Academic Achievement Center
The Academic Achievement Center offers a variety of topics to present to your class! You can may choose from the following topics or request a custom presentation:
- Setting Up Your Semester
- Prioritization Techniques
- Attention Management
- Strategies for Deeper Learning
- Test Taking Strategies
- Academic Resilience
To assist you with selecting the best presentation for your class, you can now preview a few of the presentation slides on our website! Submit your AAC presentation request by using the online request form here.
Center for Career Development
The Center for Career Development is thrilled to present three options for instructors as they shape their syllabi for FYE courses. These include one in-person presentation and two asynchronous lessons, all outlined below. To request a presentation, please follow this form.
- In-class Presentation: Introduction to the Center for Career Development
This in-person presentation offers an overview of the Center for Career Development, featuring trivia questions to debunk career misconceptions and highlight the realities of the hiring process and the Center for Career Development. Students will learn about the resources and services the Center offers, including career coaching, résumés, job and internship searches, and career competency development. Throughout the session, students will participate in trivia designed to deepen their understanding of these career-related topics. *Please note that the Center for Career Development will only be conducting an in-person presentation for this offering.
- Asynchronous Lesson 1: Résumé Assignment
This interactive asynchronous lesson guides students through creating a well-rounded, impactful résumé. Covering everything from résumé basics to content, format, and bullet point development, this comprehensive module offers an engaging learning experience. Through dynamic multimodal presentations, students explore résumé components from various angles, gaining insights into employer usage and Applicant Tracking Systems. Additionally, students will use the Center's new AI résumé tool, Quinncia, to have their résumés reviewed. The lesson includes immediate knowledge checks and an end-of-module quiz to assess comprehension. *Please note that this lesson from the Center for Career Development is available exclusively online via Blackboard and will not include an in-person session.
- Asynchronous Lesson 2: Becoming Career Ready: Skills Employers Seek
What are employers seeking in future hires? Students will learn the answer to this question through our interactive asynchronous module “Becoming Career Ready: Skills Employers Seek.” The National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) identified eight career competencies that are necessary skills for success for students in today’s workforce. Students will learn to identify these skills through their own experiences at UConn and how to articulate them on their résumés and interviews. Students will learn about each competency in depth through a multimodal presentation that incorporates videos and learning checks throughout the module. Students will end with an end of the module quiz to assess overall comprehension of content. *Please note that this lesson from the Center for Career Development is available exclusively online via Blackboard and will not include an in-person session.
Innovation Zone
During this workshop, students will be introduced to the Innovation Zone (IZone) Makerspace and its various offerings. Facilitators will guide participants through an engaging, hands-on activity focusing on the exploration of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial mindset and showcase how those themes apply to their path to success while at UConn and beyond.
Click here to request a IZone presentation!
Violence Against Women Prevention Program (VAWPP)
This workshop invites students to think critically about common patterns of communication around requests, negotiation, pressure, and coercion. Facilitators will use fun, interactive, non-sexual role-play to help students discuss dynamics within sexual and romantic situations.
Writing Center
Students can schedule an appointment with a Writing Center tutor to receive feedback on a written assignment due in one of the classes they are currently enrolled in. Then, they can submit their original and revised drafts through HuskyCT to earn credit. This is a great way to get students exposed to Writing Center services and encourage active academic development.
Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
The Ballard Institute is currently offering virtual puppet-building workshops in a number of puppetry styles! Workshops are conducive to educators seeking new and inventive ways to incorporate puppetry into their teaching methods, and to students looking to learn more about how to build and manipulate puppets. To schedule your workshop, contact bimp@uconn.edu
Dean of Students
The Dean of Students can present to your FYE class on ways they support students and how to access their services.
Experiential Global Learning
Experiential Global Learning is happy present to your group! Our presentations cover common questions that students have about programs abroad, such as academics, financial aid and scholarships, health and safety, and student interests in other topics. EGL also offers virtual internship programs and global programs domestically.
For greatest availability, please submit your request to us at least one week in advance of your intended event. Once we schedule an Experiential Global Leaning representative for your request, we will send you an email confirmation.
To request a presentation, visit: https://egl.uconn.edu/presentation-request/
Human Rights Institute
Let the Human Rights Institute introduce your students to the human rights program at UConn. The presentation can be tailored to your class’s need, and will cover the opportunities and resources available for students studying human rights at UConn. Choose either a 15-minute informational presentation or a 50-minute interactive workshop developed especially for FYE classes.
International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS)
ITS
Microsoft 365: Email, Storage, and Collaboration Apps for Students
Microsoft 365 is the software that students will use for email, file storage, communication, and collaboration at UConn. It is crucial to their success as students to understand how to use Microsoft 365 to complete coursework and interact with peers and instructors.
ITS is offering a hands-on workshop to help students learn the tech. We’ll leverage their knowledge of Google and help them apply those same concepts to Microsoft 365. This workshop will cover how to:
- Navigate Outlook
- Save and share files in OneDrive
- Communicate with Teams
- Start using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Students should come to class with their devices and be ready to explore the apps. Book this workshop with ITS by emailing techsupport@uconn.edu.
Be Cyber Smart
Many of our interactions – social and business – are online, and this means our data and identifiable information are there too. Criminal looks for ways to steal this information and leverage it to cause financial harm and widespread IT compromises.
Cybersecurity awareness and education is the best protection for students. This presentation covers the essential skills and knowledge they need to keep themselves, their identity, and their data safe, while at UConn and after they graduate.
This in-person presentation is 40 minutes.
Book your Storrs Cyber Smart Partner Presentation here or Regional Campus Presentation here.
Life Purpose Ambassadors
Life Purpose Ambassadors Presentation
College is a pivotal time filled with new experiences and challenges. Developing a strong sense of purpose can be transformative, guiding students through this critical period. We have created a guest workshop for first-year students, based on the proven methodologies of the UConn Life Purpose Lab.
The Major Experience – How Major is Your Major?
We believe that every student should be exploratory when it comes to majors. Whether they’re anxiously undecided or comfortably declared, everyone can benefit from taking the time to examine their options. However, most students simply aren’t prepared to explore. Preconceived assumptions and myths about majors prevent them from being able to take full advantage of the process. This presentation will focus on elevating the student approach to major exploration by acknowledging and correcting these misconceptions and demonstrating that choosing a major isn’t quite so major.
This presentation focuses on two key points:
– Addressing and dispelling common myths and fallacies associated with choosing majors/careers.
– Providing students with the appropriate tools and resources to effectively explore majors.
The Major Experience – What’s Really Important to You?
Your values will often be the driving force behind almost every important decision you make. They are your principles and standards. They are your judgment of what’s important in life. Some values are innate and some are taught. They are beliefs, ideas and experiences that are important to you and direct your choices.
By leading an in-class activity and facilitating discussion throughout, we will give students the opportunity to begin thinking about their values and how values can guide their decision-making. We will focus on how this impacts a student’s choice of major and/or career.
This presentation will take 50 minutes (including question/answer time throughout) and is VERY interactive. Please submit your request by completing the form below. You will receive a response in 2-3 business days.
Office of Financial Aid
Students who participate in our interactive session of Your Money Matters- Life Elements–will learn key personal finance skills in a fun and engaging manner, as they embark on making financial decisions for Dakota, a senior graduating from UConn. Learning objectives include emphasizing the value (and ease) of creating a monthly budget, the importance of saving, the difference between credit cards and debit cards, and why it’s important to minimize debt. Ultimately, students will leave the session with a heightened awareness of early financial planning.
OPIM Innovate Lab
The OPIM Innovate lab can give students of all majors and backgrounds access to new, emerging technologies that may not be found in a typical classroom setting which includes 3D printers, circuitry, drones, Virtual Reality, and more. In addition, OPIM Innovate Lab also offers online modules in areas such as programming, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence that are available on their website.
To share some information about the lab with your class, click the link here. There are three different options for including an OPIM Innovate Lab into your classroom. To view the options, click here. If you are interested in adding our lab to your class, you can fill out the form here.
If you would like more information, you can contact them at opiminnovate@uconn.edu.
S.T.A.R.T. the Conversation
The S.T.A.R.T. program offers interactive, contemporary education in a safe and compassionate environment focused on group conversation.
If you are interested in hosting an educational experience with the UConn Police Department, please complete the form below. Be sure to complete all areas so we can better meet your programming needs. The UCPD Community Outreach Unit reserves the right to fulfill requests on a first-come/ first-served basis for 10 or more participants. Program availability is subject to availability of police personnel. Please allow at least 4 weeks prior to the desired presentation date as our calendar fills up quickly.
Student Health and Wellness
In response, the SHaW team has developed a program specifically tailored to first-year students that incorporated the responses we received.
We highly suggest FYE instructors incorporate this program, "Mental Health & Stress Management" into their syllabus prior to requesting any additional programming from SHaW. If this topic does not capture the needs of your students, you may continue to request alternate programming, however, please note that not all of our additional programs are available during day-time hours when FYE classes are typically held.
The William Benton Museum of Art
Art & Authenticity on Campus
This self-guided workshop uses celebrity portraits by artist and photographer David LaChapelle to challenge incoming students to consider their own modes of self-presentation on campus. Students will explore portraits of pop culture icons such as Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, and Travis Scott on display in the Benton Museum. Then, they will discuss concepts of self-presentation and authenticity at work both in the photographs, and in the transition to life at UConn.
You will receive detailed instructions for the workshop upon registration. Visit https://benton.uconn.edu/class-visit-request/.
Critical Looking Workshop
Sharpen observation skills, practice empathy, and engage in critical thinking at The Benton. This 50-minute workshop shows students how to tap their powers of observation and investigate a work of art through close looking and discussion. Offered in the Museum and online (synchronous). The workshop is led by Amanda Douberley, Ph.D., Assistant Curator/Academic Liaison. Visit the museum’s website to reserve your workshop early, as space is limited: https://benton.uconn.edu/class-visit-request/
