Scholarship Seminars (CAST) NSE Presentation

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05/07/2025 Added

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[00:00:00.000]Hi there. My name is Rob Russell. I'm the Director of the CAST Office here at Nebraska,
[00:00:06.760]the Center for Academic Success and Transition. And for the next few minutes, I'm going to tell
[00:00:11.340]you a little bit about the CAST Power Program and what it means for you and how you can get involved.
[00:00:16.420]The first thing I'm going to do is give you a quick refresher about what it is the CAST Office
[00:00:22.640]does. We offer personalized academic success coaching. So if you remember my earlier video
[00:00:27.720]from NSE, I talked about holistic coaching, coaching every student and helping them get to
[00:00:33.100]where they want to be individually. That's what we do. This manifests typically as 30-minute
[00:00:38.700]coaching appointments with members of my staff in the CAST Office, and you can be with us as
[00:00:43.360]much as you want. We also offer free peer tutoring, and then we have various peer mentoring programs,
[00:00:48.340]one of which I'm going to get into today in detail. So if you have any questions about the
[00:00:52.760]information I'm about to give you or any of the information about the CAST Office you might have
[00:00:56.780]seen today during your day during your NSE experience,
[00:00:57.700]you can check out our website, success.unl.edu, or you can email or call us,
[00:01:04.320]and we are happy to answer every single question you have. Okay? Now, to kick things off, you are
[00:01:10.140]here watching this right now because you have been identified as a broad category of scholarship
[00:01:16.720]seminar CAST. That means that you are the recipient of select scholarships, including Nebraska
[00:01:23.080]Achievement, Emerging Leaders, and some others. Now, I want to clarify one thing from the
[00:01:27.680]get-go that we do not actually give these scholarships out. The university does. You've
[00:01:32.060]just been identified as recipients of these scholarships, which means that you have to
[00:01:36.940]take part in a fall seminar CAST class that we teach. It's 12 weeks, zero credits, which
[00:01:44.900]means it's absolutely free. And to maintain your scholarship, you have to take a seminar
[00:01:50.920]class that we teach and pass it in the fall semester. And I'm going to give you two options
[00:01:56.100]you can choose from for this.
[00:01:57.660]Before I do that, I really want to clarify a couple of things. One, our class is not
[00:02:01.660]difficult. It's not designed to be academically rigorous. These classes are designed to help
[00:02:06.120]you build connections and understand your purpose and why for being here. Two, it's
[00:02:11.220]not going to get in the way of your other studies. So we have two options for you to
[00:02:15.820]choose from. Track one is our four-day plus the seminar. The four-day, think about it
[00:02:22.660]like a little summer camp. If you choose this option, you have to be available from August
[00:02:26.740]17th through 20th.
[00:02:27.940]We give you priority move-in on August 17th, so you get to move in early before most of
[00:02:32.240]campus does. And then you're with us for the next four days. Again, it's like a little
[00:02:35.900]summer camp experience. We put you in cohorts of about 20 to 25 students. We show you campus.
[00:02:41.200]We have speakers come in. I'll get more into that in just a moment. And after that four-day
[00:02:46.840]ends, when the semester starts, that same group of students that you're with, we put
[00:02:51.700]you together in that weekly seminar class that we teach. It's 12 weeks. It's not even
[00:02:56.600]a full semester.
[00:02:57.620]It ends before Thanksgiving. And you have this really fantastic homeroom-style experience.
[00:03:01.900]If you can't make those four-day dates work for you, you can choose the seminar-only option.
[00:03:08.240]It's the same exact seminar class. It just means that you don't have that four-day experience
[00:03:13.440]ahead of it. It's still a homeroom-style experience. All of these classes are taught by us. They're
[00:03:18.320]once a week. There is homework, but it's five or ten minutes. Again, it's not designed to
[00:03:22.560]be difficult or to get in the way of your other studies. And we also have for every single class
[00:03:27.600]no matter which track you choose, we have peer mentors. We have two peer mentors per class.
[00:03:31.840]And these are peer mentors that have also gone through our programming. And they're there in
[00:03:36.320]every single class to answer questions and help lead the discussions and whatnot. So let's get
[00:03:41.680]into a little bit more detail about this. The first track, which is the four-day plus the seminar,
[00:03:46.020]here's what it looks like. Again, you get priority move-in on Sunday, August 17th.
[00:03:50.680]You get behind-the-scenes tours and VIP access. We get speakers come to talk to you. We play game
[00:03:57.580]games. It's a really, really fantastic experience. Every single year I've done this at Nebraska,
[00:04:03.320]we have students show up on that first day and they roll their eyes. Why am I here? Why am I
[00:04:08.420]doing this? And by the end of that four-day experience, they are completely bought in.
[00:04:13.020]So what it does is it gives you access to campus before everybody else moves here. By the end of
[00:04:18.420]the four-day, which ends on Wednesday, August 20th, you will know where all of your classes are.
[00:04:23.360]You'll know what resources are available to you. You'll have a better connection to us in the
[00:04:27.560]office. You'll have peer mentors you can ask questions to because they've already gone through
[00:04:31.040]this. You'll know where everything is and you could give a tour of campus to people that are
[00:04:35.440]coming in at that point. It's a really fantastic
[00:04:37.690]experience. Once the four-day ends, as I mentioned, that same group of students that you're in,
[00:04:44.330]you all will shift over to that 12-week seminar class taught by one of us. It's zero credits. It
[00:04:50.350]shows up once a week on your schedule. That's it. Again, that course is designed to guide you
[00:04:55.390]through your first semester and make sure you have all the skills and equipment and access to
[00:05:00.310]resources that you need to be successful. We have events, not just in the first semester here, but
[00:05:05.330]throughout your time in college that the CAST office puts on that are completely free to you.
[00:05:08.690]And then you also, as a part of this program, have an opportunity to join us for one of our
[00:05:14.710]CAST education abroad experiences. So ed abroad is a really fantastic experience. I cannot recommend
[00:05:20.190]enough to every student. We have our own CAST ed abroad, education abroad, that is only available
[00:05:26.390]to students who go through our program. We alternate years going to Singapore and Mexico
[00:05:30.530]City. We've been to Singapore twice, starting in 2026. That's when we'll go to Mexico City.
[00:05:35.310]Then we'll do Singapore the year after that. It's a really fantastic two-week trip. You get to
[00:05:39.390]see other cultures, get to be with other students. It's a really fantastic experience.
[00:05:43.590]The other thing that I will say about the 4-Day and our CAST power program in general
[00:05:49.030]is while you have to choose one because of your scholarship, yes, it forces you to get to meet
[00:05:55.990]people outside of your comfort zone. If you come here to Nebraska and you know a bunch of people
[00:06:00.290]from high school, that's great. If you get to know your roommates or roommates really well,
[00:06:03.910]that's also great. But this is going to help you meet people from a bunch of different majors,
[00:06:08.130]from a bunch of different places to really help broaden your UNL experience, which I'm telling
[00:06:13.270]you is going to make your experience that much better here. So if you cannot do the four-day,
[00:06:19.110]what we have is the seminar-only track. You still have access to every free event that
[00:06:24.330]CAST does. You still can participate in our CAST at Abroad experience. The only difference is that
[00:06:29.010]you're not part of that four-day experience. It's still a homeroom style. Again, it's this,
[00:06:32.830]the class is exactly the same. It's designed to help guide you through your first semester,
[00:06:36.550]make sure you have access, a lot of access to us in the CAST office. You understand what resources
[00:06:41.850]are available to you. It's a really fantastic experience. Now, I know showing quotes is
[00:06:47.730]probably not going to be super helpful, especially because you have to choose one of these. But one
[00:06:52.530]of the things I say every year when I do this is we're not going to waste your time. We design
[00:06:56.650]these programs to be efficient, but also to be helpful for you. And every year we've done
[00:07:02.750]this. We have students that feel like they've become better because of these programs. And as
[00:07:07.950]you can see from down below, we had a 96% retention rate last fall from students in our program who
[00:07:13.350]remain students going into the spring. That's an incredible, incredible number, higher than the
[00:07:19.050]university average, I might add. But we also help with things like homesickness and easing your way
[00:07:24.250]into the semester. College is going to be very difficult. You're all more than capable, but
[00:07:28.030]having one space a week that is a homeroom style class where
[00:07:32.670]you will be very comfortable. You can ask questions. You get to know us really well.
[00:07:37.990]It's an invaluable experience. Your other classes are going to be fantastic and you're going to have
[00:07:42.230]great experiences, but going to a lecture of 100 people learning about a specific subject is great.
[00:07:47.170]Coming to our class with 20 to 25 students, having very deep discussions about your purpose for being
[00:07:53.170]here, what education means, what happens after your first semester, what happens after graduation.
[00:07:57.770]Those are going to be things that are really also going to help you navigate your experience at UNL.
[00:08:02.590]So, next steps. If you scan this QR code, it will take you to the registration form.
[00:08:08.190]If you have an interest in the four-day, I recommend signing up ASAP because spots fill
[00:08:15.230]up and we have a very limited number of spots, okay? Your job is to choose which one of these
[00:08:20.350]fits you best. Once August hits and everybody has their schedules made, we will actually go
[00:08:25.830]through and add this class to your schedule. So, the class is UGEP 120. After August 1st,
[00:08:32.510]when you log on to MyRed to check your schedule, you'll notice that we have added it in what we
[00:08:36.990]think is the best place to fit your schedule. The good news is none of these classes are too early
[00:08:41.070]and none of them are too late, which is fantastic. And again, it's once a week. It's a really great
[00:08:45.410]experience. So, if you have any questions about the CAST Power Program, if you have any questions
[00:08:51.290]about the two tracks I mentioned, about the 4-Day, about what this looks like for you, please reach
[00:08:55.290]out, email, or call the CAST Office. success.unl.edu is our website, or you can scan the QR code right
[00:09:02.430]down, that'll take you to our website, and we're more than happy to help you out. Very excited to
[00:09:07.790]get to know you this fall. Welcome to Nebraska.
[00:09:09.690].

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Scholarship Seminars (CAST) NSE Presentation

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