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Annual Report
2015-2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... i
OVERVIEW, HIGHLIGHTS, TRENDS, AND KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS ................................................... 6
Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE) ............................................................................................................ 7
Center for Academic Success ............................................................................................................................ 14
Center for Career Discovery and Development (C2D2) ................................................................................... 23
Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain ......................................................................................................................... 36
STAFF HIGHLIGHTS ......................................................................................................................................... 47
Center for Academic Enrichment ...................................................................................................................... 47
Center for Career Discovery & Development ................................................................................................... 47
Center for Academic Success ............................................................................................................................ 49
The Honors Program ......................................................................................................................................... 50
Center for Serve- Learn-Sustain ........................................................................................................................ 51
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................................... 53
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART ............................................................................................................................ 73
List of Figures
Figure 1: Undergraduate Research Enrollment since AY 2005-06 ....................................................................................... 10
Figure 2: Number of Applicants for PURA by Academic Semester ..................................................................................... 10
Figure 3: Co-op & Internship Fair Companies on Campus Since 2010 ................................................................................ 27
Figure 4: Number of Interviews............................................................................................................................................. 28
Figure 5: Company Visit to Campus throughout the Year .................................................................................................... 29
Figure 6: Full-Time Job Postings........................................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 7: #Undergraduate Students Co-oping ....................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 8: #Undergraduate Students Interning ........................................................................................................................ 32
Figure 9: Total of Unique # of Students Placed in Co-ops and Internships .......................................................................... 33
Figure 10: “Big Ideas” Online Interactive Tool..................................................................................................................... 36
Figure 11 Sustainability Venn Diagram ................................................................................................................................ 37
Figure 12 Student Engagement .............................................................................................................................................. 39
Figure 13: HP Classroom Use ............................................................................................................................................... 42
Figure 14: HP Café Use ......................................................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 15: HP Amenities ....................................................................................................................................................... 44
Figure 16: Sense of belonging ............................................................................................................................................... 45
Figure 17: Overall HP Experience ......................................................................................................................................... 46
List of Tables
Table 1: GT 1000 Enrollment ................................................................................................................................. 7
Table 2: Historic Trends for GT 1000 Enrollment ................................................................................................. 7
Table 3: Survey response ratings from AY 2015-16 UROP Students (N=152) .................................................. 11
Table 4: Student Contacts by Program ................................................................................................................. 15
Table 5: Common Tutoring and Study Contact Hours ......................................................................................... 16
Table 6: CETL 2001 Enrollment .......................................................................................................................... 16
Table 7: 1:1 Tutoring Survey Feedback................................................................................................................ 17
Table 8: PLUS Grade Comparison for Fall 2015 ................................................................................................. 18
Table 9: PLUS Statistics for Spring 2016 ............................................................................................................. 18
Table 10: Reboot Stats .......................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 11: CAS Workshops ................................................................................................................................... 22
Table 12: Total Number of Interviews Fall and Spring ........................................................................................ 29
Table 13: Fall 2015 ............................................................................................................................................... 29
Table 14: Spring 2016 ........................................................................................................................................... 29
Table 15: Student registered and placed in Co-ops and Internships ..................................................................... 33
i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) comprised of the Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE),
Center for Academic Success (CAS), Center for Career Discovery & Development (C2D2), the Center for
Serve-Learn-Sustain, and the Honors Program (HP) works to develop an intellectual community at Georgia
Tech, provide experiential learning opportunities, and foster faculty/student interaction. CAS provides students
with services to guide them with earning their degree, to enhance their study habits and to support them in
academic areas in which they desire personal improvement. Each of OUE’s reporting units have a unique role in
supporting and cultivating the development of undergraduate students at Georgia Tech. CAE fosters
faculty/student interaction through a variety of programs, seminars, living-learning communities and other
events in which ideas can be exchanged and new initiatives can be developed. C2D2 provides resources and
programs designed to help students identify meaningful career paths, obtain co-op and internship opportunities,
and pursue full-time employment after graduation. CSLS prepares students for the real-world impact of their
chosen discipline by providing content and context for learning and service around the theme “creating
sustainable communities.” The Honors Program creates an environment in which students and faculty learn
from one another through a common commitment to intellectual inquiry, careful analysis and the energetic
exchange of ideas. This report details OUE’s contribution to the institute’s goals and missions by describing
OUE’s activities, highlights, trends, and key accomplishments over the past year. A few notable events from
this year’s unit activities are highlighted below:
Center for Academic Enrichment
GT 1000
• A total of 107 sections of GT 1000 were offered in AY 2015-16 involving 1,901 first-year students
(64.3% of the freshman cohort), more than 141 faculty and staff who volunteered to serve as instructors,
and over 340 upper class level student volunteers serving as Team Leaders (TLs) who work closely with
the instructor and advise, support and mentor the freshmen.
This year featured two newly developed GT 1000 sections: a section offered by C2D2, and a Start-Up
section for students interested in entrepreneurship. Additionally, In collaboration with Leadership
Education and Development (LEAD), CAE introduced a pilot program in five sections of GT 1000 in
Fall 2015 for developing leadership skills in our students. GT 1000 also partnered with the Inclusive
Postsecondary Academy Excel program to include nine Excel students with mild intellectual and
developmental disabilities in various GT 1000 classes in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016.
In addition to GT 1000, a new course, GT 2000: Transfer Student Seminar, was proposed and accepted
by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and approved by the Faculty Senate in Spring 2016. Four
sections of GT 2000 will be offered in Fall 2016. This official course was the offspring of the special
topics course, GT 2813, which CAE has been offering since Fall 2014 to transfer students in order to
assist their matriculation to Tech.
GT 2000
• Four sections of GT 2000 will be offered in Fall 2016. This official course was the offspring of the
special topics course, GT 2813, which CAE has been offering since Fall 2014 to transfer students in
order to assist their matriculation to Tech. In the Fall, three sections of the course were offered with a
total enrollment of 70 students.
ii
Student Innovation
• The Kickoff session of the 8th Georgia Tech InVenture Prize competition, the nation’s largest
undergraduate invention competition, occurred in September with the semi-finals in February, and the
finals in March. Six finalists were selected to pitch their inventions/startups to a panel of three
“celebrity” judges (John Marshall, co-founder and senior vice president and general manager of
AirWatch; Wendi Sturgis, Chief Customer Officer of Yext; and Lonnie Johnson, prolific inventor and
best known for the popular invention, The Super Soaker) on March 15th, 2016 in front of a live audience
of ~1000 people. The final round was broadcast on television via Georgia Public Broadcasting as well as
streamed worldwide online. The winner of the competition was FireHUD, second place went to Wobble,
and the people’s choice award went to TruePani. This year CAE had tremendous growth in the K12
InVenture Prize Challenge, which is a modified version of the InVenture Prize for elementary, middle
school and high school students. Approximately 1,500 students from 40 elementary, middle and high
schools participated. This growth equates to about a three-fold increase from the previous year.
Undergraduate Research
• During the 2015-16 academic year there were 2,797 students enrolled in undergraduate research courses
compared to the 2,782 in the 2014-15 academic year. This was a small increase of .53% from last year.
In summer 2015, 383 students were enrolled in undergraduate research courses. For the following fall
semester, 1,141 students enrolled in undergraduate research courses. For spring 2016, 1,273 students
were registered for research. Looking at the trend over time, since AY 2005-06, the number of students
enrolled in undergraduate research courses has been steadily increasing.
The President’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA)
• The President’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) are competitive grants awarded to
undergraduate students to conduct research with Georgia Tech faculty or to present their research at
professional conferences. During AY 2015-16, 405 students applied for PURA awards with 265 students
receiving the award.
Center for Academic Success
Tutoring and Peer-Led Undergraduate Study (PLUS)
• 1-to-1 tutoring saw several changes this year. CAS introduced a “Checking for Understanding” feature
that strove to determine if goals that students set for each session were achieved. Overall 1,387 students
made and kept 4,524 appointments. • According to the 1:1 Tutoring survey, 94% of tutees indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their
tutoring session. As in the past, CAS received comments that reflect the following, “I’m so happy Tech offers this.
I wish there were tutors for upper level classes as well.”
• For PLUS, an analysis of the average GPA by attendance suggests that those who saw the most advantage
pertaining to GPA were regulars, students who visited the center more than five times. In fall 2015, the GPA for
regulars was 3.19, for non-regulars (1-5 visits) it was 3.10 and for non-PLUS participants it was 3.00. In spring
2016 for regulars the GPA was 3.23, and 3.06 for non-regulars and 3.07 for non-PLUS participants. The data
suggest that for the impact of PLUS to be greatest, students should attend at least five sessions per semester.
GT 2100
iii
• Established in support of Georgia Tech’s Complete College Georgia plan, GT 2100, Seminar on
Academic Success, served 154 students this academic year – up by 36 students from 118 last year. This
academic year CAS began offering GT 2100 for students returning from academic dismissal in the
summer. CAS also piloted and continued a version of GT 2100 for students who are on probation.
Participation is voluntary and students self-refer. CAS’s aim is to offer the GT 2100 intervention to
students who recognize the need for this additional help at a time when they can truly benefit most. As
CAS tracks the success rate of students who take GT 2100 for readmitted students, we continue to see
significant impact and are on track to exceed the rate at which students succeeded prior to the inception
of GT 2100.
Coaching Appointments and Workshops
• Coaching appointments increased dramatically, from 698 in 2014-15 to 1940 this year. This is a result of
a number of factors including the required coaching component in GT 2100 courses, GT 2100 alumni’s
continued participation, the introduction of group coaching, the addition of a part-time (30 hours/week)
academic coach, and a growing interest in academic coaching. • CAS saw remarkable growth in the number of students who participate in its workshops resulting from a number
of strategies implemented this year. Student Lingo, an on-line, on-demand series of student workshops that is
available 24/7 virtually anywhere, is a new service. A Friends of the Center list serve was created, which has 400
student members. Finally, CAS continued to foster relationships with its campus partners. Additionally, center
staff have presented customized workshops as requested.
• The Center continues to be a CRLA Level III certified tutor training program. Students who successfully
complete CETL 2001 and have the requisite hours of tutoring receive certification.
Center for Career Discovery & Development
Career Fair
• The All Majors Annual Career Fair kicked off the on-campus recruiting season in September, 2015.
This year, 359 companies participated in the event and 5,340 students attended.
Resume & Cover Letter
• Due to the high demand for C2D2’s Resume and Cover Letter presentation in GT 1000 classes, a resume
video was developed. This video will help C2D2 cover GT 1000 classes more efficiently while
simultaneously introducing students to a vital career-related topic.
Experiential Learning
• For AY 2015-16, including Summer 2015, 2,201 students registered for either an internship or co-op
with approximately 53% placed in co-ops and a little over 17% placed in internships.
Pre-Professional and Pre-Graduate School Advising
• This year, a new area was established within C2D2 encompassing pre-health, pre-teaching, pre-law, pre-graduate,
and prestigious fellowships advising – the Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional (PGPP) Advising team as part of the
2015 reorganization of Georgia Tech’s Office of Undergraduate Education. Led by Dr. Shannon Dobranski, this
area brings together in one area pre-health, pre-law, and pre-teaching, and prestigious fellowship advising and
connects it closely with experiential learning and career development. In addition, it provides general advising for
students interested in graduate and professional education.
iv
Serve-Learn-Sustain
Interactive Tool (a tree map) Built
• An interactive tool (a tree map) housed on the CSLS’s website (http://serve-learn-
sustain.gatech.edu/submit-your-big-idea) where faculty and staff can share their ideas on what it means
to create sustainable communities was developed to assess the extent to which conversations and
collaborations take place around this theme. The ideas are linked to definitions and examples written by
the people who proposed them, representing many different fields and perspectives. Developed by CSLS
graduate student workers, the tree map tool can easily be revised and expanded to incorporate new input;
and the website includes a form for more people to submit new ideas. The Big Ideas (presenting 50+
ideas, all proposed by faculty and staff, as ideas from their disciplines and work that they believe are
important with regard to creating sustainable communities) have proven very popular in helping a broad
swath of people see the theme of “creating sustainable communities” as related to their interests and
work, including faculty who have affiliated courses with CSLS for 2016-17 based on course content
related to one or more of these ideas.
Multidisciplinary Collaboration
• SLS promoted multidisciplinary collaboration that ties into faculty research interests by developing a
SLS fellows programs bringing together faculty, students, staff, and partners.
• In response to SLS’s call for applications for the fall semester program, SLS received 48 nominations
and applications and accepted 32 people, including faculty and graduate students from all six colleges,
19 schools, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), as well as staff from Campus Services.
Two fellows programs that focus on themes aligned with National Science Foundation (NSF) initiatives:
Food, Energy, Water Systems (Fall) and Smart Cities (Spring) have been developed and will be offered
in AY 2016-17. These programs will be co-led by faculty from different colleges and will bring together
faculty, staff, and graduate students to meet with select community, municipal, and industry partners and
explore these themes from different research, teaching, and practice perspectives. Each fellow will work
on an individual objective related to their interests, and the group will also determine and carry out a
group project.
INSS Conference
• SLS co-hosted the Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) conference in June 2016 with the
College of Design and the College of Engineering, in partnership with the Westside Communities
Alliance. The conference theme was “Paths to Social Sustainability: Building a Research, Teaching, and
Action Agenda for the Southeast.” This conference brought together approximately 105 faculty, staff,
students, and partners, primarily from Atlanta, to participate in the national, multi-sited conference of
the Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS), an NSF Research Coordination Network run
out of University of North Carolina at Charlotte that explores the “social” side of sustainability.
• Following the conference, a survey was sent to 105 conference participants; 66 responded to the survey
to yield a response rate of 63%. Approximately 27.9% (17) conference participants rated their
knowledge of social sustainability as either “Negligible” or “Minimal” and 72.1% (44) as “Fair” or
“Good” prior to attending the conference. The vast majority of conference participants (85.2% or 52),
however, reported that their understanding of social sustainability had either “Greatly improved” or
“Somewhat improved” at the conclusion of the conference.
v
The Honors Program
West Campus Location
• The Honors Program successfully transitioned to its new West Campus location in fall 2015, with 202
first-year HP students residing in Hefner-Armstrong (floors one through three) and with new HP
classrooms, HP Café, and HP staff offices occupying the ground floor. First-year HP students reported
very high levels of satisfaction with the consolidated Living Learning Community (LLC) experience.
Nearly 40% elected to extend their LLC experience by residing in the HP Apartment Block in Crecine in
2016-17.
Expansion of Curricular Offerings
• In collaboration with academic departments, the HP expanded its curricular offerings and worked to
ensure that classes met expectations for HP classes: active-learning with significant student-faculty
engagement, typically small, and often incorporating interdisciplinarity. HP students reported very high
levels of satisfaction with HP classes (72% of 133 students surveyed expressed very good or excellent
experience).
Community
• The number of HP students recruited to serve as Triple Leaders for 2016-17 (3) is nearly double the
number recruited for 2015-16, suggesting a positive trend to increased engagement of upper-level HP
students in supporting and building the HP community.
OVERVIEW, HIGHLIGHTS, TRENDS, AND KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
7
Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE)
The Center for Academic Enrichment’s mission is to foster growth by giving students the opportunity to engage
with one another and faculty in research and innovation programs, academic seminars, campus-wide
engagement programs, living-learning communities, and other events in which they can share ideas, explore
possibilities, and take initiative. Five CAE programs and initiatives accomplish this mission: 1) GT 1000 First
Year Seminar 2) Project One 3) Think Big 4) Undergraduate Research, and 5) Student Innovation. The
activities and accomplishments of these five programs/initiatives are presented in detail below.
GT 1000 First Year Seminar
A total of 102 sections of GT 1000 were offered in Fall 2015. This involved 141 faculty and staff who
volunteered to serve as instructors and over 340 students who volunteered as Team Leaders (TLs) – upper-class
students who work closely with the instructor and advise, support and mentor the freshmen. Five sections of GT
1000 were offered in Spring 2016. Table 1 presents details on Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 enrollment and Table
2 on enrollment data since 2009.
Table 1: GT 1000 Enrollment
Fall 2015 Spring 2016
Total Number of Sections 102 5
General Sections 58 4
Departmental Sections 26 0
Cohort Sections 18 1
Total Enrollment 1860 42
General Sections 854 30
Departmental Sections 602 0
Cohort Sections 404 12
Table 2: Historic Trends for GT 1000 Enrollment
2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
Total GT 1000 Enrollment 1966 1969 1897 1843 1669 1642 1902
Total Freshman Enrollment 2929 2861 2735 3047 2576 2490 2956
% of Freshman Cohort in GT 1000
67.12% 68.82% 69.36% 60.49% 64.79% 65.94% 64.34%
A total of 1,901 first-year students took the GT 1000 class in 2015-16, with 1859 students taking the class in the
Fall and 42 students taking the class in the Spring. Of these 1,901 students, 45.9% registered for an
interdisciplinary section (these sections are generally taught by campus administrators with advanced degrees
and knowledge of first-year transition issues), 32.3% registered for a departmental section (these sections are
offered within a school or college and restricted to students in those majors or to students who are strongly
considering a certain major; they are typically taught by faculty in those departments and have a stronger focus
on that particular major), and 21.7% registered for a cohort section (these sections are either restricted to
8
freshmen who are part of a specific program or freshmen who are interested in a particular area such as
“Undergraduate Research,” “Women in Leadership,” and “International Education”). Overall, 64.3% of
students of the freshman cohort enrolled in GT 1000 during their first year.
At the Fall 2015 GT 1000 Banquet, Craig Womack, Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Sheller College
of Business was awarded “Instructor of the Year,” and Michael Laughter from the Center for Career Discovery
and Development (C2D2) was awarded “Friend of the First-Year Seminar” for his outstanding service to the
program over the years.
This year featured two newly developed GT 1000 sections: a section offered by C2D2, and a Start-Up section
for students interested in entrepreneurship. GT 1000 partnered with C2D2 to produce a video on resume-writing
for first-year students that was made available for use to instructors in GT 1000 classes. In collaboration with
Leadership Education and Development (LEAD), CAE introduced a pilot program in five sections of GT 1000
in Fall 2015 for developing leadership skills in our students. GT 1000 also partnered with the Inclusive
Postsecondary Academy Excel program to include nine Excel students with mild intellectual and developmental
disabilities in various GT 1000 classes in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016.
In addition to GT 1000, a new course, GT 2000: Transfer Student Seminar, was proposed and accepted by the
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and approved by the Faculty Senate in Spring 2016. Four sections of GT
2000 will be offered in Fall 2016. This official course was the offspring of the special topics course, GT 2813,
which CAE has been offering since Fall 2014 to transfer students in order to assist their matriculation to Tech.
In the Fall, three sections of the course were offered with a total enrollment of 70 students. Two sections of GT
2813 were also offered in the spring with a total enrollment of 28 students.
Project One
The Project One theme for 2015-16 was “Serve-Learn-Sustain” and the common first-year reading selected for
the theme was Edward Humes’s Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. The book was meaningfully
incorporated into the Writing and Communication Program’s Common First Week, which includes curriculum
experienced by the vast majority of first-year students.
Project One events included a campus visit and plenary lecture by author Ed Humes. In addition to his lecture,
Humes visited a GT 1000 class, participated in a round-table with faculty and staff, and was interviewed by
students working on the 4.33 podcast - a podcast about the sounds that define Georgia Tech and its
communities. Other Project One events included a lecture by Dr. Annalisa Bracco, a professor in the School of
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, campus sustainability tours during Family
Weekend, and a panel discussion on the Library Renewal Project.
In Spring 2016, Project One partnered with the School of Industrial Design, the Office of the Arts, and the
Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement to create the Georgia Tech Piano Project. This initiative was
designed to encourage student wellness and engagement in the arts by providing playable pianos for students
to enjoy in select locations across campus, while also offering an Industrial Design learning experience in the
process. Students in two sections of COA 1012: Fundamentals of Design and the Built Environment II
presented re-designs of a recycled piano to interested stakeholders from various departments on campus. One
design, the “Stress-Less Piano,” was selected among 40 student-created submissions to be produced. The
project culminated with a concert on the Stress-Less piano on the Clough Undergraduate Commons Rooftop
Garden.
9
Think Big
Of ten ThinkBig communities offered, six garnered sufficient student enrollment to take place during the 2015-
16 academic year, with a total of 203 students who signed up for those communities. The decrease from 309
participants the previous year was expected, and resulted from a new policy that students in a community could
no longer room with students not participating in a Think Big community. The policy was implemented to
discourage students from signing up for a community in order to get a space in a particular residential hall
rather than to participate actively in the community housed in that space. For the first time, a highly
academically-focused community, Astrobiology, was offered, with disappointing enrollment.
The communities which had sufficient interest from students to move forward, with enrollment figures, are as
follows:
ATL: Explore, Dream, Discover 26
Center Stage: The Performing Arts and Georgia Tech 23
International House 51
StartUp House 21
Sustainability and Society 34
Women, Science, and Technology (WST) 48
Sustainability and Society did not continue into the Spring Semester, as the faculty leader took a one-semester
position teaching abroad, and no one was identified to lead the community in her absence.
The role and structure of the ThinkBig program was a topic of much thought and discussion as 2016 dawned,
and it was decided that, moving forward, each community should be overseen by a campus department, school,
or college, to ensure sustainability of the communities offered. Four communities were offered in 2016, each of
which met that criterion. One, StartUp House, did not garner sufficient student enrollment, so three
communities will be offered in Fall 2016.
The coming year promises exciting changes in ThinkBig, as a full-time staff member will be hired to oversee
the program, and a focus on an academic component of the communities will help to morph ThinkBig into a
bona-fide Living Learning Community program.
Undergraduate Research
During the 2015-16 academic year there were 2,797 students enrolled in undergraduate research courses
(XX2698, XX2699, XX4698, XX4699) compared to the 2,782 in the 2014-15 academic year. This was a small
increase of only .53% from last year. In summer 2015, 383 students were enrolled in undergraduate research
courses. For the following fall semester, 1,141 students enrolled in undergraduate research courses. For spring
2016, 1,273 students were registered for research. Figure 1 presents detailed undergraduate enrollment trends
over the last decade.
10
Figure 1: Undergraduate Research Enrollment since AY 2005-06
Additional data relevant to undergraduate research were reported in the 2015 Cooperative Institutional Research
Program (CIRP) Report. The response to the question “What is your best guess as to the chance you will:
Participate in mentored undergraduate research such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program”
increased from 19.2% in 2006 to 47.1% in 2015 for incoming Georgia Tech freshmen. The 2015 Georgia Tech
Exit Survey has 37.8% (37.6% in 2014) of Tech graduating seniors reporting they participated in research at
some point during their undergraduate education.
The President’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) are competitive grants awarded to undergraduate
students to conduct research with Georgia Tech faculty or to present their research at professional conferences.
For summer 2015, CAE had 81 students apply and awarded 60. Of those 60, 56 were salary stipends and four
were travel stipends. CAE received 153 total applications for PURA in Fall 2015, 103 of which were ultimately
awarded (70 salary awards and 33 travel awards). Spring 2016 saw 171 applications, and 102 students were
awarded (74 salary awards and 28 travel awards). The total applications for the AY 2015-16 was 405 compared
to 379 in 2014-15. Figure 2 presents the semester breakdown for AY 2014-15 and AY 2015-16.
Figure 2: Number of Applicants for PURA by Academic Semester
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
2698
2699
4698
4699
Total
77
130
172
81
153
171
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Summer 2014 Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Summer 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016
11
The Research Option (RO) provides students a substantial, in-depth research experience that culminates in the
production of a thesis. In Summer 2015, UROP offered one section of LMC 4701 (Undergraduate Research
Proposal Writing) and LMC 4702 (Undergraduate Research Thesis Writing) with eight students enrolling. In
the fall, UROP offered six total sections of the two courses, with an enrollment of 45 students in LMC 4701 and
27 students in LMC 4702, and a total of 14 students graduated with the Research Option. In Spring 2016, three
sections of each class were again offered, with 44 students taking LMC 4701 and 40 students taking LMC 4702.
In Spring, 42 students graduated with the Research Option designation for an academic year total of 56. This is
an increase of 28% compared to last year’s total of 44 graduates.
The 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 19, 2016 featured 201 students delivering 158
presentations (123 poster presentations and 35 oral presentations), and 108 Georgia Tech faculty and staff
members volunteered as judges. Following the symposium, six student teams received awards for their oral
presentations, nine student teams received awards for their poster presentations, and 10 students were honored
as recipients of this year’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards.
CAE surveyed all undergraduate students who participated in research for either course credit or pay during the
academic year 2015-2016. The survey was designed to understand the needs of research students, evaluate
personal gains and skill development, evaluate the role of their research mentors, and provide CAE with helpful
feedback and suggestions for programmatic improvement. CAE provided a sampling of two questions that were
of interest to our program. When asked to rate their working relationship with their research adviser, 88.15%
selected “Excellent or Good,” and when asked to rate their overall research experience, 86.84% selected
“Excellent or Good” (Table 3).
Table 3: Survey response ratings from AY 2015-16 UROP Students (N=152)
Student Innovation This year was the 8th Georgia Tech InVenture Prize, the nation’s largest undergraduate invention competition.
The competition began in September with the initial Kickoff Session of the InVenture Prize, which informed
the participants of the timeline, rules and expectations. Throughout the fall, the InVenture Prize organizers
conducted a series of workshops, met one-on-one with student teams, and provided $5,180 in prototype awards.
Ultimately, 537 students signed-up for the competition and 267 students (~60 teams), a record number, actually
registered and competed for the 2016 InVenture Prize. The preliminary round was held on January 21st via a
gallery-style setting in the Klaus atrium. Judges from the faculty and staff of the Georgia Tech community
selected 26 teams to continue on to the semifinals. The semifinals, a shark-tank style pitch competition,
occurred on February 2nd. From 7am to 7pm student teams were allotted three minutes to make their pitch
Answer Option Poor Fair Good Excellent N/A
My working relationship with my direct research adviser. 6.58% 5.26% 28.29% 59.87% 0.00%
My working relationship with research group members. 2.63% 6.58% 32.24% 48.03% 10.53%
The amount of time I spend doing meaningful research. 5.92% 18.42% 37.50% 37.50% 0.00%
The advice my research adviser provided about careers or
graduate school. 17.76% 31.58% 48.03% 67.11% 35.53%
The research experience overall. 2.63% 10.53% 32.24% 54.61% 0.00%
12
followed by 15 minutes to answer judges’ questions. At the conclusion of the semifinals, six finalists were
chosen by a panel of judges. The finalists included:
• FireHUD - a real time monitoring system and Heads Up Display (HUD) that shows biometric and
environmental data to firefighters and outside officials.
• FretWizard - an artificial intelligence system that learns how to play guitar songs and teaches users what
it's learned.
• TruePani - a household sanitation solution, consisting of a passive antimicrobial cup and storage water
device, that kills harmful microbes in drinking water at the point-of-use level.
• TEQ Charging - a power management system for electric vehicle chargers to reduce the cost of
installation, increase the efficiency of charging, and therefore, provide greater accessibility to charging.
• RoboGoalie – an automatic soccer retrieval device that collects the ball and launches it back to the user
and doubles the efficiency of soccer practice.
• Wobble - a dynamic balance testing device to improve concussion recovery assessments for athletes.
The six finalists competed in the finals by pitching their inventions/startups to a panel of three “celebrity”
judges (John Marshall, co-founder and senior vice president and general manager of AirWatch; Wendi Sturgis,
Chief Customer Officer of Yext; and Lonnie Johnson, prolific inventor and best known for the popular
invention, The Super Soaker) on March 15th, 2016 in front of a live audience of ~1000 people. The final round
was broadcast on television via Georgia Public Broadcasting as well as streamed worldwide online. The winner
of the competition was FireHUD, second place went to Wobble, and the people’s choice award went to
TruePani. This year CAE had tremendous growth in the the K12 InVenture Prize Challenge, which is a
modified version of the InVenture Prize for elementary, middle school and high school students. Approximately
1,500 students from 40 elementary, middle and high schools participated. This growth equates to about a three-
fold increase from the previous year.
Building off the success of the InVenture Prize, Georgia Tech hosted the inaugural 2016 Atlantic Coast
Conference (ACC) InVenture Prize. This competition was planned and organized by a 15-member steering
committee with representatives from each ACC institution. In the summer of 2015 CAE was awarded $175,000
from the ACC to fund the competition. This left CAE about $150K short so each university contributed $10,000
to make the budget whole.
Throughout the fall and early spring, member institutions of the ACC held their own competitions to identify
the team to represent their institution at the ACC competition. Fifteen teams were ultimately selected. These 15
teams came to Atlanta on April 5th-6th to engage in the competition and associated conference activities. The
ACC InVenture Prize began with a preliminary round with each team given 2 minutes and 45 seconds to pitch
their invention/startup company to a panel ACC alumni serving as judges. The alumni were charged with
selecting the 5 finalists. The finalists were teams from Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, University of
North Carolina and University of Virginia (Descriptions of all 15 teams can be found at
http://accinventure.gatech.edu/acc-teams). The final competition was held April 6th before a live audience. The
audience represented members of the Atlanta startup community, ACC alumni, the Georgia Tech community
and the general public. The inaugural competition was broadcast on live television via 10 Public Broadcasting
Service affiliates down the east coast. Our finalist judges were Tammy Camp from 500 Startups, Doron Weber
of the Sloan Foundation and Viv Goldstein of General Electric. The People’s Choice Award went to Georgia
Tech’s FireHUD, 2nd Place went to the University of Virginia’s Contraline and 1st Place went to BioMetrix from
Duke University.
In addition to the competition, student participants engaged in other innovation and startup activities while they
were in the Atlanta area. They were able to meet with the media, which included the Associated Press. This led
13
to coverage of the ACC InVenture Prize by newspapers from the San Francisco Chronicle to the Miami
Herald to the Washington Times. The students were also able to tour some of the local Atlanta incubators
including TechWorks, Tech Square Labs, and Atlanta Tech Village. Students were also able to take a tour of
Georgia Tech Invention Studio. All 15 teams demonstrated their work at a Demo Day and reception following
the final competition to all audience members.
14
Center for Academic Success
The Center for Academic Success’s mission is to support undergraduate students in their efforts to achieve their
academic goals, develop into self-regulated learners, and thrive within Georgia Tech's rigorous and
academically challenging environment. In 2015-16, the Center for Academic Success (CAS) enjoyed several
notable achievements:
GT 2100
GT 2100, Seminar on Academic Success, served 154 students this academic year. This is up by 36 students
from 118 last year. Several new initiatives contributed to this growth. This academic year we began offering GT
2100 for students returning from academic dismissal in the summer. CAS also piloted and continued a version
of GT 2100 for students who are on probation. Participation is voluntary and students self-refer. CAS’s aim is to
offer the GT 2100 intervention to students who recognize the need for this additional help at a time when they
can truly benefit most because, as one student put it, “It is the best time because you have more time to change
things around and avoid dismissal.” Another indicated that, “It is best to address the problem as early as
possible because you will have less of a hole to dig yourself out of and a better opportunity to resuscitate your
GPA.” CAS plans to continue both interventions.
As CAS tracks the success rate of students who take GT 2100 for readmitted students, CAS continues to see
significant impact and is on track to exceed the rate at which students succeeded prior to the inception of GT
2100. The majority of participants meet the terms of their contract in their returning and subsequent semesters;
however, those students dismissed again tend to do so in their first semester returning to the Institute. CAS has
begun reaching out to advisors in an attempt to improve the selection process and review the conditions of
student contracts.
Coaching Appointments and Workshops
Coaching appointments increased dramatically, from 698 in 2014-15 to 1940 this year. This is a result of a
number of factors including the required coaching component in GT 2100 courses, GT 2100 alumni’s continued
participation, the introduction of group coaching, the addition of a part-time (30 hours/week) academic coach,
and a growing interest in academic coaching.
CAS saw remarkable growth in the number of students who participate in its workshops resulting from a
number of strategies implemented this year. Student Lingo, an on-line, on-demand series of student workshops
that is available 24/7 virtually anywhere, is a new service. A Friends of the Center list serve was created, which
has 400 student members. Finally, CAS continued to foster relationships with its campus partners. Additionally,
center staff have presented customized workshops as requested.
The Center continues to be a CRLA Level III certified tutor training program. Students who successfully
complete CETL 2001 and have the requisite hours of tutoring receive certification.
Assessment CAS staff continues to improve its data collection for assessment and reporting purposes, and consistently uses
the results to inform decisions as CAS serves in the areas where it is most effective.
One of CAS’s outcomes compared the performance of Tech Prep participants to non-participants. The
assessment results revealed that of the Tech Prep participants and their incoming cohort, those who took MATH
1151 in the semester after Tech Prep have a higher GPA in MATH 1551 than other incoming freshmen who did
15
not take Tech Prep. Participants also have a lower DFW rate. Also, of note is the fact that the Tech Prep
participant average overall GPA for the first year is 3.07 (see appendix).
Operations
This year, CAS supported Georgia Tech students in a myriad of ways, such as providing 23,461 contact points
with 6,967 Georgia Tech Students (Table 4). CAS also managed the logistics and data collection for Commons
Tutoring (Help Desk), which served another 3241 unique students for 14,665 visits; additionally, over 1,637
unique students logged over 4,141 study hours this year (Table 5). Even though the overall number of contact
hours decreased, it should be noted that the number of unique students who used CAS’s services increased
(Table 4). Finally, CAS staff provided instruction for two courses, GT 2100 and CETL 2001), and hired and
trained 93 student workers in the fall and 97 in the spring.
Table 4: Student Contacts by Program
Center for Academic Success – Student Contacts (2015 – 2016) Program/Service # of Unique Students # of Student Contacts/visits
TP
LP
PR
OG
RA
MS
1-to-1 Tutoring
Summer 2015 122 (66) 439 (222)
Fall 2015 700 (756) 2169 (2380)
Spring 2015 565 (703) 1916 (2620)
PLUS (Peer-Led Undergraduate Study)
Fall 2015 1640 (1993) 6039 visits (8042)
(8577 contact hours) (11,163)
Spring 2016 1204 (1745) 4155 visits (7683)
(5,759 contact hours) (10,397)
BME FOCUS - NEW
Fall 2015 38 78
Spring 2016 46 65
Tech PrEP 48 (69) ---
SU
CC
ES
S P
RO
GR
AM
S
Success Summit 54 (39) 162
Academic Coaching 459 (240) 1940 (698) contact hrs.
Reboot 132 (74) 507 (240)
All Workshops 1805 (598) 1873 (618)
GT 2100 – Seminar on Academic Success
GT 2100 – Readmitted Students
Fall 2015 78 ---
Summer 2015 9 ---
Spring 2016 39 ---
GT 2100 – Probation NEW ---
Fall 2015 16 ---
Spring 2016 12 ---
TOTAL 6967 (6401)
Unique Students
19,343 (22,611) visits
23,461 (28,446) contact hours (excludes GT 2100 &Tech Prep)
Note: Numbers in parenthesis are from the previous year.
16
Table 5: Common Tutoring and Study Contact Hours
Other CAS Contacts/ Services Unique Contact/Visits
Commons Tutoring
Fall 2015 1852 (2011) 8096 (7171)
Spring 2016 1389 (1491) 6569 (5763)
F’15 S’16 F’15 S’16
Math Lab 507 (519) 413 (380) 1305 (1327) 1503 (1091)
CS Help Desk 536 (536) 467 (453) 3611 (2913) 3133 (2642)
Freshman Chemistry 316 (320) 105 (173) 1239 (841) 403 (488)
Organic Chemistry 204 (280) 155 (173) 745 (918) 494 (552)
Physics 289 (356) 249 (312) 1196 (1172) 1036 (990)
Total 1852 (2011) 1389 (1491) 8096 (7171) 6569 (5763)
Study Hours
Fall 2015 887 (637) 2193 (1548)
Spring 2016 750 (371) 1948 (864) Note: Numbers in parentheses are from the previous year
Table 6: CETL 2001 Enrollment
Tutoring and Peer Learning
1-to-1 Tutoring
1-to-1 tutoring saw several changes this year. CAS introduced a “Checking for Understanding” feature that
strove to determine if goals that students set for each session were achieved. This process continues to be
refined. The survey that students receive was also modified. Questions focused on helping both tutors and tutees
consider the additional, non-content specific skills that students may acquire during a tutoring session. The
numbers for the summer increased; however, there were notable decreases in the fall and spring. Overall 1,387
students made and kept 4,524 appointments (Table 4). This is a decrease from the previous year. CAS attributes
part of this decrease to the change in the math curriculum and its impact in hiring tutors for the various “new”
courses as well as trying to determine which classes had the greatest need for tutors. This should not continue to
be an issue moving forward.
CETL 2001 – Fundamentals of Peer Tutoring
Semester Number Enrolled Number not CAS staff
Fall 2015 50 18
Spring 2016 34 13
17
According to the 1:1 Tutoring survey (Table 7) 94% of tutees indicated that they were satisfied or very
satisfied with their tutoring session. As in the past, CAS received comments that reflect the following, “I’m so
happy Tech offers this. I wish there were tutors for upper level classes as well.”
Table 7: 1:1 Tutoring Survey Feedback
Question Very Satisfied Satisfied
Total
1. Overall, how satisfied were you with your
tutoring session? 74% 20% 94%
Question Strongly Agree Agree
Total
2. I believe attending tutoring will help me
earn a higher grade in this course. 78% 15% 93%
3. I learned a new study skill and/or learning strategy during my tutoring session
73% 15% 88%
Note-taking 8.76%
Predict Test Questions 24.59%
Memorizing 10.78%
Problem-Solving 76.31%
Reading Textbooks 13.38%
Using Resources 18.96%
Goal Setting 7.81%
Time Management 5.58%
Content-Related Strategies 36.54% Note: N = 4,524 (All surveys completed. A survey is completed after each visit; therefore, some students
completed more than one.)
PLUS (Peer-Led Undergraduate Study) The number of PLUS offerings and the variety of the courses covered were reduced this academic year. As with
tutoring, CAS attributes part of this decrease to the change in the math curriculum and its impact in hiring
leaders for the various “new” courses as well as trying to determine which courses would benefit most from
PLUS. This should not continue to be an issue moving forward. Additionally, the Center reduced the number of
PLUS sessions over the previous year to remain within the allotted budget, which contributed to a decrease in
offerings.
As usual, CAS’s PLUS faculty survey continues to improve and much of the feedback is positive; however, it
revealed some areas that CAS needs to work on. CAS continues to educate and communicate with faculty
regarding all that PLUS has to offer.
18
An analysis of the average GPA by attendance suggests that those who saw the most advantage pertaining to
GPA were regulars, students who visited the center more than five times. In fall 2015, the GPA for regulars was
3.19, for non-regulars (1-5 visits) it was 3.10 and for non-PLUS participants it was 3.00 (see Table 8). In spring
2016 for regulars the GPA was 3.23, and 3.06 for non-regulars and 3.07 for non-PLUS participants (Table 9).
The data suggest that for the impact of PLUS to be greatest, students should attend at least five sessions per
semester.
Table 8: PLUS Grade Comparison for Fall 2015
Grade Regulars % Non-
Regulars %
Non-
PLUS
Group
% Grand
Total %
A 126 45.16% 643 43.48% 1138 40.77% 1907 41.92%
B 95 34.05% 423 28.60% 740 26.51% 1258 27.65%
C 37 13.26% 231 15.62% 446 15.98% 714 15.70%
D 12 4.30% 79 5.34% 143 5.12% 234 5.14%
F 4 1.43% 36 2.43% 137 4.91% 177 3.89%
W 5 1.79% 60 4.06% 176 6.31% 241 5.30%
S 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
U 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
I 0 0.00% 7 0.47% 11 0.39% 18 0.40%
Registrations 279 6.13% 1479 32.51% 2791 61.35% 4549 100.00%
ABCS 258 92.47% 1297 87.69% 2324 83.27% 3879 85.27%
DFWU 21 7.53% 175 11.83% 456 16.34% 652 14.33%
GPA 3.19
3.10
3.00
3.05
DFWU rates may be even more telling (Tables 8 and 9). For fall the PLUS regulars have the lowest DFWU rate
– 7.52%, the non-regulars 11.83% and the non-PLUS DFWU was 16.34%. The difference is sgnificant. The
spring has a similar trend with regulars having the lowest DFWU rate – 5.76%, non-regulars with 10.39% and
non-PLUS with 14.20%.
Table 9: PLUS Statistics for Spring 2016
*Grade Regulars % Non-
Regulars %
Non-PLUS
Group %
A 88 46.07% 445 38.20% 1301 42.66%
B 72 37.70% 394 33.82% 865 28.36%
C 20 10.47% 200 17.17% 441 14.46%
D 9 4.71% 54 4.64% 159 5.21%
F 2 1.05% 24 2.06% 115 3.77%
W 0 0.00% 43 3.69% 159 5.21%
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*Grade Regulars % Non-
Regulars %
Non-PLUS
Group %
S 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1 0.03%
U 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
I 0 0.00% 5 0.43% 9 0.30%
Registrations 191 4.33% 1165 26.44% 3050 69.22%
ABCS 180 94.24% 1039 89.18% 2608 85.51%
DFWU 11 5.76% 121 10.39% 433 14.20%
GPA 3.23 3.06 3.07
The top reason students give for not attending PLUS is that the times are not conducive. CAS does its best to
accommodate students. “Doubles,” two-hour exam preparation sessions, continue to have significantly higher
attendance than other sessions and this causes one to wonder how many students see PLUS as test prep, rather
than a constant forum for study and interaction with others and with the material they are studying. Please see
the appendix for additional PLUS statistics.
BME Focus
The BME Focus is the result of a partnership launched between CAS and the Bio-Medical Engineering
program. BME provided the space for tutoring and funding for the tutors. CAS helped provide trained tutors.
Eighty-four unique participants utilized the services (Table 4).
Study Hours
Study hours displayed tremendous growth for this academic year. Unique participants grew from 1,008 to
1,637. The number of visits/contacts expanded by almost 2,000. It grew from 2,412 to 4,141(see Table 5),
which CAS attributed to the power of “word-of-mouth.”
Commons Tutoring
Common tutoring continued to provide centralized access to students who sought help from TAs in Math,
Physics, Chemistry, and CS courses. The Matlab (CS 1371) tutoring (called “Help Desk” by students) continued
to be the most popular of the Commons Tutoring options, causing occasional crowding problems. CAS has
continued to find creative ways to manage overflow when student demand has exceeded the space available.
Tech Prep (Calculus Advantage Program) Tech Prep saw a decrease in participation from 69 students in August 2014 to 48 students. The primary reason
for the drop in participation rates may be attributed to rising program costs that prompted CAS to increase the
student fee for this year's program to $1,295.00
Students who participated in Tech Prep and then took MATH 1151 have a higher GPA in MATH 1551 than the
GPA for the Georgia Tech average freshmen who started Georgia Tech when they did see appendix). The same
is not true of those who took 1552. However, their overall GPA in MATH 1552 was a respectable 2.81. The
Tech Prep participant average overall GPA for the first year is 3.07 (see appendix) and Tech Prep seems to have
met its multiple goals. To quote one student, “I have made so many new friends and have had calculus concepts
that I have failed to understand in high school make sense. I am much more confident to start the school year
than I was when I first started Tech Prep.”
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Success Programs
Academic Coaching Academic coaching continued to expand particularly with the growth of GT 2100. A minimum of three
coaching sessions is required of GT 2100 participants. Several have participated in more than three sessions,
and some have continued academic coaching after GT 2100 was completed. In spring 2016, (48) coaches
identified as GT 2100 alumni. The significant increase in coaching over previous years is reflected in both the
number of unique participants (459) and the number of visits (1,195) for a total of 1940.5 hours of coaching
(see Table 4).
Some new initiatives help explain the dramatic increase where the number of visits more than doubled. Firstly,
we hired a staff member who helped provide additional coaching services. Secondly, CAS successfully
experimented with shorter, 30 minute, follow-up coaching session. Thirdly, CAS piloted group coaching for
GT 2100 alumni [2 sections] and collaborated with advisors in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering to offer one section of targeted group coaching for each. The results were mixed.
CAS’s aim is to refine these interventions and offer them again in the upcoming year.
This year the average number of coaching sessions attended was three. Of the 459 coaches, 88 were brand new
intakes and 154 were current GT 2100 students. Significantly, if CAS excludes the GT 2100 participants, the
average number of coaching sessions attended is still three (3). Very few students only came once. This
suggests that students are willing to return to coaching, and this frequency implies that they see the value.
The most common topics discussed in coaching this year were:
1. Time management (188) 3. Study strategies and habits (123)
2. Organization (115) 4. School/life balance (work, family, extracurricular) (85)
Time Management continued to be the reason why most students sought coaching. Study strategies continued to
be the second most popular reason.
Some demographic information about our students who come to coaching is interesting. CAS received most of
its referrals from advisors, the Reboot program, and workshops. The majority of CAS’s students came from the
College of Engineering (63%). Students of all classifications utilized the program with seniors attending the
most (503 visits), followed by juniors (322 visits), then sophomores (246 visits) and then freshmen (124 visits).
CAS’s aim is to help students seek intervention early on. While some of these students have strong GPAs, many
only came to us when they perceived a crisis. CAS is encouraging students to seek early intervention so that
coaching becomes preventative maintenance and strategizing rather than crisis intervention.
Social media and access to on-line gaming and television make it harder for students to focus and concentrate.
This speaks to their struggle to practice self-discipline and efficacy, which are critical to academic success.
Moving forward, we hope to add workshops on how to help students develop self-discipline and efficacy
especially as it relates to social media.
The final observation is that many students do not utilize academic support resources until they are encouraged
to do so in academic coaching sessions. This speaks to the need to try to improve the campus culture that often
equates seeking help with weakness. CAS’s mantra is that “Smart students seek help when needed.”
21
The Success Summit The Success Summit is a half-day series of workshops and panels and is now open to all student. In the fall, 19
students attended the Summit. In the spring 35 attended. This year CAS had 54 attendees, up from 39 last year.
(see Table 8). CAS has begun to approach the Summit differently by choosing different times (pre-semester),
including different active learning opportunities and marketing to a wider audience. In the spring, CAS included
a faculty panel, which was one of the highlights of the event. The Success Summit helped 54 students start the
fall and spring semesters with increased motivation and an awareness of time management and study skills.
When asked if they would recommend the Summit to a friend, 94% agreed or strongly agreed.
After the Success Summit, one student sent the following message:
I really felt helped by the event even though I wasn't really expecting to (I kinda was just banking on the
free food). It really helped me address the 'fear factor' of struggling at Tech and how my instinctual
reaction was to 'just work/study harder' without really having a plan of action to do so. It was nice to
reaffirm how being here means we're good enough to be here and that the problem lies in constant
preparation for a test rather than how much elbow grease or brain cells you have. It really helped me
figure out how to bubble my time out so that I don't 'run out of time' to study for a test. The student panel
was my favorite part because everything they said covered something that has worried/stressed me out
at school. Thanks a million,
Reboot
Reboot provided seminar-style assistance for students who were not meeting their own academic goals. A total
of 132 students attended one of the two, six-week sessions offered in the fall and spring semesters (see Table
10). This number represents a significant increase over the previous year (see Table 4). This program continues
to grow and CAS encourages students to attend the majority of all sessions in order to get optimal benefit. Hard
work is paying off and word is getting out about the program.
Table 10: Reboot Stats
Reboot
Number of Unique
Attendees Contact Hours
Average
Attendance
Fall 2015
Reboot I 20 (15) 88 (56) 4.4 (9.3)
Reboot II 18 (27) 121 (83) 6.72 (13.8)
Spring 2016
Reboot I 43 (13) 162 (49) 3.77 (9.8)
Reboot II 51 (19) 136 (52) ---- (10.4)
TOTAL 132 (74) 507(240) 3.84 Note: Numbers in parenthesis are from the previous year.
Success Workshops
Success workshops saw remarkable growth in the number of students who participate. CAS strategically
advertised and promoted these workshops in its own sessions and programs and through every avenue it had
including FASET, academic coaching and any workshop presentation CAS was invited to give. Additionally, in
partnership with CCG and Student Lingo, CAS provided four online workshops for topics in which students
22
have demonstrated need (see Table 11). While several students have used this service, it is underutilized and
we will attempt to publicize this option more strategically.
Table 11: CAS Workshops
Workshops
Category Fall 2015 Spring 2016
# of Workshops
Approx. # Served^
# of Workshops
Approx. # Served^
Success Workshops 9 122 12 216
GT 1000 & On-demand Workshops 41 1115^ 5 170^
Student Lingo Workshops 180 visits
122 Unique 70 visits
60 Unique
TOTAL 230 1359 87 446
Note: This number is an approximation because of the number of students in GT 1000. We use average class size rather
than have each student sign in. 1805 unique visits for the year (1359 + 446]
CAS continued to provide LASSI training to GT 1000 instructors and post-LASSI facilitation for GT 1000
classes that requested it. There were 46 invited presentations, most in the fall (see Table 11). Requests came
from GT 1000 professors as well as student organizations on campus. CAS served over 1285 students through
these workshops. CAS’s plan is to continue to foster relationships with our campus partners, GT 1000,
fraternities, sororities and other groups on campus in order to get the words out to students and help them be
more successful.
GT 2100 - Seminar on Academic Success
GT 2100 provided study strategies and support for students returning from academic dismissal and offered one
section for students on probation. Additionally, we have now begun offering a section in the summer. Since the
program’s launch in spring 2014, twenty-nine (29) student participants have graduated from Georgia Tech. Of
the 267 readmitted participants, another 120 continue at Georgia Tech. This reflects that approximately 56% of
all readmitted students graduated or continue at Georgia Tech and approximately 44% have been dismissed (see
appendix). CAS continues to track the success of these students and monitor the success of the probation
students who took GT 2100. Of the 28 students on probation who have taken the course, 23 (82%) continue (see
appendix). The outcomes are encouraging and attest to the impact of this course. CAS continue to track
persistence to graduation.
23
Center for Career Discovery and Development (C2D2)
C2D2’s commitment is to provide career education, resources, and experiential opportunities to Georgia Tech
students across all majors so that they are positioned to launch and sustain satisfying and successful careers that
make a meaningful contribution to society.
This year a newly defined mission and vision that set a new path for C2D2 going forward, were the hallmark of
the 2015-2016 academic year. C2D2 worked tirelessly this past year to not only provide career services, but to
outline a more comprehensive direction for career education so as to better structure the many different ways
students can work towards certain career development learning objectives. C2D2’s new objectives go beyond
helping students get work after graduation (or acceptance to professional or graduate school, or awarding of a
prestigious fellowship), but helping them learn how work works. Additionally, to better streamline career and
pre-graduate school services to undergraduate students, in Fall 2015, the Pre- graduate and Pre-Professional
Programs were merged into C2D2’s overall services. Outlined, below, are additional C2D2 highlights and key
accomplishments.
Programs and Student Participation
Student participation in the Center for Career Discovery and Development programs and events totaled 12,675
student contacts, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels during the Fall 2015, and 9,870 during Spring
2016. Program attendance for signature and special events organized campus-wide totaled 809 students in Fall
2015 and 324 during Spring 2016. C2D2 was represented in 32 sections of GT1000 classes and delivered 64
workshops in Fall 2015 and 44 in Spring 2016 across campus, requested by academic departments, student
organizations, and other departments. C2D2 continued, in partnership with the Office of International
Education, to deliver a series of workshops for international students who are struggling to find employment in
the United States. C2D2 participated and played an important role in a wide variety of programs in partnership
with other organizations, including FASET, Welcome Home Week, GTAAN, Parents’ Weekend, etc.
Special & Signature Events
Mock Interviews and Resume Blitz
The Resume Blitz and Mock Interviews are two annual events organized by C2D2 campus-wide in partnership
with company representatives. Each year, a large number of companies support Georgia Tech students by
participating. Representatives of these organizations volunteer their time to conduct one-on-one mock
interviews with students on campus and provide valuable feedback on Georgia Tech’s students’ interviewing
skills. Similarly, the Resume Blitz event draws company representatives to campus to provide pro bono
critiques of students’ resumes, specific to their industries. Recruiters are placed strategically in various
academic departments where they give feedback for 10 to15 minutes on students’ resumes.
Virtual Career Fair
The Virtual Career Fair is a one-day fair that provides pre-registered students access to company recruiters
through chat rooms with chat hours established by each company individually. Students are able to join various
chat rooms to ask questions or provide recruiters information. Companies have access to resumes of students
who pre-registered for the fair
24
C2D2 Open House
The C2D2 Open House, the August “kick-off” event to the academic year, allows students to meet and network
with the staff while obtaining important information on the upcoming recruiting season. This better prepares
students for their job search. Overall 564 students participated.
Partner Programs
The Georgia Tech Center for Career Discovery and Development Corporate Executive Partnership Program
provides the perfect way for employers to raise their visibility among some of the most accomplished students
in the country. C2D2 currently has 51 Partners and Executive Partners.
Business Etiquette Dinner During this annual event held in the spring students learned how to make introductions, how to navigate
networking events, business and dining etiquette while enjoying a four-course meal. Students asked questions,
received feedback, practiced etiquette tips and enjoyed laughs with their peers, presenter and C2D2 staff. There
were 72 students who attended.
Recruiting Trends 2015-2016 C2D2 partnered in November of 2015 with the Georgia Association of Colleges and Employers to host the
“Recruiting Trends 2015-2016” session for state-wide employers that recruit at the Georgia higher education
institutions. The session analysis provided insights into the employment outlook for college-level positions over
the upcoming 12 months.
Ivan Allen Networking Event
The Center for Career Discovery and Development, in partnership with Ivan Allen Liberal Arts College, hosted
a networking event on April 12, where 40 students networked with representatives from 18 companies. The
purpose of the event was to bring employers together with students in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts for
informal networking, education, information sharing and recruitment. The event provided students with an
opportunity to mingle and share their skills, abilities and interest with employers and increase their knowledge
of the employer’s companies and industries. It also provided the participating employers an opportunity to
strengthen their business brands and become intimately familiar with the unique proficiencies and skills
developed by liberal arts students studying in a technology infused environment. The event provided an
environment for employers to scout potential interns or future hires and gave students an opportunity to expand
their resource pool and explore diverse career options.
Campus Closet The Campus Closet provided services for more than 800 students during Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. The closet
currently has in its inventory, 600 pieces of formal attire for men and women. In Spring 2016 Campus Closet
joined STAR the Student Temporary Assistance Resource initiative. In Fall 2016 Campus Closet will be hosting
a fashion event to inform and educate female students about successful personal grooming habits in the business
world, to include: hairstyles, makeup, techniques on how to create an overall good impression.
Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising
Encompassing pre-health, pre-teaching, pre-law, pre-graduate, and prestigious fellowships advising, the Pre-
Graduate and Pre-Professional (PGPP) Advising team was created as a part of the 2015 reorganization of
Georgia Tech’s Office of Undergraduate Education. Advisors in this team maintained programming through the
summer transition and began new collective outreach initiatives and data-tracking in the fall and spring. The
team worked together to create and acknowledge shared workplace values and vision throughout the year. This
25
report indicates major accomplishments for AY16 and reflects our efforts to align data collection and reporting
practices as C2D2 develop new joint programs.
Key Initiatives Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising serves students in their career exploration, discernment, and
placement primarily through one-on-one advising (in person and via email), information sessions and
workshops, and facilitation of experiential learning programs. C2D2 saw 498 students in 772 face-to-face
advising sessions this year, and C2D2 participated in 82 presentations.
Advising (unique students/appointments) # of Workshops, Info Sessions, and Presentations
Pre-teaching 39/54 Pre-teaching 13
Pre-law 40/45 Pre-law 15
Pre-health 249/406 Pre-health 36
Prestigious Fellowships 157/253 Prestigious Fellowships 14
Pre-graduate 13/14 Pre-graduate 4
Total 498/772 Total 82
Pre-Law and Pre-Teaching C2D2’s advisor Susan Belmonte was especially productive in negotiating internships for students interested in
exploring education or law as a career. She successfully arranged current internships with KIPP Metro Atlanta
and Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School and negotiated for future internship opportunities with the Fulton County
Schools, and with two international education organizations in Singapore and Peru. Susan actively pursued
professional development opportunities and relationships in pre-law as she launched Georgia Tech’s first formal
pre-law advising program. These relationships culminated in a successful Law School Fair in February and
internship opportunities with AT&T and Dekalb County Courts.
Prestigious Fellowships C2D2’s advisor Kathryn Meehan helped students prepare 46 applications for fellowships that require an on-
campus selection process. These fellowship opportunities, including Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, and Fulbright,
required Kathryn’s extensive work with students as they prepared lengthy application materials and
painstakingly revised personal statements. She also coordinated meetings and candidate interviews with faculty
review committees. This year, Georgia Tech had a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship and Rhodes
Scholarship, five Fulbright recipients, an Astronaut Scholarship recipient, an honorable mention for the
Goldwater Scholarship, and 29 National Science Foundation fellowships. More importantly, 157 students
worked with Kathryn to develop a keener sense of personal vision, and to articulate that purpose for themselves
and others.
Pre-health Advising C2D2’s advising services continued uninterrupted as PGPP undertook a national search for a new pre-health
advisor and on-boarded new advisor Francisco Castelan. Altogether, pre-health advisors saw 256 students and
alumni for 427 advising sessions in the fall and spring. They facilitated 34 workshops, as well as the Pre-Health
Opportunities Fair and Second Look event for prospective students. Pre-health advising oversaw improvements
in LOE record-keeping and the transition of the resource library to the Georgia Tech library reserves. Francisco
26
Castelan also worked closely with LOE coordinator Carmen Williams to streamline the LOE process for better
service to students and more efficient delivery of application materials.
Pre-graduate advising C2D2’s pre-graduate advising took off in the spring with the Pre-Graduate Opportunities Fair and a
corresponding burst of interest in pre-graduate advising services. Hosted jointly with Graduate Studies, the fair
hosted 30 programs and 81 students in early April. Students browsed opportunities at tables from 11:00-1:00
and dropped in for some or all of the concurrent information sessions that included a personal statement
workshop provided by the Communication Center, a graduate student panel, and an application overview. In
the spring, PGPP Director Shannon Dobranski saw 13 students for 14 face-to-face pre-graduate advising
appointments.
Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional (PGPP ) advising team PGPP also worked diligently to develop a team identity through the creation of workplace values and a vision
statement, as well as joint documents and workshops. Chief among these materials are the expression of our
core values of growth, happiness, reliability, effectiveness, and teamwork and the following vision statement:
We will be known for the quality and effectiveness of our work, the mindfulness and reliability of our
team members, and our contributions to the personal growth and professional development of our
advisees.
In weekly team meetings and day-long or half-day retreats, the PGPP advisors created the following materials:
C2D2 was especially pleased with our Bridge Year Workshop, a joint event targeted at juniors and seniors who
are curious about opportunities that will help them to use the year after graduation as a path to their long-term
goals. The entire team presented at this spring event, which attracted 17 student attendees. Each advisor saw
additional advising appointments as a direct response to this workshop.
• PGPP Values Definition Sheet
• PGPP Vision Statement
• PGPP Vision Journey (in
progress)
• PGPP Advisor II job
description
• Letters of Recommendation
(LORs) guidelines for students
• Letters of Recommendation
(LORs) guidelines for letter
writers
• PGPP Communications Tools and
Resources
• PGPP Audiences for Community-Building
• PGPP Introductory PowerPoint
• PGPP Flier
• Bridge Year Workshop and PowerPoint
• PGPP Video Overview (in production)
• PGPP Admission Fliers (in production
27
Employer Relations
The Center for Career Discovery and Development’s Employer Relations team facilitates the process for
employers to identify and recruit talent. The team provides opportunities for students to explore and secure
employment. They develop and promote connections between employers, students and campus partners.
Through campus outreach to the schools, academic departments and centers, the team is working to develop a
career services network that will provide an arena for sharing career development information and employment
opportunities for Georgia Tech students.
The Employer Relations team also assists employers in managing their recruiting expectations, provides a new
Best Practices Guide (Summer 2016), an Employer Recruiting manual and the Employer Drive-In workshop
held in Spring.
The Employer Relations team is overseeing the on-campus recruiting function, the Annual All Majors Fall
Career Fair and the management of the Student Career Fair committee, as well as the Co-op and Internship Fair.
The 2015-2016 on-campus recruiting season kick-off was the All Majors Annual Career Fair that was held,
as every year, in September, at the Georgia Tech’s Recreation Center. This year, 359 companies participated
with 5,340 unique student visitors.
Co-op and Internship Fair The Co-op and Internship Fair held in January kicked off the Spring recruiting season. The on-campus
recruiting function provides companies the opportunity to visit and hold on-campus interviews through two
main recruiting seasons, Fall and Spring. This year, there were 120 companies in attendance with 2,172 unique
student visitors. Since 2010 there has been a 54% increase in the number of companies participating in this
event (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Co-op & Internship Fair Companies on Campus Since 2010
2010, 78 2011, 75
2012, 103 2013, 104
2014, 92
2015, 102
2016, 120
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
28
Table 12 shows a significant decline in the number of unique student interviews in spring 2016 compared to
fall 2015. A smaller decrease in the on-campus recruiting activity is also captured in the number of company
visits throughout the year (Figure 4), as well as CareerBuzz data on the number of schedules that companies
requested. While the difference is not as noticeable in the Fall, with a 2.48% decrease, C2D2 has seen a bigger
drop of company visits with 33.17% less returning to recruit in Spring 2016 compared to last Spring (Figure 4).
This might be caused by companies transitioning to a more active recruiting during the Fall season in their
eagerness to secure candidates earlier than in previous year. It could also be due to less hiring needs in the
Spring semester, as positions might have been filled earlier in the recruiting cycle. This trend is also mirrored by
the number of unique student interviews in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 (Tables 12-14). Tables 13 and 14 present
the number of student interviews by type (full-time job, internship or co-op).
Figure 4: Number of Interviews
58236147 6075
66636251
23472605 2760 2563 2787
2262
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Fall Spring
29
Figure 5: Company Visit to Campus throughout the Year
Table 12: Total Number of Interviews Fall and Spring
Table 13: Fall 2015
Type of Interviews Total Number Unique Number
Full-time job Interviews 3,628 1,489
Internship Interviews 2,098 1,233
Co-op Interviews 525 294
Table 14: Spring 2016
Type of Interviews Total Number Unique Number
Full-time job Interviews 686 424
Internship Interviews 1,166 750
Co-op Interviews 410 276
455
543518
604 589
268297 276
406 404
270
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Fall Spring
Fall 2015 Spring 2016
Total Interviews 6,251 Total Interviews 2,262
Unique Student Interviews 3,016 Unique Student Interviews 1,450
30
As Figure 6 illustrates, the job postings alternative for employers remained strong in Fall 2015 with 6096 full-
time positions posted in CareerBuzz, an increase of 18.23% from Fall 2014.
Figure 6: Full-Time Job Postings
Additional co-op and internship data (student majors, classification, top hiring companies, etc.) are in the
Appendix of this report.
Key Initiatives
• Enhancements have been made to the CareerBuzz job posting and information session forms to allow
companies to provide additional information for a more effective targeted recruiting and marketing of
their on-campus activities and recruiting efforts. • An Employer Recruiting guide has been developed that provides a single source of information relating
to the recruiting process at Georgia Tech.
• Production has begun on videos to be posted on C2D2’s web site for companies to access information
on how to navigate and effectively utilize CareerBuzz.
• In April of 2015, the Employer Relations Team introduced the Employer Relations Network to Georgia
Tech. The Employer Relationship Management Network (ERN) is a campus-wide network of employer
relationship managers for staff who work with companies recruiting at GT. The mission of the Employer
Relationship Management Network (ERN) is to promote clear lines of communication for both
employer partners and GT units, and provide timely and effective customer service to employers and
students.
• In March of 2016, the Employer Relations Team introduced Career Month with the goal of expanding
C2D2’s network with the individual colleges and creating greater awareness about C2D2 among
students, faculty and staff in those colleges. The College of Architecture was chosen for the month of
March. Events involved skill sessions, networking with alumni, employer panels discussing career
opportunities and a session dedicated to the resources and programs available in the Center for Career
1423
2557
4579
5156
6096
30943314
46094151
4740
3570
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Fall Spring
31
Discovery and Development. The College of Science and the Ivan Allen College will be highlighted in
fall of 2016.
• In Fall 2015, a series of student-focused "Lunch & Learn" programs were delivered by Executive
Partner company representatives - International Paper, Home Depot, WSB-Weather, Hershey's, General
Electric were participants.
• A new "Employer Interaction" Luncheon series was started in April 2016 with PriceWaterhouseCoopers
providing C2D2 student advisors, employer relations staff and others to learn about company cultures,
industry communities, as well as discuss how to best serve students.
• The ER team hosted the second annual Employer Drive-in Workshop in May of 2016, which introduced
employers to Georgia Tech and the “How To’s” to ensure a successful recruiting experience, and also
assisted employers in managing their expectations for student hiring.
Student Education Programs
Student Education oversees the cooperative education, internship program, career counseling and career
development advising for undergraduate students. The unit interacts with students, faculty, alumni and parents
of Georgia Tech students. Student Education also provides support to students seeking career counseling, which
helps students with career decision making through the navigation and investigation of potential careers. Career
assessment instruments are available and help students identify careers based on their strengths and interests.
There were 1,317 individual student appointments, with 1,007 of those as unique contacts during Fall 2015. In
Spring 2016 C2D2 held 1,685 individual student appointments, with 1,283 unique appointments. In addition, to
scheduled appointments, C2D2 offers blocks of time for walk-ins for quick assistance with various career-
related questions three times per week in 10- to 15-minute sessions. The Student Education advisors had 556
walk-in appointments during Fall 2015 and 527 during Spring 2016.
Career advisors saw 131 students in Fall 2015 and 138 in Spring 2016 on-site in individual academic
departments through set liaison hours.
Career Development advisors assist students in identifying experiential education opportunities that enhance the
career development of students. The cooperative education and internship programs add value to the student
experience, and help students clarify career goals. Figures 7 and 8 present the number of undergraduate students
who have co-oped and interned since 2010. As shown by the figures, the number of students participating in
these programs is greatest during the summer months.
32
Figure 7: #Undergraduate Students Co-oping
Figure 8: #Undergraduate Students Interning
Overall, for the fall 2015 and the spring 2016 semesters, 2,201 students registered for an experiential learning
program, with 52.56% placed in co-ops and 17.2% placed in internships during this time period (summer 2015
is excluded, as registrations for co-ops and internships were not tracked at that time). The breakdown by
semester is illustrated below in Table 15.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Spring 461 526 601 617 641 586 548
Summer 523 599 673 682 643 600
Fall 500 538 612 620 631 609
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
503
131
185
602
169210
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Spring Summer Fall
2014 2015 2016
33
Table 15: Student registered and placed in Co-ops and Internships
Semester
Students registered
for Experiential
Learning Co-op Internships % co-ops
%
internships Overall %
Fall 2015 1332 609 169 45.72% 12.68% 58.40%
Spring
2016 869 548 210 63.06% 24.16% 87.22%
Total 2,201 1,157 379
Figure 9 below shows that from 2014 to 2015 there was a decrease (7%) in the number of students co-oping the
number of students holding internships increased by 17%.
Figure 9: Total of Unique # of Students Placed in Co-ops and Internships
Key Initiatives
• C2D2 collaborated with the College of Sciences in hosting 400 admitted but not yet committed students
and parents over two weekends to showcase Georgia Tech and C2D2 resources.
• Student Education hosted a networking event for Ivan Allen College students and invited twenty-one
employers to meet students from the school. The intent of the event was to increase the visibility of the
school and give students the opportunity to meet corporate recruiters in a casual environment.
• The Provost’s curriculum committee approved proposals for courses INTN 2003 and 4003. The course
will be available to students who have received a part time internship and will be working ten to
nineteen hours per week. The audit course is three hours. Students must register for a minimum of nine
hours to maintain full time student status. These part time courses will be available to students Fall
Semester 2016.
• Student Education made available the Co-operative Education & Internships Policies and Procedures
Manual to the C2D2 staff.
1583
769
1472
899
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
Co-ops Internships
2014 2015
34
• Student Education hosted the 7TH annual Homecoming Brunch with the Co-op Alumni Affinity on
October 24th at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center. The Co-op Alumni Affinity group was
founded in 2008 to promote and facilitate the engagement of Co-op affiliated alumni, faculty, staff,
employers, friends, and students within the Georgia Tech community.
• The Briaerean Honor Society luncheon was hosted on April 14th. The keynote speaker was William
Whipple, CE 1983 who is Founder, President, and CEO of Amero Global Investors, LLC. The Briaerean
Honor Society is the oldest student honorary organization on campus with membership composed of co-
op students whose cumulative GPA is 3.0 or above.
Outreach & Assessment
The Outreach and Assessment Team oversees the operations, assessment, technology and outreach activities of
the Center for Career Discovery and Development. It touches upon every aspect of the department’s functions
by complementing the efforts of the other three departmental units in providing resources and services to
students, employers, staff, faculty and other constituents.
Key Initiatives
• C2D2 coordinated the logistics and marketing of 10 major C2D2 campus-wide signature events, as well
as workshops, and C2D2 outreach and networking events (ERN Network, Lunch and Learns, PPPG
fellowship interviews and networking) organized in partnership with other campus entities. Events
marketing has been enhanced by additional marketing venues, as well as a more consistent promotion
strategy through social media, student list serves, website, CareerBuzz, mercury calendars and campus-
wide display screens.
• The Career Peer Advisor program was implemented in Fall 2015 with three Career Peer Advisors
helping spread the word about C2D2 in 20 individual GT 1000 classes and after-hour workshops and
student organized events. Due to the high requests for C2D2’s presence in GT 1000 classes, a Resume
Video was developed to help cover GT 1000 classes more efficiently to introduce students to a vital
career-related topic. The video was promoted to the GT 1000 instructors at the GT 1000 Instructor’s
resource fair, as well as on the C2D2 website. Further videos are being produced.
• C2D2’s Outreach & Assessment partnered with the Office of Assessment to launch a Graduation survey
campaign that would encourage students to complete the Graduation Career Survey. Response rate has
been increased by 10%.
• C2D2’s Outreach & Assessment transitioned the C2D2 department to Office 365 and facilitated
GradesFirst integration to track PPPG counseling appointments and student participation in events. OIT
Re-configured all computers in the recruiting area. Outreach & Assessment set-up surveying stations for
students at the Front desk, as well as in the recruiting area and worked with a third party vendor to re-
design the Employer Check-In system for the recruiting area. Outreach & Assessment also assisted with
CareerBuzz process enhancements (Career Fair App, Job Posting Form, Information Session Form).
Helped better streamline students’ attendance at the Co-op and Internship Fair by setting up RSVP
sessions in CareerBuzz and is currently working on launching the new C2D2 website.
• All existing C2D2 assessment surveys have been revised, and new surveys have been implemented to be
able to measure outcomes. Survey response rates were increased by setting up surveying stations that
allow for immediate feedback after students visit C2D2, as well as interview with recruiters.
• C2D2 ollaborated with Office of Assessment to start a revision of the main GT Career Salary survey to
include the NACE First Destination standards.
• New furniture installation was completed and staff members are settled in the upgraded offices.
35
• C2D2 facilitated the transition of the Pre-Professional and Pre-Graduate Team to C2D2.
• A full-time receptionist for the front desk was hired to provide more efficient and consistent customer
service to all C2D2 constituents. C2D2 participated in the Work Green pilot program to help C2D2
become more sustainable and developed an “Event Request Form” to better streamline the request for
event logistical support.
36
Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain
The Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (CSLS) began operating as an official unit of Georgia Tech in Fall 2015,
with the arrival of its inaugural Director, Dr. Jennifer Hirsch. The Center’s mandate is to implement Tech’s new
Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), “Serve-Learn-Sustain” (SLS), a key component of the Institute’s 2015
SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation. This entails working with all six colleges and with units across
campus to develop opportunities for students to engage in curricular and experiential learning opportunities
focused on the theme, “creating sustainable communities.” More broadly, the mandate entails making
sustainable communities work a key focus at Tech, bringing together research, teaching, and practice. The plan
addresses educational needs clearly voiced by our graduates to prepare students to understand the practical
impacts of their disciplines on the world and use their disciplinary knowledge to work with diverse stakeholders
to improve it. It also enhances long-held Georgia Tech values and directly responds to Georgia Tech’s Strategic
Plan, which calls for training students to become leaders in addressing critical global challenges and improving
the human condition.
The Center’s first year focused on establishing the office, including hiring three staff; honing strategy and
approach; spreading awareness among faculty, students, and staff; beginning to develop partnerships with
Georgia Tech and off-campus partners; and launching initial courses and programs. Here are some of the
highlights from our first year.
Creating a Community of Practice
Much of SLS’s work this first year entailed convening conversations—with specific schools or units; across
units; and with off-campus partners—to begin developing understandings of how potential partners define
“sustainable communities” and what would make them interested in participating in the SLS effort. CSLS’s
goal is to situate SLS as a community of practice in which faculty, students, staff, and partners share, learn,
experiment, and reflect together. This approach builds on research and action demonstrating that the work of
creating sustainable communities requires nurturing “culture[s] of adaptation, innovation, and collaboration”
(Hiser 2013)1 that bring together diverse stakeholders to connect theory and practice in the context of a
particular place—in this case, Georgia Tech.
Sustainable Communities Big Ideas at Georgia Tech
SLS used these initial conversations to begin to
collaboratively define what “creating sustainable
communities” means. The result is an interactive tool
housed on the SLS website presenting 50+ ideas, all
proposed by faculty and staff, as ideas from their
disciplines and work that they believe are important with
regard to creating sustainable communities. The ideas are
linked to definitions and examples written by the people
who proposed them, representing many different fields
and perspectives. Developed by SLS graduate student
workers, the tree map tool can easily be revised and
expanded to incorporate new input; and the website
includes a form for more people to submit new ideas. The
Big Ideas have proven very popular in helping a broad
1 Hiser, K. (2013) Reimagining Professional Development: Collaborative Circles for Creative Change
Figure 10: “Big Ideas” Online Interactive Tool
37
swath of people see the theme of “creating sustainable communities” as related to their interests and work,
including faculty who have affiliated courses with SLS for 2016-17 based on course content related to one or
more of these ideas. As SLS work on creating a new SLS website, the Big Ideas are slated to become one key
part of the search function, as we continue efforts to expand our community of practice.
SLS Fellows Programs
To support multidisciplinary collaboration and tie into faculty research interests, SLS developed a model for
fellows programs, to be offered in AY16-17. Two programs will focus on themes aligned with National Science
Foundation (NSF) initiatives: Food, Energy, Water Systems (Fall) and Smart Cities (Spring). Co-led by faculty
from different colleges, these programs will bring together faculty, staff, and graduate students to meet with
select community, municipal, and industry partners and explore these themes from different research and
practice perspectives. Each fellow will work on an individual objective related to their interests, and the group
will also determine and carry out a group project. SLS also plans to work with the Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program in the Center for Academic Enrichment to develop a third program that will bring
together graduate and undergraduate student researchers working on different aspects of sustainable
communities to explore how their research projects relate to each other and to sustainable communities.
In response to our call for applications for the fall semester program, we received 48 nominations and
applications and accepted 32 people, including faculty and graduate students from all six colleges, 19 schools,
and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), as well as staff from Campus Services.
Events and Conferences
SLS co-sponsored seven events and conferences that brought together over 400 faculty, staff, students, and
partners to examine key issues related to creating sustainable communities. Highlights included a roundtable
discussion with Steve Curwood, host of NPR’s “Living on Earth,” co-sponsored with Southface; the annual
Liam’s Legacy symposium, featuring City of Cleveland Chief
Sustainability Officer Jenita McGowan and founder of the Asset-
Based Community Development field Jody Kretzmann; and a
panel discussion about the Flint, MI water crisis.
SLS’s biggest highlight was the conference that SLS co-hosted in
June with the College of Design and the College of Engineering, in
partnership with the Westside Communities Alliance, “Paths to
Social Sustainability: Building a Research, Teaching, and Action
Agenda for the Southeast.” This conference brought together
approximately 105 faculty, staff, students, and partners, primarily
from Atlanta, to participate in the national, multi-sited conference of
the Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS), an NSF Research Coordination Network run out of
University of North Carolina at Charlotte that explores the “social” side of sustainability. The conference
launched with a half-day site visit to Westside communities to examine the Emerald Corridor, a seven-mile
stretch abutting Proctor Creek, as a starting point for thinking about the challenges and opportunities of social
sustainability. This visit provided a concrete reference point for more theoretical discussions the next day about
community resilience and food-energy-water systems and ensured that community perspectives were strong
parts of the conversation. The final part of the conference comprised small group sessions during which
participants identified key actions to work on moving forward. Examples of actions identified include exploring
the creation of a community-based Institutional Review Board so that university research projects are vetted by
the community, and incorporating social sustainability into K-12 sustainability curricula. SLS’s next step is to
Figure 11 Sustainability Venn Diagram
38
create a white paper summarizing what an agenda for social sustainability in the Southeast, and particularly
Atlanta, might look like and then to support working groups to carry out different parts of the work.
Spreading Awareness
To spread program awareness, develop deeper knowledge of different units’ interests in SLS, and create tailored
collaboration approaches, SLS engaged in the following three unique outreach strategies.
SLS College Liaisons
To facilitate the goals of building awareness and nurturing collaboration, one liaison was chosen to represent
each college. Their job is to share SLS opportunities with colleagues and encourage engagement in SLS.
Additionally, each college liaison has been responsible for leading development of a college-tailored strategy
for engaging with SLS in 2016-17, to ensure that the work SLS does together benefits both SLS and key college
initiatives. This approach is resulting in diverse strategies, ranging from hiring GTAs to developing experiential
education modules to be incorporated into large intro courses, to offering scholarships for students who study
abroad on programs with sustainable communities’ themes, to providing professional development support for
advisers to attend conferences to learn how sustainable communities education can benefit students’ careers. In
2016-17, SLS will increase the number of liaisons in the College of Engineering to be able to work more closely
on engagement and strategy development with individual schools.
SLS Trainers
Research shows—and everyone knows—that people tend to listen most to people to whom they relate. As such,
SLS developed a train-the-trainers program to train faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students to reach out to
their sub-communities at Tech in ways that they felt would garner the most interest. The goal has been to
encourage colleagues to get involved in SLS’ programs—and particularly our Course Design Studio that SLS
offered with the Center for the Enrichment of Teaching and Learning (CETL) in June. Thirteen trainers were
selected to work with SLS from January to December 2016. Several participated in a two-day January
workshop at Emory University called “Sustainability Across the Curriculum Leadership Workshop,” a
nationally recognized program that trains faculty to help their colleagues incorporate sustainability into their
courses. Participants then shared key takeaways with the other trainers and worked together to develop short
outreach presentations for sub-constituencies, including each of the six colleges, postdocs and graduate
students. Trainers paired up or worked with their College liaisons to prepare for, advertise, and run these
presentations. The results have included a fully subscribed Course Design Studio (see appendix) and a group of
people across campus who have taken leadership in promoting SLS and facilitating different types of
collaboration, such as developing a guidebook for Brittain Fellows on integrating SLS into their English courses
and inviting SLS to present to outbound students in the Leadership for Social Good Study Abroad Program run
by the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Scheller.
Three staff trainers are also developing an engagement program for staff interested in working with SLS, based
on personal and/or professional interests. Sustainable communities identify and capitalize on all of their
members’ assets—and staff have much to contribute to, and gain from, SLS. The planning group includes
additional staff across campus with interest in SLS involvement. Additionally, three staff will teach GT 1000
courses in the fall. Upcoming goals include consulting with Campus Wellness, Staff Diversity and Inclusion,
and Staff Council to plan and convene a brainstorming meeting to determine staff program interests and then
developing engagement opportunities. Ideally, an SLS staff engagement program should help staff contribute in
new and interesting ways to Georgia Tech—including to student learning—and also provide opportunities for
professional development.
39
Student Liaisons
SLS’s undergraduate student liaisons created campaigns for engaging students in SLS. In addition to selecting
SLS giveaways, they created an online quiz, “What kind of sustainability are you?,” for Earth Day that drew
over 100 people, as well as a Facebook campaign called “Humans of SLS,” building on the popular “Humans of
New York” project to highlight people’s interests in sustainable communities, with one post reaching 1,326
people! Next year, our student liaisons will expand on these campaigns and also help us develop a formal
program for partnering with student organizations.
Launching SLS Courses
Spring semester launched not only SLS’s Center,
but SLS’s first courses, including two foundations
courses—Sustainable Community & Systems and
Sustainable Community Principles—developed by
interdisciplinary faculty teams, led by QEP co-
architects Ellen Zegura (Computer Science) and
Beril Toktay (Scheller College of Business).
SLS also launched our Public Service Pathway
program, supporting 11 courses and two projects,
engaging 250 students across five colleges. Thanks
to a generous grant from the Commerce Club
Foundation of Atlanta, SLS provided course
development and implementation grants ranging
from $500 to $2500 to support experiential
learning related to public service and sustainable
communities.
“This course has helped my understanding of cities… and how Urban areas across the world face complex
and rapidly evolving challenges. I've learned how to identify what changes are needed to transform our cities
into livable environments… what it takes to shape a city that inspires and engages citizens, and what it takes
for governments and the public and private sectors to work together.”-LMC Exchange Student in SLS Course
Additionally, SLS developed criteria for affiliating courses with SLS and introduced a process for requesting
course affiliation. This has resulted in a docket of 69 affiliated courses for 2016-17, across all colleges and
levels, including undergraduate and graduate courses. We also held our first Course Design Studio with CETL,
bringing together 26 faculty and instructors from all six colleges plus four other units to learn how to integrate
sustainable communities content and experiential learning into their courses. The initial sustainable
communities workshop was planned and facilitated by SLS staff with our Trainers. Held at the Atlanta
Community Food Bank. it included a partners’ panel featuring on- and off-campus partners as well as a Food
Bank tour. Participants attended four more CETL course design workshops and received additional mentoring
throughout from SLS trainers. Next year, they will come together once each semester for a reunion gathering to
share how things are going and continue to learn from each other.
Developing Partnerships
Finally, SLS began the important process of developing key partnerships for community engagement and
experiential learning, connecting classroom instruction with hands-on experience in real-world community
settings. Internally, we worked closely with the other community-facing offices, including Westside
Communities Alliance, Office of Government and Community Relations, Office of Student Engagement, and
CEISMC, and with offices engaged in making Tech itself a sustainable community - Facilities Management,
Figure 12 Student Engagement
40
Campus Sustainability, Capital Planning & Space Management, Institute Diversity, Excel (Expanding Career,
Education and Leadership Opportunities), and Student Diversity, to begin developing materials, processes, and
opportunities for expanding and deepening their relationships with faculty and courses. Outside Tech, we began
engaging with key community and municipal partners, discussing what meaningful and just partnerships look
like to them and how their work relates to sustainable community development. We sponsored programs to
facilitate informal conversations between faculty and partners, to identify ways to work together. All of this
provides a foundation for developing formal partnership training and relationship-building processes and
structures moving forward.
41
The Honors Program
Overview
The Honors Program (HP) successfully transitioned to its new West Campus location in fall 2015, with 202
first-year HP students residing in Hefner-Armstrong (floors one through three) and with our new HP Classroom,
HP Café, and HP staff offices occupying the ground floor. First-year HP students reported very high levels of
satisfaction with the consolidated Living Learning Community (LLC) experience. Nearly 40% elected to extend
their LLC experience by residing in the HP Apartment Block in Crecine in 2016-17.
In collaboration with academic departments, the HP expanded its curricular offerings and worked to ensure that
classes met expectations for HP classes: active-learning with significant student-faculty engagement, typically
small, and often incorporating interdisciplinarity. HP students reported very high levels of satisfaction with HP
classes (72% of 133 students surveyed expressed very good or excellent experience).
The HP community experience was enriched and enlivened by the contributions of HP staff, including
curricular and extra-curricular experiences focused on mindfulness, sustainability, and life coaching. Our HP
community also benefited from the generally high level of engagement among HP students and faculty within
and beyond the classroom, and by events and activities organized by upper-level HP “Triple Leaders” and HP
staff. The new HP program fee provided essential resources to support these and other community-building
opportunities for our students. First-year HP students, the chief beneficiaries of these opportunities, reported a
very strong sense of belonging to the HP community (64% selected ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’).
With significant contributions of resources and support for the above efforts from OUE, Campus Services, and
academic departments, the net for our first-year HP students was a very high level of satisfaction with their
living, learning, and community experiences. For the overall experience, 74% said the program mostly or fully
met their expectations.
Highlights
Living: Renovations to Hefner-Armstrong accomplished primarily during the summer of 2015 yielded an
inviting LLC, with HP students taking classes together in the HP Classroom throughout most weekdays and
using the space to study and socialize with friends during evenings and weekends. The HP Café supported
continuing conversation over healthy snacks in between classes and socializing throughout day, evening and
weekend hours.
Learning: HP classes included expanded offerings from LMC and Math, new GT 1000 offerings in mindfulness
and collaborative communities, and a wide range of offerings from departments across campus. Most offerings
were small, active-learning classes, and many incorporated class projects (presented at the fall and spring HP
Expos) and interdisciplinarity (for example, public policy modules incorporated in two HP chemistry classes
and led by a Masters student in Public Policy). Learning beyond the classroom included after-class
conversations in the HP Café as well as mindfulness meditation sessions, life coaching sessions, and service
projects with Trees Atlanta. Community: The new HP LLC offered a very effective spatial locus for
community-building. Entering HP students attended a 24-hour HP Retreat before fall classes began, supported
by upper-level HP Triple Leaders, and enjoyed small-group activities led by Triple Leaders thereafter.
Connections to the GT and larger communities were forged by a combination of service-oriented classes and
extra-curricular opportunities offered by HP staff. A group of three first-year and two upper-level HP students,
dubbed the “HP All Stars,” repeatedly served as presenters at recruiting and informational sessions, culminating
42
in a co-authored presentation with Director Roberta Berry “Creating a Living Learning Community to
Enhance Engaged Student Learning” presented on April 14, 2016 at the USG Teaching and Learning
Conference in Athens, Georgia.
Trends
Living: The choice of nearly 40% of the 2015 HP entering class to reside in the HP Apartment Block in Crecine in 2016-
17 suggests a positive trend toward sustaining close community ties with the HP.
Learning: The very positive evaluations of HP classes, if sustained, may yield a positive trend toward higher retention of
HP students in completing their HP curricular requirements (15 credits to earn recognition on the transcript).
Community: The number of HP students recruited to serve as Triple Leaders for 2016-17 (3) is nearly double the number
recruited for 2015-16, suggesting a positive trend to increased engagement of upper-level HP students in supporting and
building the HP community.
Key Accomplishments
Results of our Fall 2015 HP Survey indicate the following key accomplishments:
1. High usage and high level of satisfaction with new HP LLC.
Nearly 50% (48.6%) of student respondents reported using the HP classroom, in Hefner, outside of class for any
purpose (studying, socializing, to attend an HP event or presentation, etc.) “almost every day” or “once or twice
a month.” (Figure 13).
Figure 13: HP Classroom Use Answered: 137 Skipped: 11
Never
One to
three
times over
t...
Once or twice
a mont
h
Once or twice
a wee
k
Almost every
day
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
43
Answer Choices Responses
Never 3.65% 5
One to three times over the course of the semester 23.36% 32
Once or twice a month 23.36% 32
Once or twice a week 38.69% 53
Almost every day 10.95% 15
Total 137
A little over 50% (56%) of students reported using the HP Café (in Hefner) for any purpose (studying,
socializing, getting coffee, etc.) (Figure 14).
Figure 14: HP Café Use
Answered: 137 Skipped: 11
Never
One to three
times over t...
Once or twice
a month
Once or twice
a week
Almost every
day
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Answer Choices Responses
Never 3.65% 5
One to three times over the course of the semester 16.79% 23
Once or twice a month 23.36% 32
Once or twice a week 34.31% 47
Almost every day 21.90% 30
Total 137
44
An overwhelming majority of student respondents (86%) rated the HP amenities in Hefner-Armstrong (HP
Classroom, HP Café, HP printer, HP digital piano, HP offices) as “Excellent” or “Very good”. (Figure 15).
Figure 15: HP Amenities
Answered: 136 Skipped: 12
Poor
Not very good
OK
Very good
Excellent
Unable to rate
(I have not ...
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Answer Choices Responses
Poor 0.00% 0
Not very good 0.74% 1
OK 13.24% 18
Very good 30.88% 42
Excellent 55.15% 75
Unable to rate (I have not had this experience) 0.00% 0
Total 136
45
2. Strong sense of belonging to the HP community.
Almost 42% (41.8%) of students surveyed selected “Excellent” or “Very good” when asked about their
sense of belonging to the HP community. (Figure 16).
Answered: 133 Skipped: 15
Answer Choices Responses
Poor 4.42% 11
Not very good 15.66% 39
OK 38.15% 95
Very good 24.10% 60
Excellent 17.67% 44
Total 249
Figure 16: Sense of belonging
46
3. High level of satisfaction with overall HP experience.
Nearly 65% of students reported either “Excellent” or “Very good” when asked about their sense of belonging
to the HP community. (Figure 17).
Answered: 133 Skipped: 15
Figure 17: Overall HP Experience
Not at all
Not very well
Somewhat
Mostly
Fully
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Answer Choices Responses
Not at all 0.00% 0
Not very well 7.52% 10
Somewhat 22.56% 30
Mostly 45.11% 60
Fully 24.81% 33
Total 133
47
STAFF HIGHLIGHTS
Center for Academic Enrichment
Effective May 1, 2016, Dr. Christopher Reaves was named the Director of the Center for Academic
Enrichment. Dr. Reaves has held the position of Interim Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment since
January 1, 2015.
Effective May 1, 2016, Dr. Lacy Hodges was officially appointed to the position of Assistant Director of The
Center for Academic Enrichment for Academic Transition Programs. Lacy will continue to oversee all aspects
of Tech’s First-year seminar course, GT 1000, as well as GT 2000, the Transfer Student Seminar, and the first-
year common reading program, Project One, as well as assist the director with operational and administrative
responsibilities.
Effective August 2015, Ms. Recha Reid’s position was officially reclassified and upgraded to Administrative
Professional Senior due to her additional responsibilities and superior job performance.
Effective August 2015, Ms. Taylor Fischer, who held the position of Academic Assistant II at the Center, left to
pursue her graduate degree in Public Health (Biostatistics) at the Rollins Schools of Public Health, Emory
University.
Center for Career Discovery & Development
Michelle Tullier - Established a career readiness committee consisting of career center representatives from
five USG institutions to examine the career readiness competencies or "21st century workplace skills" that our
students need to develop through curricular and co-curricular experiences.
Patricia Bazrod – Vice-President of Member Retention and Development of CEIA
Andrea Comsa – OUE Assessment Committee
Kenji Terawaki – GACE Annual Conference Planning Committee
Kenji Terawaki – Campus Closet Manager
Francisco Castelan – Co--chair for the national program planning committee for the NAAHP Annual
Conference
Francisco Castelan - Chair for the NAAHP Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and serves as the liaison to
the AAMC’s Group on Students Affairs’ Committee on Student Diversity Affairs (COSDA)
Conferences & Presentations Michelle Tullier
Career Services Institute East, UNC Chapel Hill
T-Summit – Presented with Colin Potts – “How Georgia Tech is Adapting T-shaped Education to Fit
Institutional Contexts”
Plenary Panel at Texas Statewide Higher Education Marketing Skills Conference, Austin, TX
Society for Vocational Psychology conference held at Florida State University in Tallahassee
Patricia Bazrod
48
CEIA Annual Conference, Dallas, TX
Faculty presenter for CEIA Academy, Vail, Colorado
Southern Association of Colleges and Employers, Austin, TX
National Association of Colleges and Employers
Kenji Terawaki
Georgia Association of Colleges and Employers, Columbus, GA
Presenter - Nacelink Symposium 2015 & 2016 , Austin TX & New Orleans, LA
C2D2 Liaison to STAR (Student Temporary Assistance Services)
Mary Fisher
Conference planning committee, CEIA Conference, Atlanta, GA
Southern Association of Colleges and Employers, Austin, TX
Alan Botkin
Georgia Association of Colleges and Employers, Columbus, GA
Rob Rogers & Karen Houston
Presenters at SERCEC, Lexington, KY
Lanie Damon
NCDA Professional Development Institute, New Orleans, LA
Biennial Culture Competency Conference, Atlanta, GA
Presenter at GCDA, state chapter of NCDA
Dennis Lindsay & Tina Payne, Monique Morris
Georgia Association of Colleges and Employers, Jekyll Island, GA
Scott Green
Nacelink Symposium, Austin, TX
Drupal Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA
Andrea Comsa & Wayne Thompson
National Association of Colleges and Employers, Anaheim, CA
Susan Belmonte
Georgia Educator Preparation Program Providers Conference in the fall and spring
Day with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission
Shannon Dobranski
Co-presented a talk “Midterm Progress Reports: How a Campus-Wide Effort Can Impact Student Success and
Retention” at the 2015 NACADA Conference in Las Vegas
Presented “CLASS Initiative for the Liberal Arts” at the “Promise of History Internships” session at the 2016
American Historical Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta
Kathryn Meehan
Hosted Marshall Scholarship representatives and fifteen regional fellowships advisors for a Marshall
Scholarship training session in June
Hosted the Marshall Scholarship Committee meeting at that event
Attended the National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA) Biennial Conference in Oakland
Delivered a panel presentation about faculty engagement at the Georgia/Southeast NAFA Regional Workshop
at Emory
Honors:
Michael Laughter – Friend of GT 1000 award for 'extraordinary service and dedication'
Susan Belmonte – Finalist in the Fulbright International Education Administrator Award for Germany
Susan Belmonte – Recipient of the Southern Association of Pre-Law Advisors (SAPLA) scholarship for the
SAPLA 2015 conference
Susan Belmonte - Received an Office of the Provost Professional Development Grant to attend the Pre-law
National Council quadrennial conference
Susan Belmonte – Appreciative Advising Institute
49
Shannon Dobranski - Received an Office of the Provost Professional Development Grant to attend the
Appreciative Advising Institute in July
Kathryn Meehan - Received an Office of the Provost Professional Development Grant to attend the
Appreciative Advising Institute in July
New Hires:
Alan Botkin, Employer Relations Specialist
April Nolan, Receptionist
Franciso Castelan, Pre-Health Advisor
Center for Academic Success
Joyce Weinsheimer was named as interim director in June of 2015, and she acted as a special assistant to the
new director from January to May of 2016, during which time she continued to refine the curriculum for
GT 2100 and teach the course.
Donald Pearl joined the center as director in January of 2016. He is a member of the planning committee for
the AAC&U March 2017 conference on Diversity, Learning and Student Success.
Fiona Brantley became an NTA Certified Academic Coach (Advanced); she served as a CRLA and SECLCA
Proposal Reviewer; and was a member of the ATP awards committee.
Christy Lock, Assistant Director, left for a new position at the University of South Alabama. She co-presented
with T. Miller of Auburn at the 30th annual meeting of the National College Learning Center Association in
September 2016. Title of the talk was Today’s Employees, Tomorrow’s Leaders: Successfully Supervising
Learning Center Employees.
Justin Boone and Savitra Dow have assumed additional responsibilities for the operation of tutoring and PLUS
programs with the departure of Christy Lock.
Keywanne Hawkins is the Center’s liaison for the Work Green initiative.
Beatriz Hegidio joined the center on a part-time basis in August of 2015, and she was hired on a full time basis
as a Learning Specialist in May of 2016. She is spending part of summer 2016 working with the Oxford
program in England.
Liz Kazungu led the Strengths-Finder assessment for the Office of Undergraduate Education spring retreat.
50
The Honors Program
Dr. Roberta Berry, Director, beginning in summer 2015 through spring 2016 (1) collaborated with partners in
Campus Services to renovate and equip the new West Campus HP LLC, (2) collaborated with partners in
Housing to recruit HP residents for the HP Apartment Block in Crecine, (3) collaborated with partners in
Housing to arrange for early move-in for first-year HP students in fall 2016 (to support the HP Retreat for
Entering HP Students), (4) collaborated with academic departments and faculty to expand and refine HP class
offerings for fall 2015 through fall 2016, (5) collaborated with HP student leaders to recruit and vet an
expanded group of upper-level Triple Leaders for 2016-17, (6) prepared a comprehensive Fall 2015 HP Survey
to collect data on the living, learning, and community elements of the HP, (7) collaborated with a small group of
first-year and upper-level HP students to provide numerous recruiting and informational sessions and to prepare
and present “Creating a Living Learning Community to Enhance Engaged Student Learning” presented on April
14, 2016 at the USG Teaching and Learning Conference in Athens, Georgia.
Dr. Monica Halka, Associate Director, typically teaches courses, coordinates faculty meetings, manages the
student challenge fund, and carries out other duties as needed. This year she focused on three activities.
• Mindfulness Program: In continuation of the project, “Mindfulness, Meditation, & Mental Acuity,”
that was launched in spring semester of 2015, Dr. Halka organized two mindfulness-oriented Honors
Program sections of GT 1000, taught by herself and Dr. Paul Verhaeghen (Psychology) in fall
semester of 2015. In response to the popularity of these courses and student request, she designed
and taught a new special topic course, “Mindfulness in Science & Engineering” in spring semester of
2016. Dr. Halka was invited by the new director of the Wellness Center to assist with planning of
relaxation/play areas on campus, organized drop-in relaxation meditation sessions for the general
student body during finals week of spring 2016, and gave an invited workshop on “Mindfulness for
Personal and Professional Development” for CEISMC (May 26, 2016), which was attended by 20
staff members. She also participated in the “Mindful Campus” conference hosted by the University
of North Carolina, Asheville (May 23-24, 2016). To further her understanding in this field, Dr.
Halka will for the second time teach physics to Tibetan Buddhist monks in India for two weeks in
June 2016, as volunteer faculty for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.
• Sustainability: Dr. Halka was selected as a Serve.Learn.Sustain (SLS) trainer and awarded a $1000
grant for her services in this capacity, wherein she consulted with Honors Program faculty on ways
of bringing sustainability ideas into their courses, and arranged to cross-list her Urban Forest course
as an SLS section for fall 2016. She also helped plan the CETL/SLS joint course design studio to be
held in June 2016. In addition, she applied and was accepted to be the “Green Champion” for the
Honors Program under the auspices of the Georgia Tech “Work Green” pilot program. In keeping
with her efforts to inform students in the area of environmental sustainability, she organized a group
of twelve student volunteers to plant trees with the non-profit organization “Trees Atlanta” in spring
semester of 2016.
• Karlovitz lecture: For the past nine years, Dr. Halka has been responsible for facilitating the
Karlovitz Lecture Series, which is co-sponsored by the College of Sciences. This year’s speaker was
Dr. Judson Brewer, a neuroscientist who studies meditation as treatment for addiction. For this
year’s event, a new feature was a faculty discussion forum, with Dr. Brewer presiding. Faculty from
Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott, and Emory universities attended.
Ms. Nicole Leonard, MBA, Academic Advisor
1. Professional Development: During the Fall of 2015, Ms. Leonard applied for, and received, a Provost
Development grant that fully funded coaching training with the “…oldest and largest in-person coaching
training organization in the world…” Coaches Training Institute (CTI). As of December 2015, Nicole is a fully
trained Co-Active Coach. During the Region 4 National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) in March
2016, Ms. Leonard completed her first professional presentation entitled, “ I Got It From
51
NACADA: Incorporating Life Coaching Techniques into an Advisor’s Toolbox.” There were 57 attendees in
a space designated for 65, and the session was rated 4.73 on a 5.00 scale by attendees.
2. Student Outreach: Ms. Leonard is using her coaching training to as a group advising tools with first
year HP students and completed her eighth fall as a GT1000 instructor. Beyond the students in the GT Honors
Program, Ms. Leonard continues to me an active member of the First Generation Group and is focused on
developing a financial literacy curriculum with the group. Ms. Leonard has just completed her fourth semester
as a Coach for the Leadership Fellows Program. She coached one undergraduate in the fall and two graduate
students in the spring.
Lauren Evans, Senior Administrative Professional, was re-classified into her current position as Senior
Administrative Professional as of July 1, 2015. Ms. Evans managed the evaluation of the 1,083 applications
received, initiated the 619 invitations, and worked through the process as needed until we reached 202 new,
incoming students for Fall 2016. Ms. Evans was the main contact for anything related to the admissions process
and communicated with the student applicants and their parents to address all questions and concerns about the
process. Ms. Evans also completed the Continuity of Operations Plans for the Honors Program. Ms. Evans
completed several training courses in order to assume responsibility for accounts payable and other financial
processes for the Honors Program. For professional development, Ms. Evans attended the National Academic
Advising Association conference in Colorado Springs where she gathered information and best practices for
advising students in their education and career planning. Ms. Evans also attended the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education Social Media and Community Conference in Chicago where she networked with
other professionals who run the social media and communications for their university or program. Ms. Evans is
also part of the Office of Undergraduate Education’s Administrative Professionals group and the
Communications group, and she attends regular planning meetings as the representative for the Honors
Program. Along with other HP staff members, Ms. Evans planned and executed Honors Program events such as
the Honors Program Ribbon Cutting at the new Honors Program Living Learning Community, Gold Carpet Day
for incoming students, and Honors Program Retreats for new Honors Program students. In addition, Ms. Evans
is a Contributing Editor for the Palaver Interdisciplinary Journal.
Center for Serve- Learn-Sustain
Dr. Jennifer Hirsch, inaugural Director, joined the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain in August 2015 to launch and
direct implementation of the Serve-Learn-Sustain Quality Enhancement Plan. As an applied cultural
anthropologist, she specializes in community sustainability, cultural diversity, experiential education, visual
anthropology, and network building. She is recognized nationally for fostering grassroots participation in
sustainability and climate action efforts at the institutional, city, and regional levels, through her work as an
independent contractor and as the Urban Anthropology Director at The Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago. With an extensive background in higher education administration, Jennifer is responsible for setting
the Center’s strategic direction, in collaboration with key stakeholders on and off campus, and building
relationships with networks in Atlanta and beyond to learn from and share out best practices in sustainability
and community engagement. Jennifer earned her PhD in cultural anthropology from Duke University and her
bachelor's degree in American culture from Northwestern University. One of Jennifer’s biggest
accomplishments during her first academic year was hiring three new staff.
Dr. Christian Braneon, Assistant Director, Service-Learning and Partnerships, joined the Center part-time in
June 2016 and will join full-time in October. He received both his BS and his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from
Georgia Tech. Joining us from the EPA’s Region 4 Office of Environmental Justice and Sustainability, his work
52
builds on a long commitment to engaging diverse communities in environmental issues and leadership,
demonstrated when as a student at Tech by his active involvement in the African American Student Union and
the Institute Diversity Advisory Board and more recently in his EPA job by his leadership in developing their
inaugural Environmental Justice Academy for community leaders. As Assistant Director, Christian will develop
and oversee the process of incorporating service learning and community engagement into courses and co-
curricular programs across campus, and establish systems for partnering with nonprofit, industry, and
government organizations in ways that are mutual beneficial to the partners and the Georgia Tech community.
Kristina G. Chatfield, Program Manager, joined the Center in December 2015, after helping prepare for its
launch as a consultant and Tech Temp since August 2014. She is responsible for implementing the
programmatic efforts of the Center, including establishing and overseeing administrative processes related to
curriculum development and integration, hiring and supervising student workers, and establishing and
implementing partnership programs with student organizations. Kristina earned her BA in Psychology from the
University of Virginia.
Jamie Jones, Sr. Administrative Professional, joined CSLS in October 2015 after working for the past ten years
in the Department of Housing. Jamie is the friendly face of the office and specializes in providing outstanding
service and hospitality to our partners, both on campus and off. She also manages the office, coordinates
meetings and events, processes financial transactions, and works closely with the Program Manager on budget
administration. Jamie earned her BA in Communications and Journalism and her MA in Humanities and Liberal
Studies from Grambling State University.
Student Liaisons and Graduate Research Assistants
CSLS hired eight student workers, including three undergraduates, two graduate student designers, and three
graduate research assistants (GRAs). The undergraduate student workers helped increase the social media
presence of the Center, developed student engagement opportunities, and assisted with events and
administrative work. The GRAs researched and developed case studies featuring faculty and partners engaged
in sustainable communities’ research and practice and designed and implemented the “BIG IDEAS” interactive
tool. Crucial to our first year successes, we plan to continue hiring students on a regular basis.
53
APPENDIX
Center for Career Discovery & Development
May-07 May-08 May-09 May-10 May-11 May-12 May-13 May-14 May -15 May 2016
Undergrads 68.1 65.7 56.8 53.2 63.4 67.2 70 67.9 73.7 78.7
Masters 72.3 75.2 54 60 67.1 62.9 71.7 69.3 70.2 72.5
68.1 65.7
56.853.2
63.467.2 70 67.9
73.778.7
72.3 75.2
54
6067.1
62.9
71.7 69.3 70.2 72.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90 Chart 1. % of GT Students Employed at Commencement
Undergrads Masters
Top 10 Interviewing Companies 2015-2016
MICROSOFT (398)
ERNST&YOUNG (204)
DELOITTE (180)
ACCENTURE (172)
CAPITAL ONE (169)
CISCO (163)
SCHLUMBERGER (156)
AIRWATCH (153)
EXXONMOBIL (141)
KPMG (135)
54
Spring-07 Spring-08 Spring-09 Spring-10 Spring-11 Spring-12 Spring-13 Spring-14 Spring-15 Spring-16
Architecture 43,000 50,000 44,000 49,000 46,000 50,000 43,000 45,000 43,000 46,000
Computing 60,000 57,000 60,000 61,000 66,000 67,000 70,000 70,000 92,500 93,000
Engineering 55,000 58,000 60,000 60,000 63,000 64,000 65,000 65,000 66,000 68,000
Liberal Arts 45,000 42,500 40,000 41,500 40,000 55,000 43,000 63,500 51,000 50,000
Business 48,000 50,000 48,500 52,000 50,000 50,500 53,500 54,000 56,500 60,000
Sciences 38,000 40,000 42,500 35,500 39,000 60,000 34,000 43,900 52,000 50,000
010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,00070,00080,00090,000
100,000
Chart 2. Selected Median GT SalariesBS degrees
Architecture Computing Engineering Liberal Arts Business Sciences
NACE
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
Chem
Engr
Civil
Engr
Comp
Engr
Comp
Sci
Elec
Engr
Indus
Engr
Business Mech
Engr
68,00060,446 65,00063,000 65,00064,000
50,25063,749
72,000
57,100
75,000
93,000
69,000 68,00060,000
68,000
NACE
Tech
Chart 3. Compares National Association of Colleges and Employers (Spring 2016) and
Georgia Tech Undergraduate Salary Data (Spring 2016)
55
Co-op Program Participation Data
Summer 2015
Undergraduate
Co-op Majors
Fall 2015
Undergraduate
Co-op Top 10 Majors
160
135
62
49
48
41
24
20
18
17
ME
IE
EE
CS
AE
CHBE
BMED
BA
MSE
CMPE
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Chart 4. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Majors
158
126
32
31
50
21
61
56
22
27
ME
IE
AE
BMED
CHBE
CE
EE
CS
CMPE
BA
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Chart 5. Fall 2015 - Undergraduate Co-ops Majors
ME 160
IE 135
EE 62
CS 49
AE 48
CHBE 41
BMED 24
BA 20
MSE 18
CMPE 17
ME 158
IE 126
EE 61
CS 56
AE 32
CHBE 50
CE 21
BMED 31
CMPE 22
BA 27
ME 151
IE 122
EE 57
CS 47
CHBE 40
BA 30
56
Spring 2016
Undergraduate
Co-op Top 10 Majors
Summer 2015
Undergraduate Co-op
Class Level
Fall 2015
Undergraduate Co-op
Class Level
151
122
57
47
40
30
24
23
20
18
ME
IE
EE
CS
CHBE
BA
AE
BMED
CE
CMPE
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Chart 6. Spring 2016 - Undergraduate Co-op Majors
52%39%
9%
0%
Chart 7. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Class Level
SR
JR
SO
FR
AE 24
BMED 23
CE 20
CMPE 18
SR 319
JR 235
SO 52
FR 2
Senior 277
Junior 279
Sophomore 53
Freshmen 0
57
Spring 2016
Undergraduate Co-op
Class Level
Summer 2015
Undergraduate Co-op
Top Hiring Companies
45%
46%
9%
0%
Chart 8. Fall 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Class Level
SR
JR
SO
FR
1%
13%
42%
44%
Chart 9. Spring 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Class level
FR
SO
JR
SR
Senior 249 Junior 237
Sophomore 74 Freshmen 2
Georgia Tech Research
Institute 48
Delta Air Lines 46
Coca-Cola Company 21
McKenney's 15
Georgia Power (a Southern
Company) 12
58
Fall 2015
Undergraduate Co-op
Top Hiring Companies
Spring 2016
Undergraduate Co-op
Top Hiring Companies
34%
32%
15%
11%8%
Chart 10. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Top Hiring Companies
Georgia Tech ResearchInstitute
Delta Air Lines
Coca-Cola Company
McKenney's
Georgia Power (aSouthern Company)
39%
29%
13%
11%8%
Chart 11. Fall 2015 - Undergraduate Co-op Top Hiring Companies
Georgia Tech ResearchInstitute
Delta Air Lines
McKenney's
Coca Cola Refreshments
MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES,INC.
GTRI 56
Delta Airlines 42
McKenney’s 19 Coca Cola Refreshments
15
Manhattan Assoc.
12
59
Internship Program Participation Data
Summer 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Top Majors
Fall 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Top Majors
34%
33%
11%
11%
11%
Chart 12. Spring 2016 - Top Undergraduate Co-op Hiring Companies
Delta
GTRI
Coca-Cola
Gulstream Aerospace
Mckenney's
109100
7850
4746
4432
2523
IE
CS
BA
BMED
AE
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Chart 13. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Intern Top Majors
Delta 46
GTRI 44
Coca-Cola 14 Gulfstream Aerospace
14
McKenney’s 15
IE 109
ME 100
CS 78
CHBE 50
BA 47
EE 46
BMED 44
CE 32
AE 25
CMPE 23
ME 27
BA 22
IE 21
CHBE 19
CS 17
BMED 13
CE 9
60
Spring 2016
Undergraduate Intern
Top Majors
Summer 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Class Level
27
22
21
19
17
13
9
7
6
6
ME
BA
IE
CHBE
CS
BMED
CE
MSE
AE
EE
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Chart 14. Fall 2015 Undergraduate InternTop Majors
29
28
23
19
15
10
9
4
3
3
BMED
IE
CS
ME
CHBE
CE
AE
EE
MSE
CMPE
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Chart 15. Spring 2016 - Undergraduate Intern Top Majors
MSE 7
AE 6
EE 6
BMED 29
IE 28
CS 23
ME 19
CHBE 15
CE 10
AE 9
EE 4
MSE 3
CMPE 3
SR 421
JR 158
SO 55
FR 1
61
Fall 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Class Level
Spring 2016
Undergraduate Intern
Class Level
66%
25%
9%
0%
Chart 16. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Intern Class Level
SR
JR
SO
FR
69%
28%
3%
0%
Chart 17. Fall 2015 - Undergraduate Intern Class Level
SR
JR
SO
FR
Senior 116
Junior 47
Sophomore 6
Freshmen 0
FR 1
JR 44
SO 9
SR 104
62
Summer 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Top Hiring Companies
Fall 2015
Undergraduate Intern
Top Hiring Companies
0%
28%
6%66%
Chart 18. Spring 2016 – UndergraduateInterns Class Level
FR
JR
SO
SR
19%
19%
17%15%
15%
15%
Chart 19. Summer 2015 - Undergraduate Intern Top Hiring Companies
GENERAL ELECTRIC - GE
The Home Depot
John Deere
Home Depot
IBM
Microsoft Corporation
GENERAL
ELECTRIC - GE 8
The Home Depot 8
John Deere 7
Home Depot 6
IBM 6
Microsoft Corporation 6
GE 6
ExxonMobil 5
Georgia-
Pacific
5
CareerBuilder 3
St. Jude
Medical
3
63
Spring 2016
Undergraduate Intern
Top Hiring Companies
23%
19%
19%
15%
12%
12%
Chart 20. Fall 2015 - Undergraduate InternTop Hiring Companies
GENERAL ELECTRIC - GE
EXXONMOBIL
Georgia-Pacific
CareerBuilder
St. Jude Medical, Inc.
The Clorox Company
31%
24%17%
14%
14%
Chart 21. Spring 2016 – Undergraduate InternTop Hiring Companies
St. Jude Medical, Inc.
SpaceX
Halyard Health
CareerBuilder
Norfolk Southern
St. Jude Medical,
Inc. 9
SpaceX 7
Halyard Health 5
CareerBuilder 4
Norfolk Southern 4
64
Center for Academic Success
Table 1: PLUS Statistics Fall 2015
Table 2: PLUS Statistics Spring 2016
PLUS Statistics
Total Number of Registrations 4406
Number of Registrations Attending PLUS 1356
Percent of Registrations Attending PLUS 30.78%
Total Visits 4155
Number of PLUS Participants 1204
Total Contact Hours of PLUS Participants 5759
Number of PLUS Sessions Offered 654
Number of PLUS Sessions Attended 603
Total Number of Registered Students 3667
Number of Registered Students Attending PLUS 1204
Percent of Registered Students Attending PLUS 32.83%
Mean Number of Contact Hours of PLUS Participants 4.78
65
Mean Number of Sessions Attended by PLUS
Participants 3.45
Mean Size of PLUS Sessions 6.89
Mean Size of Regular PLUS Sessions 5.21
Mean Size of Double PLUS Sessions 14.58
*Registrations = Counted once for each supported course for which the student is registered
*Participants = Anyone who visited a PLUS session (Even if they aren’t registered for the course)
*PLUS Sessions Attended = Any PLUS session that was not a no-show (at least one attendee)
*Registered Students = Only counted once no matter how many supported courses a student is currently registered
**Note: This semester, all students that attended a session were registered for that course.
Table 3: Breakdown of Tech Prep Participant Fall 2015/Spring 2016 Course Registration/Final Grade
n=61
Fall 2015 MATH Course A B C D F W Total
Tech Prep Track I 7 7 7 2 1 2 37
MATH 1113
1
1
MATH 1551 3 6 6 1
1 17
MATH 1552 2
1
3
MATH 1553 1 7 1 3
12
MATH 1554 1 1
MATH 1711 1 1
MATH 1712 1 1 2
Tech Prep Track II 7 11 3 1 2
24
MATH 1551 2 2
4
MATH 1552 2 3 2
7
MATH 1553 3 3 1 1 2 10
MATH 1554 3 3
Grand Total for Fall 2015 14 18 10 3 3 2 61
Spring 2016 MATH Course A B C D F W Total
Tech Prep Track I 5 11 5 2 0 3 26
MATH 1113 1 1
MATH 1551 1 1
MATH 1552 2 6 3 2 1 14
MATH 1553 4 1 2 7
MATH 1712 1 1 2
MATH 2551 1 1
Tech Prep Track II 7 7 1 1 1 1 18
MATH 1552 1 3 1 5
MATH 1553 1 2 1 4
MATH 1554 1 1 2
MATH 2550 1 1
MATH 2551 3 1 4
66
Fall 2015 MATH Course A B C D F W Total
MATH 2552 1 1 2
Grand Total for Spring 2016 12 18 6 3 1 4 44
Table 4: Comparison of Tech Prep Average Course Grade to the Georgia Tech Average
Calculus Course MATH 1551 MATH 1552
1551 GPA DFW Rate 1552 GPA DFW Rate Tech Prep Participants
2.90 9.1% 2.81 17.2%
Georgia Tech Average
2.80 17.7% 2.96 13.1%
Diff 0.10 -8.6% -0.15 4.1%
Tech Prep Participant Average Overall GPA for First Year 3.07
Table 1: GT 2100 - Probation Group - Continuing/Drop Status in Course Term and Following
67
GT 2100 - Readmitted - Continuing/Drop Status in Course Term and Following
ClassNumber in
ClassTOTAL Success Rate*
as of May 2016
Continuing 20 Continuing 18 Continuing 14 Continuing 14 Continuing 10 Continuing 9 Continuing 9 9
Graduated 0 Graduated 2 Graduated 3 Graduated 0 Graduated 4 Graduated 2 Graduated 0 11
Dismissed 6 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 1 Dismissed 0 7
Total 26 Total 20 Total 17 Total 14 Total 14 Total 12 Total 9 27
Continuing 33 Continuing 27 Continuing 26 Continuing 22 Continuing 19 19
Graduated 2 Graduated 3 Graduated 1 Graduated 4 Graduated 1 11
Dismissed 27 Dismissed 3 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 0 Dismissed 2 32
Total 62 Total 33 Total 27 Total 26 Total 22 62
Continuing 33 Continuing 28 Continuing 20 Continuing 19 19
Graduated 0 Graduated 2 Graduated 3 Graduated 1 6
Dismissed 21 Dismissed 3 Dismissed 5 Dismissed 0 29
Total 54 Total 33 Total 28 Total 20 54
Continuing 9 Continuing 6 Continuing 6 6
Graduated 0 Graduated 1 Graduated 0 1
Dismissed 0 Dismissed 2 Dismissed 0 2
Total 9 Total 9 Total 6 9
Continuing 53 Continuing 47 47
Graduated 0 Graduated 0 0
Dismissed 25 Dismissed 6 31
Total 78 Total 53 78
Continuing 20 20
Graduated 0 0
Dismissed 17 17
Total 37 37
GT 2100 Outcomes - Readmitted
Status After Spring 2014 Status After Summer 2014 Status After Fall 2014 Status After Spring 2015 Status After Summer 2015 Status After Fall 2015 Status After Spring 2016
Spring 2014 27 74%
Fall 2014 62 48%
Spring 2015 54 46%
Summer 2015 9 67%
Fall 2015 78 60%
Spring 2016 37 54%
68
Serve-Learn-Sustain
69
70
71
72
73
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
