Apply Now For The Student-Faculty Partnership Program, Fall 2020

April 13, 2020 / Bill Reynolds, PhD / Tags: student, sfpp, partnership, professional development, faculty

The Lucas Center Student-Faculty Partnership Program (SFPP) is a combined faculty development and student success program designed to enhance teaching, learning, and student-faculty relationships at FGCU. The SFPP pairs faculty members with students who serve as teaching and learning consultants to their faculty partners. These pairs work in semester-long partnerships to analyze, affirm, and revise the pedagogical approaches employed in a particular course, and participants meet regularly not only in their pairs but in larger groups to discuss their work. Students are paid for up to seven hours of work each week (approximately $1000 per student per semester), and faculty participants receive a small stipend.

To date, 43 faculty and 32 students have participated since fall of 2018. Both students and faculty report significant benefits of program participation. Sociology faculty member Jan Meij said about his spring 2020 partnership: “I have found this extremely helpful in having almost like a mediator and translator between faculty and students. You can see how things come across to students without students feeling a distance…It is also good to have pedagogical conversations with someone who is still close to the students in your course and not yet so far removed from the undergrad experience.” Student participants report that their relationships with faculty partners broaden and deepen their understanding of the intellectual effort and energy that goes into designing and teaching a college course. This knowledge, in turn, translates into increased confidence in their ability to effectively communicate with faculty and successfully navigate their own classes.

Faculty can find the SFPP application here—(Deadline is May 1)
If you know students who you believe would make effective partners, you can refer them to the student application here—(Faculty do NOT have to identify their own student partners. Partnerships are established based on the compatibility of student and faculty schedules, among other factors.)
For more information, contact Bill, Jackie, or Nick at Lucascenter@fgcu.edu.