HomeFacilitating Integration and Reflection of the Elon Experiences For Parents and Family Members Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionFacilitating Integration and Reflection of the Elon Experiences Toolkit Across Experience Questions Global Engagement Internships Leadership Service Undergraduate Research Expansion Set: Facilitating Integration of and Reflection on Engaged Learning (Broadly) For Students For Faculty and Staff For Parents and Family Members Print a Toolkit Deck About the Toolkits The Facilitating Integration and Reflection of the Elon Experiences (FIRE) Toolkit: Promotes self-reflection and mentoring conversations to enhance students’ Elon Experiences. Supports undergraduates in fulfilling the university’s requirement of two units of experiential learning (the “ELR”), which includes global engagement, internships, leadership, research, and service. Select questions to discuss with your Elon students to facilitate their reflection on the Elon Experiences and their alignment with broader educational goals. Why do the Elon Experiences matter? Four of the Elon Experiences are officially designated “high-impact educational practices” (HIPs)*, which are teaching and learning practices that have significant educational benefits for students. These practices engage students with hands-on learning, often correlate with students’ persistance in college, and contribute to other positive outcomes. In fact, ongoing research from the Center for Engaged Learning suggests that students who participate in educational opportunities like the Elon Experiences and other high-impact practices are more likely to consider college worth the cost and time investment. That’s likely because these activities often embed key engaged learning strategies like facilitating meaningful relationships, building on students’ prior knowledge and experiences, and helping students make meaning of their learning by exploring connections to the world around them and their future professional activity. *The fifth Elon Experience shares characteristics with the official HIPs, but hasn’t officially been designated a HIP (yet). How/when can I use the FIRE Toolkit with my student? You can help your student make meaning from their Elon Experiences throughout their Elon journey. During Their First Semester—Four-Year Plan During their first semester, students will create a four-year graduation plan for their time at Elon. That’s a great time to ask your student Across Elon Experiences: Pre-Experience questions like: What Elon Experience(s) do you think you’d like to pursue and why? How might the Elon Experience(s) support your learning and career interests? As your student identifies specific interests, you can follow up with experience-specific, pre-experience questions about: Global Learning Internships Leadership Service Undergraduate Research Your student also can use the experience-specific questions to ask other students about their Elon Experiences. Sometimes students shy away from an Elon Experience because they don’t know what it entails. Having these conversations with sophomores, juniors, and seniors during your student’s first year can help your student make informed decisions and build these opportunities into their graduation plan. During Elon Experiences Wondering what your student thinks about the Elon Experience they’re currently exploring? Across the Experiences: During questions like the following could help you initiate a conversation: How will this Elon Experience help you in your Elon path and in your life path? How does this Elon Experience intersect with your other (curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular) experiences? How might this experience deepen your understanding of yourself and your direction? What challenges have you encountered during your Elon Experience and what have you learned from those challenges? The FIRE Toolkit also includes experience-specific during questions like: How successful have you been so far at meeting your internship responsibilities, and what strategies have contributed to your success? What has your service experience so far helped you understand about your own values and biases? What have you learned about yourself and what skills have you developed as a result of undertaking a research project? After Elon Experiences You can help your student reflect on their experiences by asking Across the Experiences: Post-Experience questions like: How did your Elon Experience(s) challenge you to learn and grow? How might your Elon Experience(s) inform your personal and professional life beyond Elon? How did your Elon Experience compare to your pre-experience expectations for it? Again, the Toolkit also provides questions specific to each experience. Talking about what they’ve learned from their Elon Experiences and how these learning opportunities contribute to their developing professional identity can help your student practice for talking about the value of their Elon journey in job interviews or graduate application materials.
