KickStart College at Northeastern!
Join us in kicking off the Fall 2020 semester!
KickStart College is two days of activities and workshops designed to help first-year and new transfer students make a successful academic and social transition to Northeastern Illinois University.
Students participate in workshops on how to develop an academic and career plan, how to manage their finances during college and managing personal wellness. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in innovation and fun labs. All workshops will occur via Zoom.
KickStart College Workshops
Workshops take place on Wednesday, August 19 and Thursday, August 20.
Students are required to attend all activities on both days.
Workshops include:
- Academic Plan
- Building Your Brand
- Career Plan
- Goal-Setting Innovation Lab
- Financial Wellness
- Personal Wellness
- College Experience Innovation Lab
- TikTok Challenge Fun Lab
Register for KickStart College
Please sign up by August 17 for priority registration.
KickStart College Registration
Have Questions?
Please email Felicia Keelen at f-keelen@neiu.edu or sts@neiu.edu if you have questions about KickStart College.
Daily Schedule
Below is the 2020 KickStart College schedule for August 19 and 20. Please note: Events are subject to change.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19
Group |
Time |
Activity |
|
All |
10:30 a.m. |
Registration and check-in |
|
First-Year Group A |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Academic and Career Plan - Part 1 - Connecting and Expanding: Majors and Minors Academic and Career Plan - Part 2 - Connecting and Expanding: Majors and Minors |
|
First-Year Group B |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Financial Wellness Wellness Bazaar |
|
Transfer |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Financial Wellness 1: Planning Your Financial Future Financial Wellness 2: Graduating Debt Free! |
|
All |
12:30 p.m. |
Break |
|
First-Year and Transfer |
1:00 p.m. 1:45 p.m. |
Innovation Lab: "Lost Navigator" Fun Lab - Part 1 - TikTok Challenge |
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20
Group |
Time |
Activity |
|
All |
10:30 a.m. |
Registration and check-in |
|
First-Year Group B |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Academic and Career Plan - Part 1 - Connecting and Expanding: Majors and Minors Academic and Career Plan - Part 2 - Connecting and Expanding: Majors and Minors |
|
First-Year Group A |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Financial Wellness Wellness Bazaar |
|
Transfer |
11:00 a.m. 11:45 a.m. |
Building Your Brand Wellness Bazaar |
|
All |
12:30 p.m. |
Break |
|
First-Year and Transfer |
1:15 p.m. 1:45 p.m. |
Innovation Lab: Interactive Goal-Setting Fun Lab - Part 2 - Showing of TikTok Challenge Videos |
|
All |
2:30 p.m. |
Wrap Up and Post Event Assessment |
Academic and Career Plan - Part 1 - Connecting and expanding: Majors and Careers
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Facilitators: Lizett Galan & Rebeca & Lynette Correa-Velez
- In this workshop, students will have the opportunity to play an interactive jeopardy game about possible majors. We will look at the majors and connect it to careers.
Academic and Career Plan - Part 2 - Values-Based Virtual Career Exploration with MyPlan.com
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Facilitators: Lynette Correa-Velez and Liz Villarreal
- In this highly interactive workshop, students will learn about their values in the workplace through taking short, online values career assessment on MyPlan.com. Students will also learn how to navigate MyPlan.com in seeking majors and suggestions for careers connected to those majors.
Building your Brand
- Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Facilitators: Theodora Koumoutsakis & Lynette Correa-Velez
- If you're looking to build your personal brand, come join this workshop and learn tips, tricks, and ways to succeed throughout your time.
Financial Wellness – First-Year Students
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Facilitator(s):TBA
Financial Wellness Part 1 - Planning Your Financial Future
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020
- Facilitators: Chicago C.A.R.E. Project
- The Chicago Credit Abuse Resistance Education (C.A.R.E) Program will be presenting strategies to master student loans.
Financial Wellness Part 2 - Graduating Debt Free!
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020
- Facilitator: Theodora Koumoutsakis
- In the sequel workshop on financial wellness, strategies to graduate debt-free at NEIU will be shared.
Fun Lab - TikTok Challenge
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Students will be put into teams and create a Tik Tok Challenge that represents the transition from High School to College or College to Career.
Innovation Lab - "Lost Navigator"
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020
- Facilitator: Dr. Pinkey A. Stewart
- Arriving on a university campus can be an interesting experience for first year students; not knowing where to go, what questions to ask, can be intimidating. During this activity students will complete an obstacle course (also known as a university campus) to arrive at their destination. Students will be given clues and the first student to reach the correct location will win that round. Each participant will be sent a downloadable sheet to record their answers on. We will use a Zoom room for this activity.
Innovation Lab - Interactive Goal-Setting
- Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Facilitator: Dr. Pinkey A. Stewart
During this sessions students will:
- Understand the importance of setting goals & HOW to set goals
- Identify one goal that student wants to achieve during the fall semester (e.g., 3.50 GPA)
- Learn accountability by monitoring their progress during the semester, provide status updates at strategic points during the semester, and chat about successes, challenges via Zoom meetups with Dr. Stewart
- Receive a virtual reward after completing the activity at the end of the fall 2020 semester for achieving their goals
Wellness Bazaar
- Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and Thursday, August 20, 2020
- Being a college student can take a toll on your mind and body. Connect with the NEIU campus leaders who are here to support your well-being. We'll practice self-care and cover topics from reproductive to mental health.
