Hi and welcome back! Finally time to talk about the results and what I found!
To start out, I got about 30 responses, so I didn’t get too many but it was enough to make it fairly credible for the specific demographics which made up the answer pool. Most of those who responded were freshman, so my take-aways are largely based on this assumption.
My sample is perfect for me! (Source)
1) A lot of people know about these centers!
– A good percentage of the people who answered knew the three centers (just in case you forgot they are Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship). The Ignatian center got over 70% recognition, so students know the name of them.
2) The Markkula Center wasn’t as popular as it seems.
– I compared the percentages of students who said they know each of the centers, and the percentage of students who chose each as their NUMBER 1 choice in terms of how important they are for the students. Markkula Center, which was more known then the Miller center in table 1 lost to the Miller center in table 2. Maybe this could be the difference between the amount of advertising (people know it but don’t actually participate) and good programming (more people care).
3) People aren’t doing things they are passionate about.
– When I compared the terms students choose as what mattered most to them, it often did not match up with the centers’ values. (Look at question 5 in my last post to see the exact question) By comparing these answered to the mission statements of each program, we can say people are not getting involved with the centers which they share the same values with. By changing this, the student experience could be dramatically improved!
4) People aren’t interested at all!!!
-My final finding was a sad one…students are just not getting involved. Overwhelming people showed disinterest in these three centers, although they all do amazing work here at SCU. So that leads to my project for my next essay!
How can we improve programming and advertising at SCU to maximize the undergraduate experience?
Until next time…
When you talk about how students are not doing things they are passionate about, or how they are not in the right centers that fit their values, what do you think is a good solution to this? What can we do to help influence students get into the right center for themselves? I do want to point out, however, that are students obligated to take advantage of the center that embodies their values? Is this a problem that *needs* to be fixed?
Hey Cory,
Thanks for your great comments. To answer your last sentence raising the question about if students need to be to participating in these centers, I do not see this is something obligatory. However, since these centers do amazing work on a centralized themes I believe they are still many students who could be further involved for career development and sheer joy, and are missing out on an opportunity. As for means of influencing students, I do have some ideas in mind, but this is what i will be doing my further research on! Keep posted for my updates!!