main content Manz’s Focus on Student Success Earns Honors

Dr. Jonathan ManzIn recognition of his success in creating student programming, Director of Lewis & Clark First Year Experience Jonathan Manz was recently accepted into the 2023 cohort of the Student Success Champions Program sponsored by Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS).

The two-year program supports people who are leading, or will soon lead, student success projects, and it helps participants develop leadership and change-management skills. Champions will attend group meetings each year and will learn from an interdisciplinary community focused on student success.

Jonathan Manz, Renee Orlick, and Hilary Himin hard at work during a HEDS meeting in Illinois.“Participating in the HEDS program will allow me to collaborate and learn from, and be mentored by, other college educators from across the country who are committed to advancing the work of student success,” Manz said. Manz will represent Lewis & Clark this month at Wabash College in Indiana alongside representatives from:

• Macalester College
• Washington & Jefferson College
• Heidelberg University
• St. Catherine University
• The University of Findlay
• Rollins College
• St. Francis College

In addition to joining the HEDS cohort, Manz has co-authored the book chapter, “Mine” the Gap: Connecting Curriculum, Courses, and Community, which will be published next month in the book, The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities .

Since starting at Lewis & Clark in July, Manz has been working closely with Assistant Dean for Campus Life Ben Meoz to enhance Lewis & Clark’s Living Learning Communities and our students’ sense of belonging here.

“On our campus, the ravine is both a physical and symbolic divide,” Manz said. “We shouldn’t think of faculty/student connections happening simply in the classroom or in a faculty member’s office. Rather, learning and relationship building takes place across the campus; in and out of the formal classroom. Living Learning Communities, with robust faculty partnerships, can provide additional ways for faculty and students to interact in both formal and informal ways.”

Manz looks to the model of higher education from the English colleges at Oxford and Cambridge for inspiration.

“There you will find faculty and students not only learning together in the classroom, but breaking bread together and other informal interactions,” Manz said. “It helps cement that idea that learning in college should not be a siloed process, but rather based on relationships and happening in both curricular and co-curricular ways. At Lewis & Clark we are blessed with amazing faculty, staff, and students, and a gorgeous campus. Living Learning Communities provide an avenue to help us leverage these assets and better make connections across all areas of campus.”