Barriers to Prolonged Student Led Civic Engagement: Utilizing a PESTLE analysis to Create Sustainable College Student Experiences and Activist Praxis that Withstand Annual StudentTransitions & Attrition

Document Type

Poster

Event Website

https://source2022.sched.com/

Start Date

16-5-2022

End Date

16-5-2022

Keywords

Strategic Planning, Team Management, Organizational Management

Abstract

Participation in college student clubs and organizations has been linked to the development of student leadership skills and a life-long commitment to community engagement. While the impact of participation can be meaningful, student experiences like continued engagement in clubs and organizations can be hard to sustain due to a constant revolving door of students as they graduate and move on to new experiences. In order to sustain the impact that clubs and organizations have on college student engagement, students must determine how to sustain the experience itself and avoid the potential collapse that accompanies student attrition. Central Washington University’s Students With A Purpose (CWU SWAP) stumbled upon this barrier of sustainability in its third year of existence. Even though the students had found success early on while getting the club off the ground; they learned the hard way that success does not just repeat itself, but is something that needs to be cultivated and reassessed to create a sustainable organization. The 21/22 elected student leadership team conducted a PESTLE analysis to understand their organization’s position, potential, and direction in relation to macro-environmental factors that impact sustainability. This analysis was further used to create a strategic plan that assisted the students in building a foundation that would provide a sustainable organization that will withstand the challenge of attrition and continue on after their time at the institution has ended and can be further applied to other clubs and organizations seeking to do the same.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Deanna Marshall

Department/Program

Information Technology and Administrative Management

Additional Mentoring Department

Physics

Additional Mentoring Department

Funding from Central OUR Grants

Streaming Media

Additional Files

Gilbert, Dylan SWAP SOURCE 2022 Presentation.pdf (9654 kB)
Slides

Gilbert, Dylan SWAP SOURCE 2022 Presentation.mp4 (48789 kB)
Video Presentation

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May 16th, 12:00 AM May 16th, 12:00 AM

Barriers to Prolonged Student Led Civic Engagement: Utilizing a PESTLE analysis to Create Sustainable College Student Experiences and Activist Praxis that Withstand Annual StudentTransitions & Attrition

Participation in college student clubs and organizations has been linked to the development of student leadership skills and a life-long commitment to community engagement. While the impact of participation can be meaningful, student experiences like continued engagement in clubs and organizations can be hard to sustain due to a constant revolving door of students as they graduate and move on to new experiences. In order to sustain the impact that clubs and organizations have on college student engagement, students must determine how to sustain the experience itself and avoid the potential collapse that accompanies student attrition. Central Washington University’s Students With A Purpose (CWU SWAP) stumbled upon this barrier of sustainability in its third year of existence. Even though the students had found success early on while getting the club off the ground; they learned the hard way that success does not just repeat itself, but is something that needs to be cultivated and reassessed to create a sustainable organization. The 21/22 elected student leadership team conducted a PESTLE analysis to understand their organization’s position, potential, and direction in relation to macro-environmental factors that impact sustainability. This analysis was further used to create a strategic plan that assisted the students in building a foundation that would provide a sustainable organization that will withstand the challenge of attrition and continue on after their time at the institution has ended and can be further applied to other clubs and organizations seeking to do the same.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2022/CEPS/24