21st Annual Student Life Research Symposium View Other Sessions

Presentation 1: How can prevention programs meaningfully engage students as partners in program design? This presentation explores how the University of Michigan's Raise the Bar program used community-based participatory evaluation (CBPE) principles to strengthen prevention education addressing the intersection of substance use and sexual violence. Recognizing that students are experts in their own experiences, Raise the Bar engaged undergraduate students throughout the evaluation process to identify barriers to participation, gaps in knowledge, and opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts. Through focus groups, participant surveys, and feedback from piloted workshops, students played an active role in informing the program's future direction. Rather than positioning participants solely as sources of data, this approach emphasized collaboration, shared learning, and the integration of student perspectives into program planning and decision-making. This session will examine how CBPE principles informed the evaluation design, facilitated authentic student engagement, and translated participant feedback into actionable program improvements. Attendees will learn how student input shaped revisions to educational content, outreach strategies, and implementation planning, including efforts to expand harm reduction education, increase awareness of campus support resources, and develop messaging that reflects students' lived experiences. The presentation will also discuss lessons learned from using participatory evaluation within a campus prevention initiative and offer practical strategies for incorporating community voice into program development, implementation, and continuous improvement.

Presentation 2: First-generation college students (FGCS) often face challenges adapting to the academic and social environments of elite institutions like Dartmouth College. Lacking familial experience in higher education, they must decode unspoken institutional norms, contributing to stress, social isolation, and barriers to accessing institutional support. This study examines how FGCS experience academic pressure, social belonging, and engagement with campus systems, and how these shape their personal and professional trajectories. Drawing on participant-generated audio diary journals with alumni, qualitative interviews with faculty and staff, and a review of existing literature, this research highlights the interplay of academic stress, coping strategies, cultural capital, and intersectional identities in shaping FGCS outcomes. Findings suggest that while academic stress is a significant barrier, structured support programs, mentorship, and peer networks play a critical role in fostering resilience and reducing uncertainty. Additionally, institutional fluency—the ability to interpret and operate within implicit norms and campus systems— is essential for academic success and long-term professional development. By emphasizing the roles of social support, help-seeking pathways, and identity negotiation, this study contributes to scholarship on educational equity, social mobility, and the long-term impact of higher education on FGCS post-graduate trajectories.

Presentation 1: Student employment is common among undergraduates. This presentation shares findings from a systematic review of over 50 studies (2005-2025) on undergraduate student employment in the U.S., synthesizing two decades of research into a practical framework for understanding when employment supports student success and when it undermines it. Findings show that financial stability, time pressure, and skill-building all interact, and that job quality, schedule control, and career relevance matter as much as whether a student works at all. The review also shows that students are not randomly distributed across job types: some are more likely to end up in lower-quality work arrangements, raising equity questions that go beyond access to employment alone. Presenter will highlight practical questions institutions can ask about the student jobs they oversee – from work-study to campus employment to career-connected roles – and invite discussion about what data or partnerships might help answer them locally.

Presentation 2: Student employment is common among undergraduates. This presentation shares findings from a systematic review of over 50 studies (2005-2025) on undergraduate student employment in the U.S., synthesizing two decades of research into a practical framework for understanding when employment supports student success and when it undermines it. Findings show that financial stability, time pressure, and skill-building all interact, and that job quality, schedule control, and career relevance matter as much as whether a student works at all. The review also shows that students are not randomly distributed across job types: some are more likely to end up in lower-quality work arrangements, raising equity questions that go beyond access to employment alone. Presenter will highlight practical questions institutions can ask about the student jobs they oversee – from work-study to campus employment to career-connected roles – and invite discussion about what data or partnerships might help answer them locally.

Presentation 1: Established in 2022, Rackham’s Strategic Evaluation and Assessment Team (R-SEAT) was designed to support continuous improvement through collaborative, data-informed reviews of academic initiatives. Over four years, R-SEAT has evaluated more than ten initiatives using a mixed-methods approach that includes institutional and program data analysis, document review, and stakeholder feedback. This presentation shares what R-SEAT has learned about the promise — and complexity — of conducting internal evaluations. Our experience shows that rigorous evaluation can generate valuable insights, but it can also be slow, resource-intensive, and difficult to move from recommendations to action. We also found that evaluating initiatives one at a time can make it harder to see broader patterns, connections, and opportunities across programs with shared goals. These lessons point to the need for a more agile, connected, and action-oriented evaluation strategy. The session will also invite conversation with U-M colleagues interested in sharing tools, strategies, and lessons learned through a cross-campus community of practice.

Presentation 2: This presentation explores how intentional collaboration can strengthen the work of university unions. Grounded in systems thinking and informed by an anonymous survey, this session looks at how relationships across departments shape day-to-day communication and the overall experience of working in shared spaces. Using this study as a starting point, the session will help participants think about how a similar approach could be used in their own organizations or projects. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all model, it invites attendees to reflect on where collaboration is already happening, where silos may be getting in the way, and what stronger connections could make possible. Participants will learn simple ways to map relationships and notice patterns that can open the door to more honest conversations across teams. By making organizational reflection practical and approachable, the session will help attendees identify ideas they can adapt to better understand their own environments and support more connected, caring, and effective work.

Presentation 1: As part of the Student Success Initiative at U-M, we aim to improve students’ success through increased student engagement with high-impact practices. Our work utilizes a mixed methods approach to characterize the experiences of students who took part in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). This project is guided by the following questions: How do UROP students experience research? And how does participating in UROP support student momentum towards degree attainment and post-graduation outcomes? Our work examines how the research environment, namely the tasks they were given and relationships formed, crafted students’ experiences. We are interested in how research experiences might contribute to students making connections, developing self-efficacy, and exploring their values and passions.

Presentation 2: Asian and Asian American college students are consistently found in the literature to face high rates of mental health stigma due to cultural norms, but it remains unclear whether this stigma or a lack of awareness of campus resources drives gaps in help-seeking. This session presents findings from the Healthy Minds Study, an annual national survey of student mental health across undergraduate and graduate students from universities across the country, comparing stigma, knowledge of campus mental health services, and treatment utilization across racial and ethnic groups. Asian/Asian American students reported the highest personal stigma of any group, despite holding public stigma perceptions and knowledge of campus mental health services similar to their peers, suggesting internalized stigma rather than lack of knowledge as the key barrier. This group also showed the lowest rates of formal and informal help-seeking, including among students already experiencing depression or anxiety symptoms. These findings point to internalized stigma, rather than lack of awareness, as the key driver of help-seeking disparities among Asian/Asian American students, highlighting the need for more culturally sensitive approaches to mental health support.