CLAS launches 'signature' effort to strengthen student success

After a multi-year effort aligning programs, faculty and staff members in the vast College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the CLAS Voyage launched this fall to engage students in support systems and learning experiences that will build a foundation for student success.

"The CLAS Voyage is our signature initiative. And at its heart, the Voyage is about student success," said Donovan Anderson, CLAS interim dean. "High-impact experiential learning opportunities improve student performance and contribute to higher retention and graduation rates. 

"An important achievement of the CLAS Voyage is that we have committed to making these experiences accessible to every single one of our students. That’s a really big deal."

The CLAS Voyage guides students through their academic journeys using four central elements:

• The Embarking Experience: During their first year, students engage in experiences inside and outside of the classroom to help create community, learn new skills and explore opportunities.
• Experiential Learning: Research, internships, study abroad opportunities, community engagement and more are woven into programs to ensure every student has at least two of these real-world experiences.
• Reflective Portfolio: Students will use this portfolio to build digital skills while tracking what they've learned, displaying their work and making goal- and career-oriented connections.
• A Capstone Experience: Students will complete a capstone course where they will apply, connect and share what they learned through a final project or thesis. 

The formation of the CLAS Voyage was led by Jennifer Drake, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, while she was dean of the college. The subsequent years have involved a complex building-out of programs, research and creative opportunities, high-impact practices and more.

“The CLAS Voyage is a powerful example of faculty and staff-led innovation at Grand Valley," Drake said. "Built by faculty and staff, it embodies barrier-free experiential learning, career-connected education and the core values of a liberal education. It’s not just a CLAS initiative – it represents the future of a GVSU education and aligns fully with our Academic Affairs Strategic Framework.”

Ensuring that access to high-impact learning meant tireless work and collaboration such as Summer Institutes to help build those experiential learning experiences into each of the 54 majors in CLAS. The Summer Institute this year will focus on the Capstone Experience as faculty and staff refine the key elements of the CLAS Voyage.

Support for that work comes from multiple places, including the CLAS Advising Center – a first critical touchpoint for students – and the CLAS Center for Experiential Learning, which is working to connect community partners to support the work of faculty developing the experiential learning opportunities.

Janet Vigna, associate dean for Voyage, Scheduling, Facilities and Analytics, noted the importance of deep involvement with the multi-layered Embarking Experience as the Voyage gets underway.

"Each unit is planning their best efforts to welcome, connect and guide their students through the first year and beyond," Vigna said. "We are all part of the Embarking Experience for students – advising, welcoming, instructing, tutoring, connecting, mentoring. We’re being very intentional in this critical first year to build the strongest network of support to successfully launch each student’s unique Voyage."