Mid Month Memo: December 2019

A newsletter-style blog published every third Wednesday of the month. In the Memo, you'll find practical advice and best practices for using your uConnect platform, inspiration from other partner schools, news from the uConnect community, and more!

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

Drew University recently introduced their pioneering Launch program, an integrated approach to student success and preparation for life after college. The Launch program's digital home was built in partnership with uConnect, and highlights, among a wide variety of student success opportunities and content, Drew's mentorship program. Dr. Daniel Pascoe Aguilar, Associate Provost for Immersive Learning & Career Design at Drew led the charge in developing and executing the new Launch program. Below, Daniel shares his thoughts on why highlighting mentors within Career and Identity/Affinity Communities on uConnect is so important.

"I have come to believe that one of the most important endeavors in which we can invest ourselves as a society is the preparation of Drew mentors

our new generation of leaders. Many of the challenges we face have become systemic, affecting all and putting us at a crossroad of our wellbeing and survival (e.g., sustainability, health, social justice, international relations, economy, education, etc.). I have also learned in research and practice that approximately 80% to 85% of jobs are filled via networking, and that general and career mentoring enhances students' GPA, college adjustment, retention, job satisfaction, performance, professional development, compensation, and mobility.

Based on this, college student organic engagement with a network of on- and off-campus, professional and peer mentors has thus become a priority of our efforts. We are attempting to facilitate meaningful connections and mentoring relationships focused on the careers that interest mentors and mentees, as well as on the identities with which both of them identify. We have developed Career and Identity/Affinity Communities and, in partnership with uConnect, we have built integrated curated web spaces for each of the 18 Drew University Launch Communities that feed data from our mentor database specific to the Community's career interests or identity affinities.

This strategy allows us to give students 24/7 access to mentors they find meaningful to their pursuits or to their identities, as well as to elicit mentor engagement based on the meaning their careers or identities can bring to their interaction with mentees and their impact in their development. These are links to the Drew University Launch integrated website and the Launch Career Communities and Identity/Affinity Communities. You will be able to see how, within each Launch Community, we have included a conspicuous section on the right side with featured mentors through an integration with Drew Connect, our Drew University mentor database powered by People Grove."

Thank you for sharing, Daniel, insightful and inspiring as always!

If you would like to talk through options for promoting your own mentors on your uConnect platform, reach out to us at support@gouconnect.com!

UCONNECT DIY

NEW FEATURE ALERT!

We’re very excited to announce that now available to everyone as part of your core platform is the new Community Anchor Link Navigation Bar. The Navigation Bar sits directly below the header image in each of your uConnect Communities -- it should look familiar to you, as the design is the same as the Hero Navigation bar that sits below the rotating banner on your front page.

The Community Navigation Bar is meant to direct users to the various content sections on the page, show visitors up front what they can engage with on the page, and reduce time spent scrolling. This new feature will enhance your visitors user experience and help give users an idea of what to expect once they land on the page; the Navigation Bar is the first thing that users will see. It will also serve as an incentive for you to add more content without worrying about the time users will have to spend scrolling on your Communities.

If you’re interested in enabling the Community Navigation Bar on your platform, just enter your email address below and a member of our Support team will get in touch shortly.

Once we’ve reached out, we will work with you to:

Pick the call to action that appears on each block of the hero navigation
The color of each section on the Hero Navigation
You can use any icon you supply us with as long as it’s high resolution and transparent

Below is a video demo on what the new feature looks like and how it functions within your platform.

PARTNERSHIP

Welcome to the newest members of the uConnect community! Great things are ahead.

Plus, we are pleased to announce that Vault has joined our partnership program! You can read all about our partnership and the technical integration we built together here. And if you'd like to learn more about integrating your Vault Industry Guides into the uConnect platform, just enter your email address below and someone from our team will get in touch with more information!

UCONNECT BIRTHDAYS