Assignment 7A - Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

So You Have an Opportunity, Now What?

1 Opportunity – A club/group for Innovation Academy and Santa Fe transfer to feel more connected to UF

2 Who: Students in the UF Innovation Academy and the Santa Fe transfer system.

What: these students don’t really have a way to feel more connected to campus. The IA students spend most of their time online so they never really meet anyone in person. The Santa Fe students are at an entirely different campus so they don’t interact with UF students either. This would help them all interact together and develop relations on the UF campus.

Why: In college it is often the case that people are left to figure out their own way. Therefore, no one has tried including IA and Santa Fe students into UF events.

3 Testing the Who: I’m sure that there are a number of other groups on the UF campus who feel they are not included. Another group could also be developed for different sections of students who want to meet more people and become more involved on campus.

Testing the What: After reviewing the specific problem associated with this opportunity I have figured out that loneliness is the primary contributing factor. Students are looking for a place to belong, and in an environment such as college where everyone is on their own, feeling like you aren’t even a UF student is extremely detrimental. These students feel ostracized from their very own university just because they are in a separate program.

Testing the Why: Often in college, people are just trying to make their own way. Each person is finally free to explore his or her own path. This leads us to often forget about others. We forget about how everyone else is struggling with the same things we are. Our inattentiveness can often cause us to solely focus on ourselves and not go out of our way to help others. This is why a group like this has not been started before.

4 Interviews

Interview 1 – I interviewed a student who recently transferred from Santa Fe. He told me that he felt left out when he was a student there. He felt like he wasn’t good enough to be at UF and this made him extremely depressed. Once he transferred to UF he felt that he was much more at home. He mentioned to me that he wished there was a group similar to what I mentioned while he was still there.

Interview 2 – I interviewed a student who is currently in IA. She talked to me about how she was excited to get into UF, but was disappointed that it was only IA. IA has a stigma surrounding I that it is inferior to UF. This leads these students to feel disconnected from the majority of the UF population. She told me that she would be interested in a group that I mentioned but she wasn’t sure how many students would join because of how reserved newer students are.

Interview 3 – The third interview was with a recent graduate from UF. They told me that they did notice that the IA and Santa Fe students were separated however they said they were not sure if a “support” group was the best way to make them feel included.

Interview 4/5 -  the final 2 interviews were done with 2 friends at the same time, both were accepted into IA and they had met through an online class. While they said they felt different from the UF students, they were ok with it.

5

I have learned about the extent to which people in IA and at Santa Fe would benefit from a group that helps them feel more included in the events that occur at the UF campus. I learned that while not everyone will be interested in the group, it appears that the majority of people I talked to would be interested in becoming more involved.