Ryan: How have some of the faculty members you’ve worked with at CSUN felt about Protopia? You’ve been able to successfully integrate the Ask a Matador into a course curriculum, right?
Samantha: Yeah, very excited! Once we got that first win with the faculty member who sort of required it as part of her curriculum, the students understood what benefit they were receiving from this. And we’ve had many students repeat asking questions because they got something out of it. I think it made it easier for her to talk about the platform to her colleagues and say, well, I did this great thing. The students all received wonderful responses. Some of them more than, you know, the standard two or three responses.
Ryan: I have to imagine if you are a faculty member and your students have this additional enriching experience with the content of the course and recommending it seems like a no brainer.
In addition to faculty partnerships, you’ve been working with Protopia on your DEI engagement strategies, right?
Samantha: Yes. So DEI is a huge focus on the CSUN campus. Mostly because our student population is incredibly diverse. We are a Hispanic serving institution. So I think that Protopia specifically is an additional resource to students seeking advice from someone that has been in the same shoes that they are currently in and is walking the same path that they’re currently walking and experiencing CSUN from their point of view.
Ryan: That is great. I would imagine that this is helping to dramatically expand the networks that first gen and other students can actually access. Does the Protopa dashboard help with with more than just reports, data and key metrics??
Samantha: So one of my favorite things is looking at that list of alumni who have engaged and seeing how many of those are first time engagers. We then also conspire to figure out how to generate their next engagement.
I also think sentiment and the feedback rating scores are important as we sort of move forward and grow the platform because we want to ensure that those are staying positive, in the way that they are now that everybody is having a good experience with the platform as well.
Ryan: Last question for you, just tell me a little bit, if you were sharing about Protopia with another Cal State system colleague at another university, how would you describe it and your success in rolling it out??
Samantha: First, it’s our job to engage with alumni and oftentimes they don’t have time, but they have the desire to help students. I’d say second, students often need help, but they don’t know where to turn. And on top of that, our alumni staff is small. While we are mighty, sometimes we just don’t have time to make some of those connections because we’re just overloaded. So I think this Ask a Matador and Protopia specifically solves all three of those issues.
I’m for anything that provides students with the advice and the help they need to increase those graduation rates, to reduce times to graduation and to set them up for great careers, postgrad experiences and great lives. Many people don’t realize, askers don’t just ask about career advice, sometimes they ask how to thrive postgrad, and that is what they get with Ask A Matador and Protopia.