Spartan student profiles from UGS 201: Influencing the undergraduate experience at MSU

In fall of 2024, Maria O’Connell and I spent every Tuesday and Thursday evening with nine students who were taking our course on the Spartan Undergraduate Experience. The purpose of the course was to increase students’ awareness of the five opportunity areas of undergraduate success, encourage them to apply them to their own lives, and then be a part of a participatory research project where we learned together about students’ experiences at MSU. 

After learning about ethnography, process mapping, design thinking and participatory action research as methods for gathering the experiences of students, the UGS students went out into the MSU community (the MSU Union, Synder-Phillips Hall, and the International Center) to survey students. They asked questions around the five areas of success and engaged passing students to indicate where students felt belonging and community on large maps of the campus.  After having engaged close to 100 students, they identified themes across all three activities using those themes to create two student profiles (using whatever creative format worked for them) and presented them to the rest of class as part of their final project.

Here are some of the profiles created by Sophia, Jacob, Nicole, and Riley.

Victoria by Sophia

Developing purpose: 
Victoria is developing purpose through going to her classes and understanding more about herself. Networking events hosted by the Eli Broad College of Business help her get to know people in her future field and give her a sense of purpose in her career goals. 

Educational Success: 
Victoria balances her classes with a part-time job to help pay for her college expenses. She uses the free campus tutoring when she can to stay on track, as well as peer study groups. 

Sense of Belonging: 
The Chicano/Latino Association (ChiLA) is an advocacy organization for all Latinx employees at Michigan State University. Victoria joined this association to feel a better sense of belonging, as she works on campus, and wants to feel represented. 

Contributing to an Empowered Community: 
At MSU, Victoria is a part of the Multicultural Business Program (MBP) which is an organization within the Eli Broad College of Business that supports underrepresented students in business-related fields. 

Wellbeing:
Victoria prioritizes her wellbeing by participating in programs through the Student Health and Wellness Services at MSU. These workshops provide students with lessons on stress management techniques and mindfulness practices. She also uses Rec Sports and Fitness Services to do yoga to relax.

Ronald by Nicole

Growing up Ronald has always been around hard-working people. He saw his family achieve many great accomplishments. Things such as going to college and successful careers amongst other things. He decided he wanted to make a name for himself, trying to find who he wanted to be. Although he’s been around success, the pressures and the struggles of finding out what path you want to take could be a little challenging. He has always been into Engineering, that has been a great passion of his. However, during his time in college he wanted to feel a sense of community and love outside of his household, where he is free from the stress and pressures of living up to the ones to come before him. He loves his family and is not far from home, which is convenient when you are feeling a little homesick. He often feels lost searching for a sense of identity and purpose. Overworking and thinking makes him have really bad anxiety.

John and Holly by Riley

Through John, I explored the challenges faced by working-class students who don’t fit the demographic diversity that scholarships are often looking for. On the other hand, Holly’s profile brought attention to systemic racism and sexism, and the emotional toll these take on students in her situation. Her story emphasized the importance of culturally competent counseling services, safe spaces, and mentorship from individuals who have similar experiences. Writing her profile made me think about the challenges faced by students from underrepresented backgrounds and how isolating those experiences can feel without support. Her profile emphasized the importance of creating environments where students can thrive not just academically, but emotionally and socially as well.

Kristina by Jacob

“During this assignment, I got to see the different struggles and successes of different students with different lives. Most of the answers weren’t surprising, but some definitely did surprise me.”

“The topics I chose to highlight were financial struggles, racism, and sexism, as these were recurring themes in the data from the surveys our groups collected.”

“It really opened my eyes to all of the different struggles that people are going through. Some of the answers in our survey were very heartfelt and sad.”

“Through working on these observations, I realized that the five areas of success are more interconnected than I initially thought. By fully understanding each one, I could see how they all work together to promote student success. Self-discovery of purpose and educational success focus on achieving academic goals, while sense of belonging, contributing to an empowered community, and well-being emphasize the importance of mental and physical health. Although they may seem like separate categories, they are very interconnected and depend on each other to form the foundation of student success that we have been learning about throughout the semester.”

“I had never heard of the five areas of success. This class helped me understand how important it can be to get the help that is needed and to focus on yourself at times. The observations helped me to put the five areas of success into examples. This made it much easier to understand them.”

Maria and I are grateful for the ways our students interacted with us and each other in the class. Their feedback and participation in discussions around the five areas of success will help us build out what our curriculum for the course will look like in the future. Next year, we plan to offer UGS201 Influencing the Spartan Undergraduate Experience in fall of 2025 and to create capstone experiences through UGS292 for students interested in continuing the work with us for spring of 2026. Please reach out to Amy or Maria with questions or suggestions as we continue to build out this experience for our students.