One of the events leading up to President Crawford’s Inauguration was the symposium Elevating Our Felician Faculty and Staff held on Monday, April 25, at Ray’s Place. About 50 Felician University faculty and staff attended the symposium hosted by Dr. Anthony Scardino, Interim Dean of the School of Business and Information Sciences and immediate past president of the Staff Assembly, and Kathy Prieto, Senior Associate Director of Operations, Student Financial Services, and current president of the Staff Assembly.

Motivation, Mix and Mingle featured international educator Dr. Daniel Jean, Assistant Provost for Special Programs, Education Opportunity Fund (EOF), and Academic Success at Montclair State University. Dr. Jean spoke of ways to improve learning, and retention while remaining progressive, innovative, and solution-focused within the changing landscape of academia.

Dr. Jean engaged with faculty and staff to identify the challenges students face, and included strategies to improve scholar learning, retention, and satisfaction. He shared stories with professors of how educators helped him move from poverty and a 1.9 GPA to earning his doctorate.

Janel Owens, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, was impressed with Dr. Jean’s presentation saying, “This was my first time hearing him, and I thought he was very engaging. What stood out the most was when he said, ‘this is all exciting, but the real work happens outside of this event.’”

The founder and chair of three statewide college access/awareness conferences, Dr. Jean has presented over 600 seminars and keynotes. He has set a personal goal to assist 1,000 scholars become doctors before he retires. Dr. Sharon Towler, Associate Dean of Academic Administration for Arts and Sciences thought Dr. Jean tapped into the importance of student engagement saying, “The experiences we provide for students have everything to do with the academic, but also the social. Making connections with students is important so we can make their experience a learning journey in all aspects of their connections with the University, from professors to professional staff.”