Upcoming Symposium

Location: Room 103

Abstract coming soon!

Location: Room 210

Presenters: Elizabeth Smith Hamlet, Isaac Solomon, Jasmine Jeffries, Kaitlyn Mitchell

This proposal explores how Gen Z students have reshaped the landscape of mental health and student support. It highlights the importance of holistic approaches to student success, including coaching, mentoring, and institutional strategies that address emotional well-being, resilience, and inclusive practices. The session will share insights and actionable strategies utilized by the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics Academic Services unit.

Location: Room 314A

Presenters: Toni Gist and various Undergraduate Students

This panel brings together faculty and students to share perspectives from the open-source book “What Your Students Aren’t Telling You” and accompanying research at the University of Illinois. Through data and lived experiences, the panel will highlight how issues of accessibility, classroom climate, and course design impact student success in ways that often go unspoken.Student panelists will share their own experiences alongside evidence from surveys and narratives, offering practical recommendations for fostering belonging and inclusive learning environments. Faculty attendees will leave with actionable insights on how to partner with students to better support their success.

Location: Room 314B

Presenters: Charlotte Bauer, Emily Wuchner, Dana Johnson

Canvas isn’t just for courses! Over the past few years, the Graduate College has utilized Canvas as a space to connect with and support students with very positive results. In this session, Graduate College staff will present four examples of how we are using Canvas to enhance student experiences beyond the classroom setting. 1.GradMAP – an orientation space to reach students at the very beginning of their journey, helping them identify resources and info that is important and timely, and available to return to as needed.2. NSF Writing Lab – an interactive training space to support applicants to the largest graduate student fellowship program.3.Thesis Workspace – a welcoming support space for students who are in the writing stage regardless of what program they are in.4. Canvas for Graduate Program Staff – an informational space for administrative staff who support student success that includes trainings, job aids, and best practices.

Location: Room 404

Presenters: Norma Garcia, Vanessa Burgett,Stephanie Walton, Andrea Bridges

The Student Success Symposium is also composed of the Student Dinner Dialogue and this year’s focus was centering student voice through storytelling. Students from across campus shared their success stories and the challenges they face as they navigate the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students shared the obstacles they face while also sharing their support systems on campus. This session will highlight insights gained from the dinner and Dialogue and provide ways participants attending the session can contribute to students’ success and retention at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Location: Room 407

Presenters: Jen House, Leslie Lewis

Sponsored by OVCSA

Helping students reach their goals is our top priority. Through a dynamic, student-centered approach, our programming supports academic success by focusing on the whole student—academically, socially, and emotionally. This workshop highlights the partnership between Gies Undergraduate Programs Student Success and the Gies Embedded Counselor from the Illinois Counseling Center.  We will discuss events rooted in the Student Success Wellness Areas: Eat, Sleep, Connect, Create. Our initiatives, including workshops hosted by The Counseling Center in The Success Lab, Grab & Go resources, silent study spaces, and wellness-focused activities like yoga, are designed to destigmatize help-seeking and promote well-being for all students. We also provide a practical Self-Help Guide to equip students with accessible tools and strategies to stay on track, build crucial skills, and foster meaningful engagement with their campus community. This presentation will highlight how integrated wellness programming supports student retention, success, and a stronger sense of belonging across diverse student populations.

Location: Room 104

Interns: The Secret Ingredient HIP

Presenters: Sean Beal, Za’nia Harris, Shamiyah Pledge

The Access and Achievement Program (AAP) serves as a vital support system for underrepresented, first-generation, and low-income students at the University of Illinois. Its mission is to provide academic, personal, and professional guidance that empowers students to thrive throughout their college journey. Over the years, the introduction of the AAP Internship has become a key factor in advancing this mission. By integrating student interns into the program’s daily operations, AAP has evolved from a staff-led initiative to a more collaborative, student-informed community. Interns have enhanced outreach efforts, strengthened peer connections, and introduced new ideas for workshops, mentorship, and communication strategies that better reflect student needs. This presentation highlights how experiential learning through internships not only transformed AAP’s approach to student support but also fostered leadership, innovation, and representation within the program itself.

Reenvisioning Graduation Gaps: Understanding the Numbers of Students Needed to Close Gaps in 6-Year Graduation Rates HIP SSS

Presenter: Ryan Young

In this lightning talk, I’ll reframe how we think about equity in student success by translating percentages into people. Rather than focusing on abstract percentage-point differences, I’ll show how many additional students from different groups must persist and graduate to fully close observed gaps in 6-year graduation rates. Using Fall 2018 outcomes and Fall 2024 cohort data, I’ll model both the scale of current disparities and the tangible progress needed to eliminate them.The analysis combines cohort enrollment, subgroup graduation rates, and recent improvements in 3rd-term retention. Early results show promising movement—particularly among African American, Latinx, first-generation, and fee waiver students—indicating that small increases in persistence can meaningfully shift institutional outcomes. I’ll walk through a method for converting retention and graduation differences into student counts, clarifying both the scope of the challenge and the feasibility of targeted interventions.By grounding the discussion in real numbers rather than abstract percentages, this session encourages a more actionable understanding of success work. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for answering a deceptively simple question: How many students must we retain and graduate to truly close the gap?

Student Success and Course Affordability: Strategies for Reducing the Cost of Course Materials SPA SSS

Presenters: Maria Emerson, Evie Cordell, Alex Deeke

Course affordability continues to be a significant barrier to student success. Research and anecdotal evidence alike reveal that students often make academic decisions—such as dropping or avoiding courses—based solely on the cost of required textbooks. In some extreme cases, students choose between purchasing course materials and meeting basic needs like food or medication. These difficult choices directly impact retention, engagement, and academic achievement. This workshop will explore how the University Library can help support students by providing free and equitable access to course materials. Participants will learn practical tools, ideas, and support options to make their own courses more affordable—ultimately fostering greater inclusion, retention, and student success. Whether you are a student, advisor, teaching faculty, or administrator, this workshop will provide actionable insights to empower Illinois students.

Location: Room 103

Presenter: Lisa Abston

Persistent inequities in the science and engineering (S&E) workforce underscore the urgency of institutional strategies that broaden participation and support success for students that have faced barriers to accessing graduate education. Scholars from underrepresented groups continue to have less representation in U.S. S&E fields and are disproportionately likely to leave graduate programs before completing their degrees.Since 2015, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Sloan University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) has addressed these inequities through coordinated recruitment, financial support, mentoring, and community building across 19 STEM departments. The Illinois UCEM has supported 151 scholars, 60 of whom have graduated, achieving outcomes that include 100% post-graduation employment and attrition rates substantially below national averages.This presentation examines the impact of the Illinois Sloan UCEM model and its institutionalization through the Illinois Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Program. This ensures the sustainability of equitable mentoring practices, holistic admissions, and inclusive professional development across all disciplines. Participants will learn strategies for embedding equity-centered mentoring frameworks into institutional structures to promote enduring, systemic change in graduate education.

Location: Room 210

Presenters: Christina Swanson, Morgan Smith, Leanne Cunningham, Calen Gutwein

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable.” – Fred RogersIt is human to have career fears.  Students don’t talk about these fears so they don’t know that everyone else is feeling the same way. It grows into something that feels unmanageable and isolating. We have our own fears, too. It is hard to know how to support students through these complex issues. And we can feel just as alone. Let’s come together to make career support more manageable.  The four speakers will share some strategies we have used in our classes and advising appointments to tackle each of the biggest career fears we see in our students:- I’m not good enough- I’ll make the wrong choice- I haven’t done enough to be unique or special- If I don’t succeed at this there’s nothing else for meWe want to learn from you, too. Everyone has something meaningful to contribute. Let’s work together to show our students just how valuable, confident, unique, and capable they truly are. We want you to leave knowing how capable you are, too.

Location: Room 314A

Presenters: Diana Gonzales, Laura Reiter, Student Panelists

Undergraduate advisors are uniquely positioned to influence the trajectory of students considering graduate education, yet many graduate students look back wishing they had received more guidance to better prepare for the realities of graduate school. In this panel, current graduate students from diverse engineering majors will share what they wish their undergraduate advisors had told them.Panelists will reflect on key differences between undergraduate and graduate experiences, the application process, time management, research culture, and other important aspects of graduate preparation. They will also offer concrete advice on how advisors can guide undergraduates exploring graduate pathways. The session will include brief panelist reflections, a moderated discussion, and Q&A. It is ideal for academic advisors, mentors, and other undergraduate student affairs professionals interested in expanding their advising toolkit.

Location: Room 314B

Presenters: Datia Flowers, Ross Wantland

Sponsored by OVCDEI

Belonging is a critical yet often overlooked factor in student success. When conflict or harm occurs within higher education environments, students’ sense of safety and connection to the institution can quickly erode, directly impacting mental health, academic achievement, and ultimately retention. This interactive session, led by staff from the University of Illinois’s Campus Belonging unit, explores how intentional practices of belonging, restorative justice, and collective care can transform conflict into opportunities for learning, healing, reconnection, which promotes student success.Grounded in a conflict to care framework, presenters will share a four-stage model that centers belonging as a foundation for holistic student growth. Through a combination of data and dialogue, participants will learn how Campus Belonging defines and fosters belonging through bias response and proactive belonging practices. We will highlight our mediation and restorative justice services, as well as the broader strategies used to create safe spaces for healing after harm or tension.Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how to embed belonging into daily practice, moving beyond punitive actions toward approaches that strengthens trust, and builds inclusion, to encourage student engagement and success both academically and personally.

Location: Room 404

Presenters: Bethany Carmien Onwodi, Heather Bode

Q: How much financial aid did OSFA disburse in the 2024-2025 year?

A: over $1.2 billion.

Q: OSFA, OUA, and OCEM are acronyms for university offices in what area?

A: Enrollment management.

Q: True or false: OSFA handles student  payment plans.

A: False; the University Bursar handles payment plans.

The Office of Student Financial Aid is a small but dynamic office in the campus community with roles in the student recruitment process as well in supporting current students, not to mention responding to data and audit requests, and did you know we also have a unit for Student Employment? We guarantee if you’ve been on campus for one, ten, twenty, or more years, there is probably something about financial aid or OSFA that you haven’t yet heard, and we want to spend some time breaking down what OSFA does to serve students and set them up for success, as well as address some high level, commonly asked questions about financial aid (including recent legislative impacts).

Location: Room 407

Presenters: Aric Faulkner, Christy Verhelst

In recent years, the term “neurodivergent” has become a buzzword on social media and within higher education. Stemming from an emerging mental health therapy approach, we will show how we adapt neurodivergent-affirming practices in our academic advising approach. But where does the term “neurodivergent” come from, what does it mean, and how can we incorporate this knowledge into our advising practices to better support neurodivergent students?  This presentation explores the concept of neurodivergence, historicizing the term within its roots in the neurodiversity movement of the 1990s, while also challenging prevailing misconceptions about neurodivergent students. Our presentation will guide participants through understanding and combating neuronormative bias, demonstrating how it can harm students, while introducing neurodivergent-affirming advising as an alternative. Additionally, we will introduce crip theory, a foundational concept from disability studies, and how some of its implications can help foster more inclusive practices. Furthermore, we will highlight how neurodivergent-affirming practices shift the paradigm from deficit-focused interventions to a model that empowers neurodivergent students to work with, rather than against, their unique cognitive functioning. This presentation will highlight how traditional academic success strategies often center the cognitive functioning of neurotypical students, encouraging behaviors that may be unhelpful for neurodivergent students’ success.

Location: Room 104

Student Employment as a High Impact Practice HIP SPA SSS

Presenters: Beth Hoag, Linell Edwards, Ryan Young

Student employment is an essential component to many university offices. Prior research has shown that on-campus student employment has many positive effects on student persistence and engagement. Despite these benefits, many students struggle to make connections between their work, academics, and future career. In this session we will review new findings from the Chancellor’s Senior Survey and a Student Affairs project on learning and career competencies in student employment. We will also share innovative tools that can be implemented in your unit to help student employees articulate their learning and career readiness.

Strategic Initiatives and Services from the Office of Online Learning

Presenter: Lisa Anderson

The Office of Online Learning is leading a suite of strategic initiatives—including the Dual Credit Learning Accelerator, 2026 Illinois Online Higher Education Symposium, Let’s Launch: Online Program Development
workshop series, Illinois Online website redesign, Digital Accessibility and Excellence Initiative support, individualized consultations, and program planning resources—to strengthen online teaching and program development across campus. In partnership with other centralized service units, these efforts reflect a coordinated, campus-wide approach to supporting high-quality online learning. This lightning talk will outline pathways to connect with our team and make use of our services.

Developing A Gender-Based Violence Capability for the Illinois App HIP SSS

Presenters: Vanessa Burgett, Rachel Garthe, Ch’nel Duke

As part of a US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women research and evaluation grant, the School of Social Work, the Illinois app team along with collaborators from various units like the Title IX Office and the Women’s Resources Center have developed a new Gender-Based Violence section of the app for a pilot group of students to view and use during the 2025-2026 academic year. After learning from the pilot and revising the capability, the feature will then be visible to anyone with the Illinois app in the 2026-2027 academic year. See Creating a digital ecosystem to support survivors and reduce gender-based violence on college campuses.

Location: Room 103

Presenters: Kasey Murphy, Toni Gist, David Favre, Manny Rodriguez, Yury Borukhovich

This presentation highlights the development and pilot launch of the Student AI Fluency Toolkit, a collaborative initiative between ACES and CITL designed to support student success through personalized, ethical engagement with artificial intelligence. Created in partnership with student contributors, the toolkit offers an interactive, gamified learning experience that empowers students to explore AI Critical Literacy at their own pace. The toolkit features two core zones: the Scenario Zone, where students navigate real-world dilemmas and apply the ADAPT AI Ethics Framework, and the Personalized Toolkit Zone, which allows learners to choose their own AI fluency path based on comfort level and interest. Students also had the opportunity to record and contribute content aligned with their passions, ensuring authentic peer-to-peer learning. This co-creation model not only gives students a voice in shaping their AI journey but also fosters community and collaboration. The toolkit is available in Canvas Commons, making it easy for instructors to embed into any course. Attendees will learn how this approach supports inclusive, student-centered learning and how it can be adapted across disciplines to promote ethical, confident use of AI in academic life.

Location: Room 104

Presenters: Linell Edwards, Karen Tabb Dina, Jonathan Dunn, Monika Stodolski, Jonathan Tomkin

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost

Many academic programs at Illinois regularly collect and analyze data on student learning – but turning that data into meaningful improvements is a bigger challenge. Fortunately, several programs across campus have successfully made that leap, using assessment data to enhance the student experience in tangible ways.  Some programs leveraged exam scores, project outcomes, and assignment data to support curricular or process changes. Others drew insights from surveys, focus groups, alumni feedback, and evaluations from fieldwork, internships, and practicums to guide programmatic improvements. In this session, campus leaders who have championed this work will share how they moved from simply collecting data to actively using it to drive change – ultimately leading to stronger student learning and success. While especially relevant for those involved in learning outcomes assessment, anyone interested in turning data into action is encouraged to attend.

Location: Room 314A

Presenters: Gies College of Business (Ashley Mayor)

Off-Campus Transfer (OCT) students bring a wealth of experience yet often encounter distinct challenges as they transition into a new academic environment. This panel highlights a collaborative initiative within the Gies College of Business designed to enhance the overall experience and success of OCT students through a coordinated approach that connects learning, advising, and career development. The centerpiece of this effort is a pilot course section that offers the foundational business courses in a customized format, ensuring OCT students gain essential knowledge and skills while navigating a condensed curriculum. In addition to the course innovation, the academic advising office and the career and professional development team have developed targeted support strategies to meet OCT students’ unique needs. Panelists including a faculty instructor, advisor, staff, and a student leader, will share lessons learned about building equitable pathways for transfer students through partnership, data-informed decision-making, and holistic student support. Attendees will gain insights into tailoring courses to specific populations, implementing wraparound support strategies, and fostering cross-unit partnerships that collectively contribute to student success. Audience perspectives on supporting OCT and other transfer students will be welcomed as part of the discussion.

Location: Room 314B

Presenters: Jose De La O, Kristy Valentin, Isabel Molina-Guzman

Latinx students represent one of the fastest-growing populations in higher education, yet they continue to face cultural barriers that translate into their journey with higher education. Academic advisors play a pivotal role in helping students navigate these barriers, but doing so requires an understanding of unique experiences. This session will explore key barriers that Latinx students often encounter throughout their college journey, such as financial pressures, first-generation status, cultural expectations, and limited access to support. This session will highlight actionable strategies for academic advisors to foster trust, promote self-efficacy, and connect Latinx students with campus and community resources. Drawing from current research and lived experiences, participants will engage in dialogue, reflection, and scenario-based activities designed to strengthen culturally responsive advising approaches.

Location: Room 404

Presenters: Abisola Smith, Stephanie Dvorachek, Sam Holden

Sponsored by the Graduate College

Approximately one third of the students at the University of Illinois are graduate students. This is a very wide ranging and diverse group of students and supporting them rarely takes a “one size fits all” approach. Additionally, many campus resources are designed for or marketed toward undergraduate students which can leave graduate students, and faculty/staff, unsure of where to begin in navigating these challenges.In the Dean of Students Office, International Students & Scholars Services, and University Housing, we work to support graduate students on a daily basis and hope that by sharing our experiences and best practices, we can establish a starting point for providing this out of the classroom support. Specifically, we will focus on some of the most common challenges that graduate students face including financial challenges, supporting children and other dependents, and navigating graduate school as an international student. Finally, we will share resources and support strategies available on campus to help support these students.

Location: Room 407

Presenters: Alejandra Stenger, Monica Brigham

The Michael L. Jeffries, Sr. Center for Access and Academic Success, part of Student Success, Inclusion & Belonging in Student Affairs, provides support services to promote academic and personal development for all students on campus. The Advising & Mentoring unit of The Jeffries Center hosts the Study Buddy program, which promotes academic success, social interaction, and peer support by creating a collaborative study environment. Advising & Mentoring will discuss the creation of the program, including the importance of providing collaborative and inclusive spaces, and how accountability and empathy has impacted students’ sense of belonging, personal growth and well-being, and connection to campus.

Location: Room 210

Navigating College Student Development Theory in Academic Advising SSS

Presenters: Aric Faulkner, Dionne Lipscomb

This presentation will be a conversation about how to navigate some college student development theories in academic advising. It will be helpful for academic advisors and professionals/practitioners in related fields who may have little-to-no experience with college student development theories. This session is also aimed towards participants who enjoy college student development theories and would like an opportunity to discuss some of their favorites with other academic advisors.

Not Another Sticky Note! Incorporating Organizational Strategies for Administrative Efficiency SPA

Presenters: Karin Readel, Katelyn Talbott

Having a well-crafted organizational strategy to keep track of information can help SA Professionals effectively manage their workload throughout the year, as well as provide continuity during transitions or staff onboarding.  We will present a framework and a series of intertwined strategies that can be adopted at any institution or level. These strategies include developing a comprehensive communication plan for routine work, creating robust onboarding documentation, and establishing a transition plan before it is needed.

Getting to the Heart of Yield: 3 Essentials HIP

Presenters: Katelyn Talbott, Karin Readel

Admitted students may go weeks or even months before actually enrolling and attending courses. This poster presentation outlines three best practices for yield: community building, communications, and yield events. These three key factors can be adopted for any program, any institution, and any professional. The underlying foundation of these practices is to begin social integration into the program, college, and institution as soon as possible.

Bridging Modalities, Building Success: Advancing Student Service-Learning Opportunities in Hyflex and Hybrid Classrooms HIP

Presenters: Melissa Iverson, Katie Shumway

As universities increasingly adopt HyFlex and hybrid models—serving both in-person and online learners—service-learning initiatives face new challenges and opportunities. This session explores strategies for designing and facilitating successful service-learning projects within HyFlex and hybrid classrooms, emphasizing how to prepare students to collaborate effectively with peers and community partners across modalities. Drawing on experiences at the University of Illinois and the work of the Community Learning Lab (CLL), we will examine how course planning, partner matching, and project management can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse learners while sustaining meaningful community partnerships. The CLL plays a central role by connecting students and faculty with agency-submitted project proposals, aligning learning goals with real community needs. Participants will discuss approaches for structuring group work, reviewing project milestones, and coordinating expectations so both in-person and online students can engage equitably. Together, we will consider ways to strengthen student collaboration, engagement, and impact through flexible design and partnership support. Whether teaching in-person, online, or in HyFlex/hybrid formats, this session offers practical takeaways for leveraging service-learning as a high-impact practice that enhances student success and community connection.

Utilizing Assessment and Administrative Data to Understand Your Impact HIP

Presenter: Michael Kang

Evidence suggests Student Affairs contributes strongly to student success at the University of Illinois. However, despite extensive service provision and assessment, individual Student Affairs departments’ often have a limited understanding of their impact because of disconnected data. In this presentation, I demonstrate a systematic approach to integrating assessment outcomes with administrative data in University Housing to facilitate a more comprehensive analysis of our impact on student success and foundations for further evaluations. Specifically, I highlight the link between our communication and student engagement, and student success, collected across various data sources. Attendees will learn practical strategies for data integration and analytical frameworks for impact assessment applicable in higher education contexts.

Creating a Community of Practice Among First-Year Instructors Across Campus HIP T&L

Presenter: Brian Woodard

This interactive discussion is focused on building relationships between first-year course practitioners from across campus. Our team in The Grainger College of Engineering has established a community of practice among instructors of these courses, and we are looking to expand that community and learn from while sharing experiences with our colleagues in the other colleges. The departments in The Grainger College of Engineering each offer their own type of introductory course, and additionally the college requires all students to enroll in ENG 100, the nontechnical introduction to engineering.  A strength of this arrangement is that each of the department introductory courses can be tailored and focused to the needs of the department.  A downside to this arrangement is that the courses are not coordinated in any way, even though much of the content is similar between them. We hope that this session serves as a starting point for continued, future collaborations between first-year instructors teaching college-wide orientation courses and those leading department-specific courses. The session will include a series of discussion prompts for small groups to discuss and report out to the whole group.

Serving our Neighbors, Serving our World: EDUC201 & International Education Partnership as a Global + Service Learning HIP Worth Exploring HIP T&L

Presenters: Rebecca Hodson, Cara Gutzmer

Serving our Neighbors, Serving our World: EDUC201 & International Education Partnership as a Global + Service Learning HIP Worth Exploring showcases an innovative collaboration between the EDUC201 course and the International Education office (Student Affairs). This partnership exemplifies how service learning and global engagement can be integrated into a course to create a meaningful High-Impact Practice (HIP) that fosters student success.Through interactive dialogue with current and former students, participants will gain insight into how this course encourages cultural awareness, critical reflection, and community engagement—both locally and globally. Attendees will explore how inclusive, experiential learning opportunities like this can deepen student learning, support diverse student populations, and contribute to broader institutional goals.The session will also highlight tools, resources, and strategies for faculty and staff interested in designing or enhancing similar course-based partnerships. Join us to discover how we are modeling a sustainable, scalable approach to service learning and global education—serving both our neighbors and the world.

Listening for Assessment: Evaluating Student Survey Results SPA SSS

Presenters: Belinda Bolivar, Jen-chien Yu

The poster presentation will describe the process and the results of the 2024 Library Service Satisfaction Survey. Administered for the 10th time, this survey had become a short, standard survey tailored to our students for the library and has become a way to monitor student engagement and behavior with our services. This flexible survey has allowed us to gain insights into the use of our collection, library instruction, and general engagement. This recent administration gave the library an opportunity to access additional demographic information including housing situation, gender, class, and enrollment time which allowed us to further tailor our support to student learners. By reviewing the results, key findings have been used to identify services that students use as well as ease of use. These findings revealed the most used services: e-books or journals, check out library items, and study spaces (including group and family study rooms). Incorporating difficulty levels into the survey allowed for greater insights which have been used to improve services including evaluating and refining the study room reservation process. This presentation will show the results over time including the changes in student behavior, use of findings, and the benefits of conducting multi-year surveys.

Tutors-as-Learners: Peer Tutoring as a High Impact Practice HIP SSS

Presenter: Carolyn Wisniewski

While peer tutoring programs are often discussed in terms of the benefits they offer to student tutees, these programs also serve as valuable sites of intellectual development for student tutors. Recent research has identified peer tutoring as a component of student success and a High-Impact Practice (Kuh, 2008; Kuh et al.,2010), finding that tutoring “aligns with all eight HIP characteristics and connects with relational, structured, and experiential learning” (Bell et al., 2025). This roundtable will feature student panelists from peer-tutoring programs across campus—including the Writers Workshop, Jeffries Center, Speakers Workshop, and Center for Academic Resources in Engineering—to discuss how their work impacts their student experience, personal development, and career preparation. Our panelists speak to the unique opportunities peer tutoring offers UIUC students. Their experiences showcase how tutoring programs contribute to the educational mission of the university on multiple levels, as tutors support the research, writing, and learning of fellow students while engaging in their own professional development. We hope to develop a robust conversation that leaves participants with a broader understanding of the deep value these programs offer and how they might encourage students to engage with tutoring programs on multiple levels.

Engaging and Connecting Students: The Illinois Residential Experience HIP SPA

Presenters: Herb Jones, Chris Axtman-Barker

The Illinois Residential Experience (IRE) is a dynamic, student-centered approach designed to foster engagement, belonging, and personal growth while living with university housing. This presentation highlights how intentional programming guided by learning goals, inclusive practices, and collaborative partnerships creates a vibrant residential experience that support student success.

Supporting the Whole Student Through the Student Wellness Guidebook

Presenter: Jae Vickery

The Student Wellness Guidebook serves as a comprehensive tool grounded in the Eight Dimensions of Wellness. It provides students with accessible guidance, practical routines, and connected resources that promote early action, resilience, and whole-student well-being. This poster showcases how the guidebook bridges mental health, academics, and personal growth to strengthen student success.