The Office of Undergraduate Student Success will hold its annual Student Success Fair Sept. 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Carl DeSantis Building atrium.
At the fair, students will meet staff from 17 offices, including the Tutoring and Testing Center, the Office of Career Development, the Alvin Sherman Library, the Office of Innovation and Information Technologies and the Undergraduate Academic Advising Center.
Student Success Coordinator of Operations Deborah Rabinowitz, coordinator of the fair, said the fair connects students to campus resources.
Student Success Director Sheila Fabius said, “It’s a great way for students to have a good time and connect faces with the names of offices that they learned about in orientation. It’s a really fun atmosphere where staff and students get to interact and share information.”
Gabby Grant, assistant director in the office, said the fair is a centralized location for different offices that support students.
“Say they needed information on the [student health] clinics, or they wanted to find about travel study and career development and then see their adviser. They can do that in one place during the fair while having fun.”
Student Success Assistant Director Jake Shilts said students will be provided with a map with a layout of all the booths when they enter and sign in with their SharkCards. They will also receive a card for staff at the table to stamp. If they get at least eight stamps on the card, they will be eligible to enter a raffle to win prizes.
The fair will also feature the NSU cheerleaders, Razor, and music from RadioX, NSU’s radio station. Jimmy Johns will also free free food samples. The office will also host a “best selfie” contest. To enter, students take a selfie at the fair and post it to Twitter, mentioning the Student Success Twitter handle @NSUSuccess. If they win, the office will send them a direct message on Twitter.
While students do not have to do anything to prepare for the fair, Fabius suggested they come with an open mind.
“We just want them to come open with the idea that we have offices that want to assist them, and we just want them to have a good time,” Fabius said.
This year, the fair will be a part of Undergraduate Academic Success Week, from the 15th to the 19th. The office reached out to other offices to unite events that benefit students under one banner. During this week, students will have opportunities to connect with different academic units as well as resource offices. For example, the College of Nursing will hold a meet and greet event and the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences will host an informational session on the Clinic Exploration Program.
Rabinowitz said the week will be good for students who didn’t know what path they wanted to take.
“Maybe this is their first semester and they’re just taking their basic courses, but they can see that the Fischler School of Education is doing something and that the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences is doing something else, and they can check out these different paths and see if it’s something that might interest them,” Rabinowitz said.
Shilts agreed.
“I would challenge students to go to something they probably would not think of going to just to see whether or not it peaks their interest.”
Grant said the week also serves as practice for networking while learning about student resources.
“I’d like for students to get out of their comfort zone and realize that this is practice for real life when they graduate and they’re going to have to go to networking events and meet new people,” Grant said.
To see a full list of the events for Academic Student Success Week, visit nova.edu/yoursuccess.
