deeper and better and be more engaged and my students come back to me every year saying, you know, my team has been the core of my year. And you know what's funny? I never would have hung out with them or met them because I like to go, you know,
Speaker 1 (30:43.154)
you know, I like to go play intramural softball and this other person likes to go to bar view on Thursday night and that's fine. And this other person, you know, has, you know, a partner in children and we just never would have been buddies. And now these are my people, right? Like these are the people that I go to when I like, I have a question about classes or I just need some support. I want to talk about an idea like, and it's this amazing community. And that is, you know, sort of
That learning and community was a big education to me as an educator. And it's what I brought into my role as an administrator. How do we chunk the students? How do we put them together in cohorts, right? And in cohorts of scaled size, right? You have your group of five or six 1Ls with one upper level student. That's one little cohort. And then you have a group of those in an in led by a venture. That's another cohort. And it is just...
as meaningful and productive for the faculty as it is for the students. Because, you know, when you think back to undergraduate advising, it's like, I mean, faculty advising is one of the most difficult challenges for any school to navigate and do it well. Everybody agrees that students benefit from thoughtful advising. Every single person on the campus will agree to that. Students, faculty, everybody.
figuring out how to do it effectively is horribly difficult. And I still remember as an undergraduate, like I was assigned an advisor who I'm sure was a very lovely person. We met once and there wasn't really a connection and I was kind of terrified. And that was that. I mean, I could have really used some advice too. And I just didn't go and seek it out after that. And now, you know, with the community within the ins,
that is led by a faculty member. mean, my benchers will go to bat for their students any day of the week. No questions asked. If a student has a question they are invited in. If they are so likely to be in Adams Inn, they have tea and they have a faculty member who is really invested in their success and they feel empowered to go and use that resource.
Speaker 1 (33:11.272)
Like this is the most successful faculty student advising system that I have seen. I've been at three law schools as a professor. This is the most effective system that I have ever seen. And our benchers work really hard to make it that way.
This might be a strange connection, but bear with me because I think it's relevant here. I was listening to an interview a little while back with an author who was writing a little bit about child development, right? And he was talking about how one of the problems that can kind of develop with sort of...
helicopter parenting and with models of education that are very much kind of like top down. Here's the adult who's in charge of you is he was saying that so much learning that people do occurs with other people who are right around their same age, right? That ideally you want to be in sort of a mixed cohort of other people who are about as experienced as you.
but a little bit more and a little bit less so that you start to kind of form these relationships where you're able to help people who don't know quite as much as you do and learn from people who know only a little bit more than you do, right? Rather than being in a situation where it's like, you don't know anything and you're with a bunch of other people who don't know anything and there's one person who's kind of directing you all, right? Telling you here's what to do.
And so I think about that, that in this context, because it seems like one of the things that this is, that this program is, really designed to do is to say, okay, yeah, you're in your first year of law school, but that doesn't mean that it's just you and all the other one else just out on your own, trying to figure out this, situation that instead you get embedded into, like you said, a cohort where you have people who are
Speaker 3 (35:19.252)
one year above you and two years above you who can advise you and help you out. And you start to form your own. If you decide that you want to take on that mentoring role as you go into your second year, then you continue to remain kind of embedded within that system in a way that seems like it just must be really, really helpful for people kind of developing their own sense of who they are and how they want to pursue their work in the field.
Yes, a hundred times. Yes. you know, and sometimes hearing something and I will see this with, with teaching assistants. Sometimes I can explain something and I can see when it's not landing and I can turn to my TA and say, you try. And I can see them and they are closer to the learning closer to that moment where, where, where everything clicked into, into place. And the way that they can say it is what will move the needle. It's fascinating. And I think ultimately.
having the privilege of working through a system like that, where you have multiple resources of differing levels of experience, of differing places of skills development, alongside peers who are sort of at the same place as you, but also slightly different. What that helps you do is develop judgment. And that's what you don't get when you have a very top-down, one-person-led sort of waterfall-style learning experience.
It is, you don't have the space to risk. You don't have the support to prop you up when you stumble because you will, because you're human. You know, you've got, and that is ultimately what being a really good lawyer is. It is the exercise of sound professional judgment. That is what we are going for. And to learn how to develop that.
and exercise it with confidence and humility, that's really hard. And that is what we want our students to start, you know, start that journey towards from the second they step on campus. And I think what you are, you know, the model that you were just explaining, Dan, that you were just talking about with sort of a mix of abilities and sort of constant adaptation and learning all the time.
Speaker 1 (37:45.794)
That's what will get you there.
Speaker 3 (37:50.03)
I know when I talked to Professor K about this, he mentioned this and Dean Mullins, you've mentioned a little bit about this too. You both mentioned that individual faculty members really sort of put their stamp on their inn. And I'd like to know a little bit, Professor Adams, about do you feel it might be an awkward thing to try to talk about your own, what your own individual stamp is on these things. But could you talk a little bit about that, about how you feel like you've kind of...
created your own particular set of values for your end.
Yes, and I'd like to build on something that Dean Mullins was saying. My biggest desire with my in, and this may sound kind of funny, is for the experience to feel for the students very safe and as though the stakes are much lower than they typically feel in law school. I remember when I was a first year law student,
Everything I did felt like I was on stage and felt as though the stakes were very high when I was in the classroom being called on, when I was trying out for a journal, when I was interviewing. And as I was listening to Dean Mullins, I was thinking about the events that my inn had this year. And some of them were purely social. We got together for trivia toward the end of the semester. That was really fun.
We had an exam study break with puzzles and games. We had some purely social lunches with what I call table topics, where I'd ask them in advance, what kinds of things do you want to talk about? And I would put up little signs on the tables and you could go talk about summer jobs or advocacy boards or journals or whatever you were interested in learning more about. But even the more formal events where we brought in a speaker,
Speaker 4 (39:53.782)
were styled more like what I would call fireside chats where we would bring in a wonderfully impressive and experienced person or persons. But the students typically would encounter such a person outside of the in system only in a very high stakes environment like a networking reception or an interview where the student would be
dressed to impress and would be ready to impress. But in the fireside chat context, they could relax and hear from this person what their work is like. And they could ask the questions they actually have rather than in an interview context, asking the questions you think you're supposed to ask so that you will sound like an impressive candidate. And so
My hope for my end is that the flavor we had this year was warmth and a safe, low stakes environment for learning and exploration.
Yeah, I remember that from when I was in graduate school that if a guest speaker would come or something like that, when you raise your hand afterwards to ask a question, you feel like, OK, here's me at my very best, at my most professional and most thought out trying to deliver a really sophisticated question about the talk that you just gave. Whereas if you went to lunch with someone who was visiting, there would be opportunities to just be like, so.
What just kind of spit balling, like what's your, what have your experiences been about this? What do you think about this topic? Like in a more off the cuff sort of way, or about the, general background of the field in a way that you just weren't going to hear about in a, in a much more formal sort of setting.
Speaker 4 (41:49.558)
Yes, and so the students have the ability because we've brought in people with whom we have a long term relationship. They can again going back to the theme of putting them on the fast track toward replicating an experience that normally takes decades. They don't have the relationship with these folks, but we do. And when we bring them in and set up this informal fireside chat style event.
the student has a really special experience that they wouldn't otherwise be able to have with this person.
Could you talk a little bit about how it just sort of fits into the overall orientation process for new students? Like is this now just kind of orientation is all sort of folded into the ends or are there still other processes as well that this kind of like forms a part of?
So our orientation experience now is it's students start in their ins. They start with that home-based community first. And they get to know the people in their ins and their reader first. They even go through a structured expectation setting session with their reader.
So that, and this is great for the readers because they are facilitating something that is very high level in the professional space. And, you know, everybody has an opportunity to say, here's what I'd like out of this relationship. And here's what we expect from each other. And I think that that creates a system of accountability. you know, so the ends are sort of the core of orientation.
Speaker 1 (43:36.546)
But the students also have some of their orientation experiences in their academic section. So these in their academic section, it's the people that they're going to have most of their first year classes with. So it's maybe approximately 80 students together. And so they have an opportunity to start getting to know that group as well.
The ins are a blend of academic sections and we're actually really thoughtful about each small mentoring group is a blend of all of the academic sections. We wanna be really thoughtful about creating an inclusive dynamic where people have exposure to classmates who they're not gonna be seeing four or five days a week.
I think that is in comparison to most schools, you just know the people in your section and that's it. Which really limits you to a small slice of a really wide diverse class. So the orientation experience is sort of in-based, but also sort of
with some blended full section experiences. And then the entire class gets together at an event off campus hosted by our ambassadors, which Mariana was the chief ambassador this year and she led that group. But so there's also sort of the opportunity for everybody to get together as well and start getting to know each other.
Yeah, Mariana, could you talk a little bit about some of the events that you've hosted?
Speaker 2 (45:34.742)
Yeah, so through ambassadors like Dean Mullins and I explained earlier, they do the bulk of the mentoring of all the incoming students. Of course, know, mentoring relationships are formed naturally as well just throughout the school year, but each incoming student is assigned a student mentor. So outside of the in-events, which of course all the ambassadors are invited to and a lot of them do attend,
We did like Dean Mullins, sort of an off-campus social event after orientation where all of the incoming students, all sections, all ins were invited. The ambassadors went as well. And that was a really great opportunity for all the students to mingle in a less structured, more casual environment than sort of a school setting as well. And then of course, during our exam seasons, we tried to host like a study hall, study break sort of situation where the
mentors are all invited, the readers are all invited and their mentees come as well just to ask questions, exchange outlines. It presents an opportunity where students can come and kind of all be going through the same thing and interact with students who, you know, just went through that exact same thing a semester ago or a year ago or two years ago even and, you know, have a chance to give them some support, give them some advice and
just kind of a place where they can go and relax and take a break from the chaos that can be studying and preparing for exams.
All right, well, thank you so much, everybody. really appreciate you all being here today.
Speaker 1 (47:12.418)
Thank you, Dan and Professor Adams and Mariana. Thank you guys so much for everything you do for your ends.
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