Welcome to Ascent! Your college experience is going to be an unforgettable journey. Along the way, you’ll make friends, join clubs and student organizations, and most importantly you’ll develop the habits of mind that mark a successful student. At the end of this journey, you’ll cross the stage to take your diploma and step into the rest of your life.

But, like any epic journey, there will be challenges. College work isn’t easy and all of us need to know where we can turn for help with a paper or with a class that seems well-outside of our experience or expertise. And college life isn’t always easy either—finances, relationships, emotional wellness sometimes present challenges we aren’t equipped to deal with on our own. All in all, it can be a tough climb.

The Ascent Success Plan will help you outfit yourself for that climb with the best resources your PSU community has to offer. And you don’t have to do it alone. You’ll share in the work with all of your peers in the Ascent program, contributing your own ideas and working with those of your friends. While we will work most intensely on this project in your first year, we hope you will find this a useful tool throughout your time at PSU.

The goals of Ascent’s Success Plan: 

• Set personal goals (resource/question/engagement/relationship)
• Enhance your ability to navigate university life
• Create a toolkit that helps you identify and use campus resources
• Create a team of advisors that can help guide your decisions about academic, professional, social, and other needs.

Here’s how it works

The Success Plan will look like a digital set of cards. Some of those cards will be very basic—a picture of the University Writing Center listing their hours and phone number and a link to their site and hours—but eventually those cards will be “leveled up” to include personal experiences, strategies for how to make use of those resources, and advice for others who may be considering using them.

Some examples of cards might include:

• My Crew – a card that talks about the friends you have made and {especially} the ways those friends support you. [Since relationships are so essential, you might consider this to be part of your “provisions” for their trip]
• My Librarian – describes your favorite reference librarian and how that person could be useful to your academic goals. [Since this is a functional component, you might consider this to be a specialized tool you need for your trip]
• My Mentor – describes a peer/staff/faculty mentor you can count on [Since this is an advisory component, you might consider this to be like a map or guidebook you need for your trip]

In some cases, you will be able to develop versions of these cards without a lot of interaction. For instance, you could make a MAC artifact based on their video posted in the Ascent [MOODLE/TEAM]. That wouldn’t be worth a lot of Ascent points, though. For more points, you’ll need to “Level Up” that MAC artifact with more description and information. And to MAX OUT that card, you’ll need to go there for help with a math class and include a reflection about that interaction and the value of the resource.

These will be (mostly) public and you will be allowed to display and trade some cards to your peers, and to keep others for only a small circle of people to see. Since some artifacts will likely seem “better” to you than your own (either because they were aesthetically or rhetorically well-executed, or because they express a different way to use the same resource), you will be able to trade their own “leveled up” artifacts for another student’s “leveled up artifact”. Trading doesn’t mean you part ways with your own, just that you now share the right to include and display that resources in your “pack.” We can even reward people who create superior artifacts by tracking and displaying how many people traded for a copy of their work.

The major functions (and required components) of the success plan are:

Function	Basic Elements of Cards	How to Level Up or MAX Out your Card
Where do you want to go?	Identify your strengths and weaknesses (academic, social, financial, etc.) – Periodically, we’ll ask you to reflect on what you are most proud of, and what you are most concerned about and to connect these to your own perceived strengths and weaknesses. This is important, because one important ingredient of the artifacts will be a reflection on how this resource plays to your strengths or addresses a weaknessSet achievable short-, mid-, and long-range goals – periodically, we’ll ask you to update your route (particularly as you accomplish goals). Short-term goals might include things like going to a Clock meeting this semester, talking to your advisors about a minor, filling out the FAFSA. Mid-range goals might include deciding on a major or study-abroad program. Each time you add or accomplish a goal, you may receive points. Categories: Goals, Strengths & Challenges	To Level Up a goal, you need to give it a visual element like a digital image, a video clip, or a GIF. More importantly, you need to identify some resources (people, offices, web sites, books…) that you can utilize to achieve these goals.   You can MAX Out a goal by including an explanation of why this goal is important to you and a strategy for how you will achieve it.   Could you trade these? Yes! Putting students on the spot to identify goals can be really difficult. If you can reflect on why you traded for a goal, go for it!
What do you need to get there?	Create/curate a collection of campus [SC1] resources—each week, you can choose from online resources that feature various guests representing campus services, student organizations, etc. Although we have to be mindful of social distancing guidelines, we’ll also try to feature some opportunities for small in-person sessions if possible. Most of these will start with (or be preceded by) a mind-mapping exercise that lets you say what you already know or guess about that topic. The guest will host a program that shares a little of what they do, and then it is up to you to create, in your own words, an accurate description of what this service offers and how to get in touch with them. That’s a basic card and isn’t worth many Ascent points. Categories: Academic Resources, Health & Wellness, Life at PSU, Student Clubs or Orgs	To Level Up a resource, you need to give it a visual element like a digital image, a video clip, or a GIF. More importantly, you’ll need to include a scenario in which you might use it, and an explanation of how to use it. You can MAX Out a goal by following up with a virtual or f2f visit to the resource (this can be done in small groups where appropriate) and then reflecting on that encounter.   Could you trade these? Yes! If you have leveled up your card, you can “trade” with a peer for one of their resource cards. But if you want to MAX Out the card, you have to pay the resource a visit on your own.
How will you find your way?	Work with faculty, staff, and peers to assemble an “advising team”— even if you know where you want to go and what tools and provisions you need, you will need advice and direction if you are going to find the path to the goal and to use the tools in your pack. Your trail guides can advise you on academic planning, financial literacy, and career exploration. And you need mentors who can offer advice on student orgs, university bureaucracy, etc. We’ll loosely describe the types of advisors you want, but it will be up to you to assemble your team.   Categories: Advisors!	To Level Up an advisor, you need to give this person a visual element like a digital image, a video clip, or a GIF. More importantly, you’ll need to say what qualifies them to advise you in this area, and include a scenario in which you might turn to this person. You can MAX Out an advisor by following up with a virtual or f2f visit to the person (this can be done in small groups where appropriate) and then reflecting on that encounter.   Could you trade these? Yes! If you have leveled up your card, you can “trade” with a peer for one of their advisor cards. But if you want to MAX Out the card, you have to pay the advisor a visit on your own.

For more about cards and their value, see “Ascent Point Values per Card Type”

For instructions on creating a card, see “Creating a Card”

For instructions on editing a card, see “Editing a Card”

For instructions on sharing cards, see “Sharing a Card”

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