True North Journey Program Launches

The new True North Journey Program launched this year with the incoming class of 2030. Sydney Andringa, True North Journey Operations Manager, described the True North Journey as a student success initiative aimed at elevating existing programs, specifically through experiential learning, professional development, and a mentorship-centered community.  

As the program is launching with incoming first-year students, every first-year student will get a True North Journey Team and will work with their academic and career navigators and eventually their Network navigators to create a cohesive college experience.  

“We’ve done these things before, but this is a way to really elevate them and guarantee that students can have this experience by putting them in unavoidable places. We’re taking this work and making it an opt-out model rather than an opt-in model, where you have to go searching for these experiences,” Andringa said.   

While the program will eventually be campus-wide, the biggest changes this fall are the new “Basecamp” replacing orientation, changes in advisors and the new “Lookout” class replacing College Success, as well as certain offices moving to be more cohesive with the program.   

Instead of the Experience Hub in Clemens Library, there is now the Navigation Center, which contains the academic navigators and career navigators. Study Abroad and XPD have moved to the Academic Services building beside Ardolf. Financial Aid has moved to the Quad next to Student Accounts at SJU.   

With these changes, new terminology has been introduced to better match the “True North” theme as designed by Marketing. Orientation, now Basecamp, was led by “Basecamp Guides” as opposed to Orientation Leaders; Academic, Career and Network Advisors are now called “Navigators,” and the College Success class is now called “The Lookout.”  

The program was created as a response to declining enrollment concerns. An outside organization called Art and Science completed 18-month consulting research on both campuses.   

“The goal was to understand how prospective students perceive us and what they know about us, and what they’re looking for, but also maybe what barriers they have to coming here,” said Dean of Curriculum and Assessment Karyl Frohrip, Dean of Curriculum and Assessment. 

The organization gave CSB+SJU ideas for improvement, of which the schools picked three main areas of focus that connect to CSB+SJUs Institutional Learning Goals and Catholic and Benedictine mission traditions: Experiential Learning (EL), Professional Development (PD) and Mentorship-Centered Community (MC).  

These goals were used to create the new Basecamp, as well as to implement new campus practices.   

Basecamp is described as a “reimagined orientation experience — five days, but nothing like the old orientation. Students choose experiences that align with their interests, learning preferences, and an emerging sense of self. After completing Basecamp, students should be able to: Identify the ethos and culture (mission, monikers, charism) of CSB+SJU, articulate what it means to be a contributing member of the community, identify resources that guide them on the True North Journey, and express readiness to begin the True North Journey.”  

Some students felt these goals came across and were happy with their basecamp experience.  

“I think the True North program was a good way to start college because it gave us a chance to think about what we actually want out of our time here. During orientation, it wasn’t just about learning where things are or what classes are like, but also about our goals and the kind of person we want to become. Since we were the first freshman class to experience orientation this way, it was interesting to be part of something new,” SJU first-year Aldo Espinoza said.  

While Basecamp’s big objectives came across for some, other first-years were missing parts of the “old orientation.”  

“Orientation wasn’t too bad. I kind of wish we focused more on, like, campus and knowing where to go, but other than that it was fun with the activities they planned,” CSB first-year Lourette Guevara said.   

The new, laid-out framework for the new freshmen is organized into phases. The first phase revolves around students discovering who they are and finding a sense of community on campus. The next phase encourages students to explore new ideas and create a deeper sense of belonging. The third phase is described as the time when you focus on your skills and build a stronger network. The last phase completes your “journey”, as students begin to transition to life after graduation and clarify their plans.   

“Our admission and marketing teams have worked really hard to bring the True North Journey message to market when trying to attract students,” Andringa said. “We do have a bigger class this year, so I hope we’re on an upward trajectory, and after a few years, we’ll be able to say we now have data to back this up.”