Unique mini-grant program helps UTSA students feel like they belong

OCTOBER 23, 2023 — The First-Year Student Experience and Faculty Engagement Mini-Grant Program awarded up to $1,500 in individual grants in spring 2023. The grants were awarded to 19 faculty to create engaging activities for their students outside the classroom. In total, more than 670 undergraduate students participated in at least one of the 74 events last spring—developing deeper connections to campus, a sense of belonging and a stronger vision of their potential. 

“Creating space where faculty and students can engage beyond the classroom leads to higher academic engagement and reveals new mentoring and growth opportunities,” said Tammy Wyatt, UTSA senior vice provost for student success. “The mini-grant program really builds upon the best practices that UTSA has established to ensure students succeed academically while setting them up for success after they graduate.”

Wyatt and leaders from the UTSA Division of Academic Affairs recently shared the impact of this unique UTSA program with thousands of educators during the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, a convening of higher education technology professionals. At EDUCAUSE, the UTSA team shared strategies and tools to help their peers from other institutions create similar initiatives.

“We’ve grown the mini-grant program because of the tremendous response from students and faculty alike.”

The mini-grant program was created as a partnership between two offices in UTSA Academic Affairs—Student Success and Academic Innovation—and is intended to increase student-faculty engagement. The program is one of many strategic applications that showcases UTSA’s progress toward becoming a national model of student success.

“We’ve grown the mini-grant program because of the tremendous response from students and faculty alike,” said Melissa Vito, vice provost for academic innovation. “After the program, students say that they feel like it’s easier to approach faculty while our instructors report that the program helps them connect with students in a way that isn’t possible in a classroom.”

Faculty used the mini-grants to create events that connected with specific disciplines or interest-related topics. They held a variety of activities throughout the semester, including opportunities to explore art and music, topic-based discussion groups, meals, guest speakers, outdoor activities and movie and game nights.

According to information compiled at the conclusion of the spring semester, 88% of students said they felt more closely connected to their peers, 85% said they felt more connected to their faculty and 82% felt more connected to UTSA.

Stella Lopez, associate professor in the UTSA Department of Psychology, used the mini-grant during the spring semester to help her students learn about potential career paths and explore the discipline.

Lopez helped organize a series of events with department faculty to connect students with professors in a structured yet more informal setting. During the four events, students explored their major, worked with faculty to identify their personal career goals and outline a path to achieve them and participated in well-being activities.

To end the series, Lopez and her peers developed a ‘game show’ style activity that built camaraderie among students and reinforced what they had learned during the sessions.

“This was the vehicle that could help us get students connected to the faculty,” Lopez said. “A lot of students didn’t know what to do with a psychology degree. They came out of these events saying, ‘I had no idea this was what I could do with my degree.’”

The first year at a university can be particularly challenging for all students. If they’re unfamiliar with the university experience, students may feel isolated, hesitant about approaching faculty and uncertain about where to reach out to for support. Additionally, 45% of UTSA’s undergraduates are first-generation college students and 41% are transfer students. These students often feel even more isolated from their institution.

Michael Rushforth said the mini-grant program was a perfect opportunity to bridge the gap between faculty and students—including first-generation students and those from other countries.

Rushforth is the assistant chair and professor of instruction in the UTSA Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. He partnered with department lecturer Gilberta Turner to provide students with cultural experiences. Through visits to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and shared meals, students learned more about the city’s Spanish heritage and their capabilities.

“One student was from Central America and she was a heritage speaker, but she wasn't 100% confident in her Spanish,” said Rushforth.

“Spanish, like any other language, has different dialects, and sometimes these students are not used to the Mexican dialect,” Turner added. “And when they realize that they can use the dialect and everybody is going to understand them, it motivates them,” Turner added.

The interaction with other students and teachers helped Rushforth’s student see that there were opportunities for her to learn and to come to a new appreciation of her own culture.

“We helped her understand her own strength and that she was capable of taking advanced courses—she came out really motivated about what she can do,” Rushforth said.

The First-Year Student Experience and Faculty Engagement Mini-Grant Program is one of several UTSA programs recognized for their impact on student success.

In 2019, UTSA’s First-Generation and Transfer Student Program was designated a “Program to Watch” by Excelencia in Education, an organization that advocates for efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Excelencia recently recertified UTSA’s Seal of Excelencia, a marker for institutions that have made great strides in advancing student success.

UTSA also made a bold showing on U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 list of Best Colleges. The publication ranked UTSA No. 47 nationally for social mobility, and the think tank Third Way ranked UTSA No. 50 in the U.S. on its annual Economic Mobility Index.

— Brett W. Copeland