School of Business graduate student services team wins NASPA award

Pictured (left to right): Cherie Fu, Mary Monterrojas Knapp, Ebony Boyd, Matt Imboden, Amanda Horton, Ashlynn King, and Courtney Burton. Other team members not pictured: Emma Butterworth, Jackie Klatt, and Colleen VonDohlen

Wake Forest University School of Business and graduate program student services team members were recently recognized as recipients of the 2023 “Promising Practices in Graduate & Professional Student Services Award,” presented in April during the 2023 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. (NASPA) annual conference.

The team received recognition for its collective efforts focused on effective new graduate student orientation and transition experiences.

The team has focused on a strategic approach to effective holistic program and institutional orientation experiences designed specifically for graduate and professional school students. Efforts include pre-matriculation online components, engaging live/on-site activities, peer-to-peer connections, academic preparation, and the introduction of School and campus-level resources.

The award also noted the ways those program-oriented strategies are combined with focused orientation efforts for specific populations, stronger connections across program communities, and support for specific geographic/institutional transition experiences that new graduate business students are making.

Founded in 1918, NASPA is a leading student affairs professional association with more than 15,000 members representing 1,200 institutions of higher education.