Join us for an inside look at how San Diego State University is reimagining the first-year experience through reflection, identity development, and creative storytelling. Their First-Year Seminar team will share how their Life Tree project helps thousands of new students make sense of who they are, where they come from, and who they hope to become.

You’ll hear how SDSU faculty designed a powerful reflective framework that builds confidence, strengthens belonging, and supports well-being during one of the most important transitions in a student’s life. Through roots, core values, and future-self exploration, students create a living narrative that grows with them across their academic journey.

This session offers a close look at an innovative model that blends reflection, community building, and student-centered teaching practices to drive meaningful transformation at scale. Attendees will take away inspirational ideas as well as a practical learning module to reimagine innovation on their own campuses.

In today’s dynamic higher education environment, student success increasingly depends on transforming their experience—perhaps beginning even before arrival on campus. Mike Griffith and Bobbie Garner-Coffie from Tulane University present their innovative approach, which started at summer orientation and continued through the Tulane Interdisciplinary Experience Seminar (TIDES) for incoming students.

Mike and Bobbie ground their innovation through specific strategic pillars: early access to digital tools, responsible use of AI, creativity, and fostering a sense of belonging. They then connect the dots from aspiration to action as they review the pedagogical design of the student projects, highlighting exceptional, creative results.

Finally, Bobbie Garner-Coffie will share two practical take-away resources to inspire similar initiatives:

• A learning module using Adobe Express and Firefly, enabling students to create a personalized orientation badge reflecting their educational vision
• An Adobe Express remixable “Second-Line Umbrella” template, encouraging students to document and reflect on their TIDES First Year Seminar experience

In this session, leaders from Penn State’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) showcase an innovative Infographics Unit designed for 5,000 First-Year Writing students.

Discover how they guide students to transform written arguments into compelling data visualizations using Adobe Express. You’ll explore how PWR faculty scaffold, support, and assess multimodal projects, with a strong focus on critical thinking and creativity in the age of Generative AI. These projects demonstrate how technology can be thoughtfully and strategically integrated into writing courses.

Leave with actionable approaches to help students become agile, effective visual communicators, skills essential for today’s digital world.