What is STILE?
Vision
The Success Through Intentional Learning and Engagement program (STILE) aims to create a supportive environment that encourages student success while helping the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts persistence scholars gain a sense of belonging that solidifies their place as engaged stewards of the campus, local and global community.
Mission
The STILE program supports academic persistence that honors the uniqueness of our students. Through self-advocacy and empowerment students will design pathways to promote academic success and post-degree goal(s) completion. We will partner with students to help them build relationships both on and off campus through use of campus resources and community engagement events. We will encourage curricular and personal growth by creating programs that will enhance educational outcomes while increasing workplace, life skill, and community stakeholder readiness.
The STILE program is built on the following four pillars.
- Student Defined Academic Success
- Leadership Actualization
- Community Building, Engagement and Stewardship
- Economic Empowerment through Financial Literacy and Career Readiness
Student success is defined in multiple ways. Success for one student could be achieved by making the Dean’s list while success for another may include bringing up their cumulative GPA to a 2.0. STILE creates space to help students achieve and celebrate their personally identified goals. STILE meets students where they are and supports them in progress maintenance. Persistence scholars in STILE will design their own program path to promote self-advocacy and outcome ownership. Student defined academic success increases the likelihood of engagement by giving students control. Scholars will acknowledge their successes or setbacks by tracking self-identified milestones. STILE is the campus community base that persistence scholars will use to grow their sense of belonging.
Leadership development is a cornerstone in many college programs. The STILE program takes the push to help students gain leadership skills and experience one step further. We want to do more than plant the leadership seed in hopes that it will grow; we want to help STILE scholars become actual leaders on campus and in the broader Detroit community. This will be accomplished in several ways: seminars on what being a leader means and looks like, ways to get involved in leadership positions on campus via student organizations, and creating opportunities for STILE scholars to take the skills that they are learning into the community through targeted engagement events with schools and other local organizations.
The sense of belonging has long been touted as a key factor in student persistence. Students perform better when they are connected to the people and resources on campus. The STILE program will encourage interaction among scholars in both an academic and social setting. Each student is assigned a success and accountability mentor who will have weekly contact for check ins and to encourage persistence scholars to get and stay involved. The STILE program will also strive to ensure that our persistence scholars are dialed into all the offerings the University created to support student success. STILE creates opportunities for scholars to engage the local community with the underlying goal of creating stewards who are committed to the future growth and development of the city and the people who reside within it. Scholars will learn to value investing in themselves and the community.
The STILE program takes a comprehensive approach to student success. This includes preparing scholars for life beyond college. Persistence scholars will have opportunities to participate in a variety of programs designed to help increase financial literacy and money management knowledge. Scholars will learn to make sound financial decisions. We will also partner with Career Services and alumni relations to ensure that scholars understand the versatility of their degree and are fully prepared for today’s job market and beyond.
