I Had the Best DREAM!

We’re back at MDC’s offices in Durham, NC after a great week in Dallas, TX for DREAM 2012. Our brains and notebooks are overflowing with ideas and observations, but here are some quick highlights:

• Thursday’s lunch featured a great student panel—so much ambition and intellect! Our favorite line: when an audience member asked what would make the experience better, one of the students said “They should have an advisor just for old people!” Another student likened his college to an ocean—vast and full of yet to be discovered secrets.
• The student Twitter team and the videographers were energetic, friendly and prolific.
• The student designed tee-shirts? Awesome.
• Learning about Cuyahoga Community College’s Student Ambassadors and how they are becoming peer mentors—and helping their fellow students be more successful.
• Often the first step in promoting financial management strategies at your college is helping students, faculty and administration understand the true financial barriers students face. Phillips Community College has done this through running a poverty simulation for its faculty and CCBC uses a video which explains the financial challenges students face. 
• A presentation from Isaac Rowlett and Jyoti Gupta of Public Agenda highlighted the many ways in which colleges can engage their communities to advance student success. A key challenge to overcome: making sure that you invite the right people to be part of your planning efforts, not just the usual suspects who you have worked with in the past.
• We briefly covered the equity panel discussion in our previous post, but here’s a great recap from the Community College Times.
• North Central State College wins our vote for best session title: Scaling Up Math and English Boot Camps (or Are These Boot Camps Made for Walking?) Apparently, Nancy Sinatra was a featured participant. You can download slides and handouts from ALL of the DREAM sessions here.

Were you at DREAM, too? Share your highlights in the comments section!