Thursday, November 13, 2025
2:00 – 3:30 pm ET

Directly Affect the Quality of Care, Professionalism & Sense of Welcome that Your Office Provides

Colleges and universities rely on student staff as the first point of contact in many offices, whether they’re greeting visitors, answering phones, solving problems, or directing people to resources. When training is rushed or inconsistent, the impact extends beyond the student employee to the people seeking support. Visitors may encounter students who feel unsure of policies, lack confidence in handling difficult situations, or aren’t prepared to deliver accurate information. This can lead to confusion, frustration, or even a diminished sense of trust in the office, ultimately shaping how students, families, and campus partners perceive the institution as a whole.

For professional staff, these gaps in preparation create another layer of challenge. Constantly retraining students, fielding escalations, or stepping in to correct errors can feel exhausting, especially when time and resources are limited. Supervisors may feel frustrated watching student workers struggle or overwhelmed by the need to balance competing training priorities. Over time, this cycle can drain energy on both sides, students who feel unprepared and staff who feel unsupported, while the overall service experience for customers suffers. In short, insufficient training doesn’t just impact student employees; it directly affects the quality of care, professionalism, and sense of welcome that offices are able to provide.

Join us on November 13, 2025 and learn how to shift the lens of training to emphasize not just student readiness but also how preparation impacts the people who walk into your offices, ensuring positive, professional, and consistent service for all students, families and campus partners. Reshape how training is delivered so that it feels both sustainable for staff and impactful for students – and watch the experience for those interacting with campus offices greatly improve. 

Topics Covered

Gain crucial, actionable takeaways that will help you: 

• Bridge student development theory with frontline customer service practice – give supervisors concrete tools to prepare students for real-world interactions and frame training as part of their professional growth.
• Build sustainable, scalable strategies for staff training by showcasing practical tools and shared training modules across departments that will help reduce burnout, save time, and make training more engaging and relevant for your student staff.
• Replace policy-heavy lectures with role plays, case studies, and real-world practice that prepares student staff to handle difficult or unexpected situations with confidence.
• Discover strategies for reinforcing training through short refreshers, check-ins, or micro-learning modules throughout the semester instead of relying on one-time sessions.
• Gain tools to create shared foundational materials that ensure consistency for all student workers while still leaving room for office-specific customization.
• Explore how online modules, quick videos, or interactive quizzes can save staff time, offer flexible learning for students, and provide a system for tracking completion.
• Learn ways to connect student employment skills—such as communication, problem-solving, and professionalism—to future career success, increasing student motivation and buy-in.

Presenter

Dr. Sara Weinstein currently serves as Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life at Randolph-Macon College located in Ashland Virginia.
Click here for full bio.