Russ White 0:00
Well, my guest on MSU today is Sarah Schultz. Sarah is the director of my Spartan story. And Sarah, welcome to the program.

Sarah Schultz 0:08
Thanks so much, Ross. It's great to be here today.

Russ White 0:10
Before we talk a little bit about my Spartan story, what this cool new thing is just tell us a little bit about your background and what attracted you to come to MSU to run this program?

Sarah Schultz 0:19
Yeah, the focus of my career has been spent on supporting student engagement beyond the classroom or, as we often call it, co curricular learning opportunities. I spent great time developing such opportunities and transition to my role at MSU, where we have a brand new opportunity unlike anything before for Spartans to formally recognize their learning through my Spartan story in the Spartan experience record brand new record for undergraduate Spartans.

Russ White 0:44
So let's dive in what is my Spartan story,

Sarah Schultz 0:47
my Spartan stories Michigan State University's new co curricular record, formally recognizing and supporting student learning beyond the classroom. Historically, at MSU, students have had a formal record of their credit bearing and learning through the academic transcript. And we at MSU know students are engaging in 1000s of opportunities that are non credit bearing and tie to MSU as undergraduate learning goals. And that has led to the creation of my Spartan story in the Spartan experience record.

Russ White 1:13
Why did this come about? Why did this program Why was there a need? And I guess it's sort of like codifying some of the other things you would put on your resume? Correct?

Sarah Schultz 1:22
Yeah, absolutely. My Spartan story, how was a initial project and the hub for innovation of Learning and Technology started in 2016, which set out with the goal to address the key question, what is the focus and purpose of a co curricular record at MSU, and the routing of that conversation led to the undergraduate learning. We know, as mentioned, students are engaging in many, many opportunities and tell us a few think of students who are engaging in on campus jobs, internships, leadership roles, undergraduate research, volunteering in the greater community, and think of those opportunities. Maybe your student found through conversation with a faculty or staff mentor. Those are all opportunities we've known existed, but we haven't had a formal way to track and make further meaning of and really empower students to have recognition of by MSU of their learning beyond the classroom. And with that, and fall 2020 and we formally launched my Spartan story, in the midst of a global pandemic and a unique here to read, as we all are very well aware and, and as a whole, we are moving forward with the new academic year with a ramp up of our great new initiative for Spartans,

Russ White 2:33
and how does this work for the students.

Sarah Schultz 2:35
My Spartan story as truly defined as the campuses project, meaning it takes submissions from faculty and staff to the My Spartan story platform to help students have the opportunity to be formally added to their Spartan experience record. So my Spartan story is defined by two key parts. The first is the my Spartan story, interactive platform, which is now accessible to all MSU faculty, staff and students. And as mentioned, my experiences are placed in the platform for review and inclusion in the record. And from there, the opportunities are searchable by students, meaning they can find new ways to engage on campus or find current opportunities, they are a part of that they would like to request to have added to their formal record. As mentioned, the Spartan experience record is a new record that is formally requested alongside the transcript through the registrar's office providing a great new compliment and Friday to full circle to student learning occurring at MSU.

Russ White 3:33
My Spartan story has sprung out of President Stanley's role a taskforce on higher education and opportunity.

Sarah Schultz 3:41
Yeah, my Spartan story is one of the key initiatives for the 2021 to 2022 academic year with the higher education Task Force, with the key focus of supporting our students and their preparation for success in a post pandemic economy. Therefore, my Spartan story is empowering students with a brand new resource I'm supporting them directly and addressing many of their their current concerns of feeling ready for that next step beyond MSU. The record directly includes a short description of their undergraduate learning experience outside of the classroom, as well as the learning goals that they accomplished through the experience, providing them with some great information to prepare for an interview, shape or resume and as a whole, empower them to reflect on and synthesize their learning in its entirety at MSU.

Russ White 4:32
It's safe to say MSU was kind of a leader and a trailblazer in this program that has led to my Spartan story.

Sarah Schultz 4:39
Yes, we are absolutely Trailblazer in the conversation on co curricular records. My Spartan story is one of a kind within the big 10 and we are one of a handful of records in the nation as a whole. It is our goal in the next few years to be the largest comprehensive co curricular record in the nation and truly be a leader for our camp. This and higher education as a whole.

Russ White 5:02
And what's been the reaction from employers and grad schools? I would imagine they appreciate having a lot of these experiences codified as we said,

Sarah Schultz 5:11
Yeah, that's a great space, we've begun to explore and get positive feedback from some initial employers we've put the record in front of, they have really provided excellent feedback to how this is a fantastic way for MSU. To say, yes, the student not only engaged in this experience, but here's the rich learning they've taken away. And as a whole, students can curate their records at the registrar level. So employers can can really get a great sense of who the student is from a leadership role perspective, and the great ways they've invested their time and talent outside of the classroom.

Russ White 5:45
Well, Sarah, summarize what you'd like us to know about my Spartan story, and where can we find it on the web?

Sarah Schultz 5:51
Yeah, my Spartan story you can find us at my story.msu.edu is a great place to start that will direct you to the platform to log in and review the great opportunities we have. And also with great information on how you can get started with us. I'd say, taking a step back when we think of a student's time at MSU. We know that they are greatly benefiting from their classroom and their out of class experience. We have a brand new opportunity to support undergraduate Spartans collaboratively as a university which is a very large opportunity not only for students, but for faculty and staff and MSU. It is our goal in time to support student learning through identifying educational pathways of student success, and to really transform and have a further understanding of out of class learning as a whole for MSU. And therefore, this opportunity we have as a university transcends how we will soon think of the student learning experience and how we shaped that for our students to be more successful during their time at MSU. And beyond

Russ White 6:52
that, Sarah Schultz, the director of my Spartan story, and I'm Russ white, this is MSU today

Transcribed by https://otter.ai