Suze Guillaume (Miami Dade College) on Creating a Campus Culture of Connection and Support

On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Suze Guillaume to discuss the impact of early trust-building during orientation and the importance of humanizing communication to improve long-term student engagement.

Transcript

Shauna Cox (00:02):

Suze, welcome to the Illumination Podcast.

Suze Guillaume (00:05):

Thank you for having me. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Shauna Cox (00:09):

I am so excited for our conversation. We are here to talk about how we're communicating with students effectively to foster that engagement and retention that higher ed leaders are constantly looking for, and quite honestly, the students are looking for with their institution. So I want to kick off our conversation and first ask you, how does timely personalized communication really shape a student's ability to make informed decisions throughout their academic and career journey?

Suze Guillaume (00:38):

I honestly believe timely and personalized communication early on is very crucial for students. Students are recruited from high schools early on, but I honestly believe from the time that you meet them in orientation, it's the perfect opportunity to engage them and to establish a connection. To be honest, students are looking for trust. They want to be able to trust that person on the other end, and I always remind students, you are the driver. We're the passenger. Let's go on this ride together. But I think the trust component is very important because without it, students are going to be like, I'm another number. I'm here at orientation, and there's so much information that's coming at students all at once. The first thing to do is build trust. I'm so sorry. There's things popping up on, do you hear those things? Oh, that's fine. Okay.

Shauna Cox (01:33):

Yeah, no, that's all good. I don't hear any pings or anything, so you're good there.

Suze Guillaume (01:36):

Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry to interrupt.

Shauna Cox (01:40):

No, no, it's all good. Was that the end of your

Suze Guillaume (01:43):

Thing? It wasn't. I had more, it's just the things kept interrupting me while I was talking. Yeah, no worries. Maybe I should, you know what I'm going to do? Let me close

Shauna Cox (01:53):

Or like a do not disturb or something.

Suze Guillaume (01:54):

Yeah, I'm going to do that because I get interrupted a lot.

Shauna Cox (01:59):

You're busy and you're wanted,

Suze Guillaume (02:02):

Yeah, I should have done that a while ago. I'm so sorry.

Shauna Cox (02:04):

All good. I didn't hear any pings or anything so it didn't interrupt any audio and stuff like that, so you're good.

Suze Guillaume (02:09):

Maybe because on my end it was driving, so I heard it, so it was storing me off, so I signed off of this. Okay.

Shauna Cox (02:18):

Yeah, so then once you're finished there and you snooze it, just continue wherever you feel like it. Okay,

Suze Guillaume (02:27):

Perfect.

Shauna Cox (02:27):

The editing is so great. You won't even notice this when it comes out.

Suze Guillaume (02:31):

I honestly would have to see because I'm now I'm even more nervous because I'm like, I'm pausing on the recording.

Shauna Cox (02:37):

Oh no, you're good. I'm here. I don't have a hard stop at 10 30, so if we go over it's totally

Suze Guillaume (02:42):

Okay. That's fine. Okay. For me too. Okay, perfect. Yes. Orientation is the first opportunity to build that relationship and trust with students, and that time that you have with the students is very limited during orientation. So you really have to be strategic as an advisor, as someone who's connecting with students with how you're going to utilize your time to capture that the students while you have the data and the data is always there. It's how you mobilize and move that data once you have it. And you could create group chats like GroupMe and WhatsApp. Everyone has their own way of connecting with students, but utilize those, don't limit them because you have students that are coming in new, they're getting thousands and thousands of emails and communication. Who are they going to trust? The person that they have the relationship with or the person that they've never met at all. So you're going to pick your battle and you're going to pick the right person that's supporting you on this journey. So I am sharing that in hindsight because it's worked for me. I've even had students grouped and I've welcomed them in their groups class of 20, 27 shark Bite, giving them that name and they connect with it. Oh, you were in my group, in my orientation. And they remember others that have joined them in that class. So personalizing the experience and going back to the basics is where we need to go.

Shauna Cox (04:10):

Absolutely. And I love the idea of this warm and inviting environment that you're creating to help build that trust and kind of implant almost like a memory or that moment of positivity in their life when they're with the institution to keep that connection going because as you said, so much information is being thrown at them. They want to feel more than a number because more often than not, students do feel like a number because there's a whole swath of them coming in. Dovetailing off of that, what are some of the challenges in creating communication strategies that truly reflect the student first mindset, especially when you're serving a diverse number of populations at your institution?

Suze Guillaume (04:54):

Well, when we talk about that student first communication, we have to realize that we need to go back to the basics of humanizing the experience. We're not working with robots where, I mean, I know AI and Chad, GPT has really taken over, but we have to humanize the experience. Students are coming and they're confused, they're undecided. They might know the major that they want. You have a group that may know for sure what they want and others who don't know. So captivating them and getting them early on gives them that understanding, well, this person understands where I'm coming from and they're not my mom, they're not my sister, they're not judging me. They're allowing me to be myself. In this experience. I hear a lot of people say education is students are not going to college and they're fighting other outlets, but how are we approaching students as they come in? What are we doing to make this humanized experience different when we're interacting with students? I know everyone have their schedule from eight to four 30, you have to go in with the mindset is how am I going to get students learners to not just see themselves as a number, but see themselves as someone who belongs here?

(06:17):

And every day is an opportunity to captivate the students. There's events happening here, there's study abroad when I'm hosting events, and I always tell my team when we're creating opportunities, create it for the students. You don't know what they're going through at that moment. You may not get them to respond to you in real time, but maybe they might respond to you four times or maybe after the third or fourth time, but then you get that respond from them and you're giving them that opportunity to take advantage of their journey and not you forcing it upon them. Advisors and educators hold a very unique role, and it's interesting that, and if we don't realize it, we should realize it. We have more power than we think. The power of the future is in our hands. So when we capture the students, whether they complete or not, get them, captivate them, but allow them to see this experience as a journey, a part of this adult experience that they're going to go through because they're coming from high school.

(07:20):

The bell used to ring right? The bell doesn't ring anymore. You're coming into college and now you have to navigate this world that everyone's saying you need to figure it out. Not everyone is going to figure it out that way. Sometimes we do have to do the handholding, and I know a lot of people say, you got to treat 'em as adults. No, we're in a diverse community. Everyone is going through different experiences now. So we have to kind of cater it to different groups. And sometimes you might have to make that phone call to reach that student after seven o'clock. So be it. Take an extra 15 minutes, that student will be home. And there's a unique situation that I'll share where I had a phone call that I was done after seven. I was like the student didn't return. What happened? Come to realize the student was having a child in the next couple of semesters. If I didn't do that natural check-in, if we didn't do that natural check-in, we would've never known what the student was going through. And sometime it's after hours humanizing the student experience through communication. I believe that's the way that we have to go.

Shauna Cox (08:24):

Absolutely. And I think that level of communication, yes, they may not reach you the first or second time. They might reach you after the third or fourth time, but I don't see it as a nagging if you do it strategically. But if you have that there, then the student knows that there's always going to be a support system. They may not have that at home. They may not have that in their lives, but they're going to have it at their institution and have that support system so that come the third or fourth time, they know that they can go to you because they weren't ready the first or second time. And I think that whole idea of support, treating them like an adult, well, adults also need support. Sometimes an adult needs some handholding. It doesn't matter how old they are. I think that level of support is so, so crucial. And I love that you are phrasing this as it's shaped as humanizing the experience, which I think is so critical. And I want to expand on that and ask how do you balance that need for real-time engagement with the importance of empathy and context when you're having your outreaches to students?

Suze Guillaume (09:26):

Students today are extremely overwhelmed, and I have to piggyback on something. There was a painting or a picture that I saw, I think it was on LinkedIn and it was covered. The word financial aid was covered, it was replaced with student financial services. And students are overwhelmed when they come here because everything just seems so robotic and not transparent. And I think relentless leadership means adjusting to how we see the student perspective, putting ourself in their shoes and not limiting communication to just email.

(10:14):

Students will sometimes send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn. That is a form of communication because that's how they were able to reach you in that real time because while you're actively engaging on LinkedIn and Instagram and they see that's where you are meeting students, where they are meeting learners, where they are is where we need to go because you never know where you'll capture them. And I'll go back to another thing to share with you as I'm answering the next question is walking through the halls, I would walk through the halls and literally students would tell me, I got your message. I know I didn't respond. I got your message, but I'll be there. I'll make it. If a student missed an appointment, make that phone call and say, Hey, I saw you missed your appointment. What's going on? Is there something I could do to assist you?

(11:14):

And I think that's important because timing is so important in our tone and how we're delivering. Student can see if it's AI bot chat communicating with them or if it's me, Susie, or my advisor Mary, who's connecting with me on a deeper level. The world is crazy as it is. We have to understand our role is very powerful and the work that we do is very powerful. And that relentless work and communication require us as individuals to make sure that we're taking into account that students, even if they're not responding to you in real time with an event or a programming or a one-on-one meeting and that last meeting, they reach out to you where it's like two o'clock in the morning, Hey, I'm having trouble sleeping at night. I need that counselor to connect. Is there someone I could connect with and not being afraid to send that message at two o'clock in the morning, which I have done before working with students.

(12:19):

And it's a high level engagement and advising. And I think if we do not go back to the basics, we're going to lose our students because we're not losing them because of career. A student can complete a degree, they could register for a class, they could get their assignments done, but it's the outside effect. How are we providing that support for the student? The future is moving fast. I think it's moving faster than we can even captivate, but I think the humanizing part of it is what we still have control over. We have the power to choose to support, empower, and to support the next generation of learners. And if we do not shape it now, we will lose a lot of young people in the world.

Shauna Cox (13:06):

Well, and as higher ed leaders, we know that the majority of students who drop out, I don't know the exact stat, but say 80% of the reasons are non-academic. It's all life situation that's going on. So having that level of support and communicating with them also has a lasting effect. I mean, when I was in university, I specifically remember, and this is, it's still last till today, I did an assignment. I did very poorly on it because at the time I had a family member pass away and I had, this was a professor, but the professor wrote on the assignment saying, Hey, this doesn't seem like you. Are you okay? Come talk to me. Let me know what's up. Because they were able to recognize and point out that something's not right or something might be up reached out. And to this day, years later, I still remember that experience, which has painted a very positive experience for the institution that I went to. So it's just key moments like that I think that are so crucial. And as you said, this stuff isn't because of careers and all the other things. So I want to dive into that career component and ask in what ways do you think the student expectations around immediacy, responsiveness, all these new demands that they have is reshaping that role of career and advisement services in higher ed? Maybe? What have you seen?

Suze Guillaume (14:36):

Well, we do live in a fast paced on-demand world, and our students bring those same expectations into higher ed. And I honestly believe the shift is absolute. It's reshaping

(14:49):

How we operate in career advisement services and how we operate. And that brings me back to the engagement as well. Every day we're receiving communication about opportunities and events and things that are happening. Students would love the quick, clear, convenient access to support as they should because we're moving in a fast paced world. But they don't just value responsiveness. They expect it. If a student is requesting or asking for support, and I know of opportunities that come my way, we build a lot of engagement through our student groups here at the college. We've engaged with students where there's been opportunities to go to a hearing or maybe visit homeless shelter or intern with government officials and pay it forward. And students sign up for those opportunities. You use Google forms, you use MS forms, whatever you want to use. Students sign up and we pull that report.

(16:00):

When we gather that report, we capture the students. What student groups are there part of their availability, their timeframe, how can they move from one space to another? So we're finding out that there's a high demand in engagement. Students want the opportunity, but it's not that easy because we do serve large populations of students, and I want to share this and I want to be transparent with those who are advisors and educators. This is not an ask to just be this holy th out person that's just showing up and serving students all kind of way. Find a population to work with and gather that, whether you have 800 to a thousand students on your caseload, work with maybe the first time direct entry students, maybe a hundred out of that group and capture them and use them to kind of engage them as well because you'll find out what the needs are.

(16:59):

And also remember that every group is different. So communication with every group is different. It's not always going to be the same, but be intentional about the responses. It's not just about speed. It's finding out where these students are, what are the needs are, use whatever tools that work for you. If it's an advising, drop in a group advising session, whatever works for you, find a group, target that group. You're not going to be able to save the world, your a thousand caseload. But students aren't just asking for quick answers. They're asking for connection, guidance, relevance. The more we adapt to meet them in those moments, the more we position ourselves not only for resources, but as trusted partners in this journey. So I share all that to share to kind of focus and delve in on a group, a target group, and watch that group, capture that data and see what works for you and share it. Don't be afraid to share it when you're going to events, you're hosting events with students, share that. It's important for people to see that in real time the work is being done and it's a grassroots effort. It's not something that's going to be on the forefront all the time.

Shauna Cox (18:21):

Absolutely. I love that. And I think say you're starting with, you have a thousand students, you started with a hundred. It's almost like a sample size. You test out the waters, but there you're establishing something. And I think you can, as you said, not everything is going to be to carbon copy, cut and paste to each group, but you can take the best practices that you did there. And then once you have that group established for their support system, then try another group and then try another group and maybe expand it out. But I think there's the core foundation skills that you'll be using in the first 100 group that can be applied to other groups or you share that information with your colleagues and maybe they can try it with their group of students and things like that. I think the best practices that you're sharing right now are so applicable to any higher ed leader that they can take it and try it out for their own group, which is a very specific group for them and they can share it.

(19:14):

And I love the idea of collaboration. So I think it's really important to learn from these tangible takeaways that you're giving and apply to your own situation. And then maybe they improve it for them and then pass that knowledge around to everyone else. So I appreciate you giving those tangible takeaways. They're my favorite thing to share, so thank you for that. You're welcome. And then in terms of this big picture, the world is moving fast, all this other stuff we're trying to keep up. How do you envision the role of communication evolving in supporting student success and more importantly, lifelong learning across this education to career continuum that we're seeing?

Suze Guillaume (20:01):

I envision the communication shifting away from the one way announcements and moving towards more of a model of ongoing dialogue. And this means using data tech technology, however you see fit, to deliver that information timely to students, to your peers, to your team. Relevant information, information that students want to accomplish, goals. And sometimes it's through a text, a WhatsApp group chat, a GroupMe, just find where the students are. And sometimes I've navigate, I remember sharing that walk in the hallways. I believe that's the most humanized experience. Are we going outside? Are we connecting with organizations outside in our communities

(21:00):

And bringing students into those communities so they could see the challenges so they could see how we're supporting universities have these walls. We're all in the classrooms, which is great. I love our professors. Professors are doing great work. They're even doing so much work traveling with students. We need to go out into the community. Recently we gathered groups of students over the summer not too long ago, just going out into communities and giving out books and reading to kids and just having the college students go out to do that. Some are education majors, some were not. Some were studying to be political officials and all these great things and lawyers, but I could see their faces while they're helping the young people read and building robots and just airplanes. And they were just captivated that they were just serving. I think that's education to career. You don't know what could come out of that and expanding their knowledge. So when we were capturing the students to do the event, it was just a simple form, Hey, who's interested? Students were signing up. We got about 20 students to come out. Yes, it wasn't a hundred, but you got 20 students to do something outside of their normal schedule to come and give back to the community

(22:28):

Colleges and universities. We need to go back, I call it the old school church way of knocking on doors and finding people, going back to the basics and meeting communication and finding students where they are. And that's a form of communication in itself so people could feel supported and engaged. And you're empowering both communities. I think helping students and graduates not only navigate academic and career milestones, but other challenges along the way will make them lifelong learners. And these basic skills, of course, who wouldn't hire them? Who wouldn't bring them into their workplace because they're changing the world, not just academically, but going into communities and impacting them as well.

Shauna Cox (23:15):

And I think that just feels so good to the student as well to know that you are serving your community to do it this way, and the institution is providing the opportunity, which honestly makes it so much easier to serve the community because then they're not going out of their way and they're like, oh, now I have to find time to research. How can I reach out to my community? It's right there for them, and I think that is so cool that you guys do that. Now I do want to ask one added question. So I know I'm throwing this on you, so feel free to answer it if you can or you don't have to. But you mentioned data a lot and the technology component. So I'm wondering how you are personally leveraging data and the analytics maybe that you're using and the technology that you're using to communicate with your students to humanize this experience, to keep them engaged and just keep on top of everything as everything is moving so fast.

Suze Guillaume (24:05):

Right, so data, I use it daily. Power BI is one form of data-driven software that we do use to capture the data. I've also captured data, as I mentioned, through MS forms when students are volunteering or doing events. When I capture that information, I gather it, and I also work with my team as well so that we can find the students who are highly engaged. Power BI allows us to see the academics as well. We use Salesforce as well to kind of host events and in that you can kind of see the students who are signed up to take classes here, what events they've attended, meet your advisor, little things that we're trying to use to see the engagement.

(24:55):

I'm all about engagement. I believe it's something that I've always started as doing here at the college. I've been here for close to 17 years. Serving and putting forth this information. I've been able to capture and hopefully it could one day turn into something because I have so many stories and as my team are seeing students, they're now asking those key questions to students and we're learning from students things that they're doing. We found boxes. Students who box their daily life, they box and they go to school. We found students who are race car drivers. There's an article that was just recently written about one of the students, but in capturing the information, when we see the students, it's not only about their appointment and they're making their map and they're signing up for their classes. What we're doing is capturing the information to see where they are, whether they're engaging with us or they're engaged themselves in the community because students are balancing all kinds of things.

(26:01):

It's a different perspective from me growing up, I didn't have to work as much. There was a lot of support. Students now have to work, provide, go to school. So it's finding out everything that they're doing and finding out the in-betweens, what can we do to provide support with this data that we have for the student. Is there resources on campus that we could give them? Is there mental health counseling that we can provide? Maybe they need someone to talk to, maybe they might need a meal to eat. And our single stop program allows us to support students in that nature. So I think everyone who have the data, it's right in front of us. We get it daily. We get it so much that sometimes it's overwhelming. So sometimes we got to take a step back and say, what can I do to leverage the data that I have in front of me to have my students win and I myself can win and my team can win at the same time.

Shauna Cox (27:04):

Absolutely. I think what I'm gathering here, and especially these other conversations I've had with higher ed leaders, the way I'm seeing higher ed shift is higher ed. How we figure out how we fit into, it's all about how we are figuring out how to fit into the students' lives, not making them try to fit us into their lives. I think that's how I'm starting to see it. Bingo, and I love it so much that I am seeing this shift and all this momentum towards a much more ecosystem of a student's life because it's not just two years, four years, and then they're gone off-ramps and all that other stuff. So let's create this ecosystem that makes it welcoming for them to have that component in their life so they can get the education that they need. Amazing. I love this conversation so much. I do not want it to end, but Susie, is there anything else that you would like to add? Any advice that you'd like to share when it comes to student engagement, making this humanizing experience? Anything that I may have missed?

Suze Guillaume (28:10):

Just I truly appreciate this opportunity. It's a reminder and this conversation that we're having is a reminder of the silent power we have as educators and future leaders. The power is walking through the hallways. They're sitting in our offices, they're engaging with us in the community, how we put forth our effort, how we redesign our thinking of student engagement and reimagine it is what the future is going to look like.

(28:46):

We have a lot of power and sometimes a lot of that power can be dangerous because you could actually have a student who would've been able to complete, but because they weren't engaged properly or because of a bad experience. When a student sent an email to me, just a friendly reminder, and I know we all do this at my level, if that student is coming to me and they sent me an email and they need support, I'm going to do whatever I can to get that student to the finish line. That's how we have to see it. If we send student, oh no, go to this department and they should be able to help you. No walk. Leave the office, walk the student to the department and get them the support that they need. It's a life-changing experience. Sometimes it's even life or death, and I'll say this lastly, I have one student that I had the privilege of being his advisor a couple of years ago. He still comes back to volunteer orientation. I don't ask him nothing. He put on his Miami Day shirt and he's already a student who's graduating from FIU. He comes back. I don't have to ask him what time to show up to be on time. He shows up. Why? Because it was that meaningful experience he had when I was his advisor. We have to make our days count. We have a lot of power in our hand, and the future is in our hand.

Shauna Cox (30:10):

Just going to mic drop that. Got a mic drop that amazing again. Okay. Well, before I let you go, Susie, I have to ask most important question of a higher ed podcast. We need a restaurant recommendation based on where you are. So you are Miami, Florida, if someone's coming to town, conference, leisure, anything, where do they need to go to eat?

Suze Guillaume (30:33):

Oh wow. This is a good one. Only one

Shauna Cox (30:36):

You can give two, maybe three.

Suze Guillaume (30:39):

I can give two. Okay, so the first one I'm going to give is Chef Creole,

(30:45):

Authentic Haitian food, Caribbean cuisine. You even get the Caribbean boat in the atmosphere that's going on there as well. That's in Miami, Florida. We also have Lorna's Caribbean Grill Cafe. Oh my gosh. If you want Bahamian food, some conch salad, some cake, yes. You got to visit Lorna's and there's one more. Las Vegas is Cuban. You get the Cuban feel when you go in there. Let me tell you. Be ready because you're going to have the music. You're going to have your rice and beans. I love the diversity in Miami. These are the restaurants that I would recommend. If you're ever in Miami, please check them out.

Shauna Cox (31:25):

Amazing. Suzy, thank you so much for the recommendations and for such a great conversation. I really appreciate it.

Suze Guillaume (31:32):

Thank you for having.