September 2008

Personal Guides Help Freshmen Adjust to University Life

Freshmen have a new resource to help with their transition to college—a GW staff “guide.” Launched this fall, the Guide to Personal Success (GPS) program matches members of the class of 2012 with GW staff members, or “GW guides.”

“We want to make sure new students have a great experience in their first few weeks at the university,” says Guide to Personal Success Director Brian Hamluk, M.A. ’03. “Guides will serve as a resource and will help personalize the students’ experiences at GW.”

Hamluk says 400 staff and faculty from departments and programs across the university have volunteered to work with the new students, including staff from the Office of the President, the Division of Executive Vice President and Treasurer, the Division of Student and Academic Support Services, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Office of University Relations.

The guides are paired with students who have similar interests and will meet with them several times over the course of the fall and spring semesters. The guides underwent two training sessions during the summer and were provided information detailing GW resources.

“A key benefit is the learning and growth guides will receive through this experience,” says GPS volunteer Sara Melita, managing director of staff and leadership development in the Division of Executive Vice President and Treasurer. “We know that staff will develop leadership and communication skills as a part of guiding their students during their first year at GW, and everyone benefits from this process.”

The Guide to Personal Success program is one of the strategic developments brainstormed during a yearlong comprehensive self-study of the university’s student and academic support services commissioned by Senior Vice President Robert A. Chernak. Hamluk, who studied similar programs at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Washington University in St. Louis to develop GW’s program, hopes it will help address the anxieties many new students face as they adjust to college and city life.

“Students have said it can be tough to figure out which staff members to contact,” says Hamluk. “We hope this program will merge our campus resources and our students together.”

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu