GradSnapp can help you collect, manage, and evaluate important data and insights that inform how you prioritize issues and strategize with your students. In the Dell Scholars program, this technology is used to manage everything from the scholarship application process and award disbursement to academic progress and goal management. The platform allows for efficiencies that give their small team time to focus on relationships with the students.
We built GradSnapp from our experience with the Dell Scholars program so that more people can take the long view on student success management, with the flexibility for immediate action and interventions. GradSnapp supports collective case management: every staff member has access to student information and a record of the interaction the full team had with that student over time. Students can provide information about their lives during scheduled reporting periods, and GradSnapp can alert your team when a student needs attention for anything from struggles in a class, to increased work hours, to an illness in the family that could affect studying.
Here’s an example of how it works from the Dell Scholars program: One of our scholars was a freshman when he started to wrestle with the emotional toll of being away from home for the first time, while organizing his academic and work time effectively. He worked part-time and was juggling a full course load at college. Between work and classes, he was putting in 15 hours a day—before he even got to homework or studying. He started to fall behind and was losing hope that he would make it through his first semester at college, let alone the years required to earn his degree.
That student could text the team for help, and once the information was entered into the technology, everyone on the team could track the conversations taking place. The student had a strong relationship with individual advisors, but there was always a full team working together behind the scenes to support him – in this case, directing him to resources that help with time and stress management. Over time, the tool also allowed the team to track his progress, all the way to a successful graduation.
In traditional student management models, individual staff members are assigned a specific group of students to counsel through their college years. The relationships built through this approach are important and are still at the core of collective case management, but the student is also offered a broader base of resources. With GradSnapp, any one of your team members can use the tool to find the necessary information on any student. In my example, the tool gave the whole team access to our student’s progress, so any available staff person could check in on how he was doing.
I love to share this example because it highlights all the ways that an innovative and efficient technology platform can support a lean scholarship program staff in achieving many significant touch points with students. GradSnapp allows us to track academic, financial, and personal circumstances in multiple ways.
