Removing Language Barriers to Student Success and Belonging
Monday, February 9, 2026
4:00
p.m.
- 4:50
p.m.
Online
Faculty
Join Melanie Rabine-Johnson, Academic Resources and Retention Specialist, to discuss college as a foreign culture and language new to students, regardless of their background and experiences. Melanie asserts that student-belonging comes about as a result of feeling included and dignified by a community within a culture of norms and expectations. Using the 6 Principles of TESOL as they relate to research mentoring, Melanie will help faculty participants gain transferable skills for working with diverse student populations to affirm a student’s belonging regardless of background or experiences.
***
Melanie Rabine-Johnson is the Academic Resources and Retention Specialist at Grand Valley State University’s College of Education and Community Innovation, where she works at the intersection of academic advising, student success, and institutional support. She currently advises graduate students in the Master of Social Work program and collaborates closely with faculty and professional advisors to support at-risk students, design student-facing resources, and facilitate professional development programming.
Location Information
Please go to the RSVP Link to register. We will send the zoom invitation out to all registered faculty in a separate email. Please register on or before Friday, February 6 (end of workday), so that we know you intend to participate in order to receive the zoom invitation.
Contact Information
Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship; [email protected]; 616-331-8100
Tags
faculty mentoring ours cuse csce fellowships ftlc
Share this event
Download iCalendar (.ics)
Add to Google Calendar
This event was added on Thursday, December 18, 2025 and was last updated on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 3:46 p.m.