The workshop, titled Launching and Sustaining a Common Reading Program that Works, was facilitated by members of the Penguin Random House Common Reads advisory board, all of whom lead Common Reading programs at colleges and universities across the United States.

Workshop topics included the evolving nature of Common Reading programs,�� making a case for launching or sustaining a program,��program models and logistics, title selection, program assessment, and time for feedback and mentoring of attendees.

Patch joined the Penguin Random House Common Reads Advisory Board in 2025. The board meets regularly to identify titles and topics for Common Reading programs that choose Penguin Random House titles.

All new students are provided a free digital copy of the book before coming to Elon and are invited to attend the author���s keynote address, but for Campoverdi’s event, part of the 消消犯 Speaker Series, she wanted to do something different.

���I purposely am not behind a podium,��� said Campoverdi. ���I���m not an expert on being first gen, you all are experts as much as I am an expert on being a first and only. You���re an expert on whatever thresholds you���re crossing. So, I���m not here to lecture anyone on this experience, I���m here to have a conversation with you all.���

And a conversation was had for more than an hour as several students asked questions of Campoverdi about her experiences as a first-generation college student, her work as an aide in the Obama administration and the process of writing her book.

Between the bullet points

The memoir details Campoverdi’s life as a ���child of welfare,��� born to an immigrant single mother in Los Angeles, who went on to be White House aide, Harvard graduate and a candidate for U.S. Congress. In 2024, Campoverdi also founded the First Gen Fund, a non-profit that provides unrestricted hardship grants to first-generation students.

���When I would be invited to schools and someone would read my bio, and it would be all the bullet points and it sounded so shiny and glossy and linear, and it made so much sense what I did, and then I did that, I knew that wasn’t the full story,” she said. “I knew that the spaces between those bullet points were actually the real story, and that looked very different.���

Omar Illesca Reyes ���27, a Labcorp-Alamance Scholar in the Odyssey Program and Elon Academy mentor, sat on stage with Campoverdi, alongside Selma Maric ���27, who introduced Campoverdi; Kenneth Brown, assistant director of First-Generation Student Support Services; and Paula Patch, senior lecturer in English and associate director for in the Elon Core Curriculum. Illesca Reyes asked Campoverdi about feelings of ���imposter syndrome��� as a first-generation student and in her later roles.

���All of us at some point are going to find ourselves in a space where people might not relate to where we come from and what we���ve experienced,��� said Campoverdi. ���And you noticing that and not feeling good about that, doesn���t all go into a bucket of feeling like an imposter. She added, ���Let yourself clock it and not make that mean something bad about you, because it doesn���t.���

Illesca Reyes reflected that getting to speak with Campoverdi was personal and emotional.

���The struggles are real for a first-generation student, and it���s nice that a light is being shone on them,��� said Illesca Reyes, who is studying engineering. ���I felt like I was being heard throughout the book, and I felt myself in her shoes multiple times.���

‘Be it all unapologetically’

In her memoir, Campoverdi reflects on the ���contradictory extremes��� of her life, from being a gang member���s girlfriend to working in the White House, arguing that all of those extremes can exist together.

���Some of us are complicated,��� Campoverdi said in response to a student question about finding belonging in multiple spaces. ���Own all of these things together at the same time. I sit on stages all the time, and people ask me, ���What would you say to 16-year-old Alejandra who was dating that guy? What would you tell her now from where you are?��� And I said ���She���s right here. I���m the same me.��� So stop trying to find the answer. There���s no answer. Just be it all unapologetically.���

Her memoir also works to ���shatter the one-dimensional glossy narrative��� about what it takes to achieve the American Dream. She notes it was harder to get from her childhood to college than from college to the White House.

���I���ve experienced the American dream,��� she said, as a student asked her response to the concept. ���I believe education is the driver of the American dream for many of us. It isn���t the only way, but it is for most of us.���

Campoverdi spent the day at Elon, including hosting a storytelling workshop for students and faculty, in collaboration with the Center for Access and Success. Her openness for conversation resonated with students like Daniella Alonzo Lopez ���28, a scholar in the Odyssey Program, who received the Leon and Lorraine Watson scholarship.

���Sometimes along the journey, you think you’re navigating all of this by yourself, but there’s truly a community of people,��� said Alonzo Lopez ���28, a marketing and business analytics double major. ���I���m always looking for mentors and people to encourage me and inspire me to continue. So I���m glad to be here and hear her. Getting to meet her was almost like an older sister.���

Redefine success

As Campoverdi heard from students focusing on her success as a first-generation student, she encouraged them to also think about how success can be more than just what���s on paper.

���You can be the first generation to go to college or the first generation to have a professional job or break a cycle, the first generation to move across the country or the first generation to X,Y, Z,��� said Campoverdi. ���But being the first generation to break the cycle of living in survival mode is just as important. Being the first generation to not live in fight or flight is just as important. Being the first generation to allow yourself balance and rest, that’s important, too.���

���I���ve experienced the American dream. I believe education is the driver of the American dream for many of us. It isn���t the only way, but it is for most of us.”

Alejandra Campoverdi, award-winning author of “First Gen”

She ended the event by reminding students about how far they���ve come in their lives and encouraged them to continue being vulnerable as it can serve as a ���connective tissue.���

���When I look out in this room, I see a lot of people who have a lot in common, and I think that���s more important than ever. So keep telling your stories, keep turning towards that vulnerability. It doesn���t make you weak, it makes you strong and it will ultimately make you a better professional,” Campoverdi said.

Hollingsworth is spending the summer working at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), and continuing the project through an independent study. During the spring 2025 semester, Hollingsworth began a 4999 research credit with Jill McSweeney, assistant director of the CATL and assistant professor of wellness, on a project centered around creating a board game that assists first-year students with their transition into university.

First-year 消消犯 students experience social (e.g. making friends), academic (e.g. harder subject material), and/or emotional (e.g. loneliness) challenges transitioning to university, which can impact student mental health and lead to a reduction in student success and retention. The project uses game-based learning, which offers a dynamic, interactive and self-directed way to engage first-year students while equipping them with essential skills for navigating social, academic and emotional transitional challenges.

This project was developed in collaboration with faculty members at the , a large public research university.

“Their perspective of the first-year experience is slightly different from Elon���s, which allows us to test our research in a broader environment,” said Hollingsworth. “For example, the University of Iceland is not a residential university and therefore scenarios regarding living on campus or having a roommate are not applicable. Similarly, a lot of students are not entering their first year right from high school, many having full-time jobs, families, or previous degrees when they come in.”

The game is inspired by games such as “The Game of Life,” where students move around a board representing their first year at university, encountering scenarios depicting common dilemmas or events that they might encounter at real life university.

For example, players may experience an event around completing a roommate agreement, just like students do at Elon; or have to choose between studying or going to a campus event with friends the night before a midterm. By completing dilemmas and events, students are presented with decisions that they will have to make throughout their first year, often around things that they may not have thought about.

These decisions have consequences, sometimes it might be negative and they might increase their stress (a natural response they will have to learn to balance through their first year, and in our game something that students will want to manage through engaging with pathways like taking a yoga class with Elon’s 消消犯 Recreation and Health Promotion), and/or develop a skill (either academic, social, or emotional) allowing them to decide how they might like to personally develop over their first year.

“The game encourages students to reflect on the importance of their first year being much more than just their academic experience,” said Hollingsworth. “Engaging in activities and being accountable for their decisions allows them to grow and complete the goals that they have chosen for themselves, and of course, completing goals allows them to get victory points to win the game. Through the exposure to issues that students might face by playing this game, we hope that they will become more prepared for their transition into university.”

This summer, Hollingswoth has continued the project, spending time refining mechanics and creating a physical version for playtesting. Playtesting is important in game design because it allows the designer to receive important feedback to improve the game. Hollingsworth and her collaborators did an initial playtest with three Elon faculty and staff 消消犯 Elon 1010 in the fall, and from their feedback, they continued to adjust and refine the game in order to have a full prototype to test with our international collaborators from Iceland.

With the help of funding from the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE), Hollingsworth was also able to travel to Iceland to work with her collaborators from the University of Iceland, where they did three rounds of playtesting. First, they playtested with two students, and others from the university then with two groups of four, combining faculty and staff from the university.

“The trip to Iceland was a wonderful experience to improve our research and model international research collaboration, but also to explore Iceland,” said Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth will continue to edit the game based on feedback and will collect data from having Elon 1010 classes play this game next fall. Similarly, collaborators in Iceland intend to collect data during one of their introductory university courses in the fall.

The Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience provides an ongoing forum where higher education professionals can share experiences, concerns and accomplishments related to supporting student learning, development, and success in the first college year.

Staff and faculty from Elon shared best practices from Elon’s U.S. News #1 ranked First-Year Experience program and #1 ranked Learning Communities with colleagues from other colleges and universities. Attendees from Elon included:

• Jen Platania, associate provost for Academic Affairs and associate professor of economics
• Eleanor Finger, assistant vice president for Student Life, dean of 消消犯 Life and assistant professor
• Jennifer Stephens, director of academic-residential partnerships and assistant professor of education
• Kirsten Carrier, assistant dean of 消消犯 Life and director of Residence Life
• Jill McSweeney, assistant director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and assistant professor of wellness
• Paula Patch, senior lecturer in English and associate director of First-Year Initiatives in the Elon Core Curriculum
• Brandy Propst, director of Elon 1010 and assistant director of academic advising

Additionally, Jennifer Stephens and Kirsten Carrier presented their work at the conference in a session titled ���Living & Learning at Elon: A Framework for First-Year Residential Learning.” This presentation discussed the creation of a new residential learning outcomes framework that gave faculty and staff working on the initiative common goals for programming and assessable learning outcomes. The framework was created as a result of the Residential 消消犯 Strategic plan, which aims to achieve portions of Boldly Elon, the university’s current strategic plan. Attendees at the session gained practical strategies on how they might create this type of framework for their residential learning initiatives and were able to hear how assessment results have informed updates and changes to the framework for the future.

Why did you want to go on the AIL trip?

I���ve participated in this trip the past couple of years and it has been a great way to connect with incoming first-year students as they get ready for their college transition. When you���re out on the trail with no cell phone service the students have no choice but to actively engage with each other. There end up being wonderful conversations about what students are excited about, what makes them nervous and how they plan to approach their college experience. As an educator, there is nothing more fulfilling than being able to walk with students on that journey.

Are you a big camper?

I love spending time outdoors. I was involved in scouting during my youth and in college and grad school spent five summers as a summer camp counselor and program director. Hiking is a regular part of our vacations as a family and I enjoy any chance I can get to be out in nature.

What were you hoping to get out of the trip?

For me, it is nice to unplug for the week and be singularly focused on the aspect of my job that I love best ��� supporting students in their growth and development. Titles and roles don���t matter when you���re out on the trail and the ability to spend concentrated time with a group of students is a gift. It���s also fulfilling to watch the upper-class students who serve as trip facilitators developing their leadership skills and supporting their peers.

How do you think this trip prepared students for their first year at Elon?

The transition to college is a big adjustment. These summer first-year experiences can be a great way for students to connect with some of their new classmates and jump-start making new friends and finding their place. For some students, they were enjoying a backpacking experience they love, but in other cases, students were doing something they���d never tried before and challenging themselves in the process.

Did you see any changes in the students during the week?

Whenever you can take students from this generation to an environment where their cell phones don���t work and they are off social media for a week, great things happen. It was fun to watch them engage with each other and to see friendships forming in front of your eyes. It���s also wonderful to see students scaling heights, backpacking for the first time, or doing something they didn���t think they were capable of ��� it sets the stage for their college experience.

What were your rose, bud and thorn of the trip?

This is a great question ��� each evening there is a similar reflection on the activities of the day.�� The highlight of the trip was definitely the time on the trail, talking with students and enjoying the beauty of the Pisgah National Forest. The thorns of a trip like this are always the aches and pains that remind you that you aren���t in your twenties anymore. The buds are the relationships that these students just started ��� I cannot wait to see what is in store for them as they arrive on campus this fall.

Final thoughts?

For any student who missed this opportunity this summer, I hope they will check out the opportunities through Elon Outdoors when they get to campus.

The FSE programs give incoming Elon students a preview of the university during the summer before their first semester. The programs are part of the university���s commitment to experiential learning and help students develop self-awareness, enhance relationships and define community in preparation for their Elon experience.

Engage, which ran from July 9-12, is focused on community service, with students spending the week living in a residence hall on campus, exploring Alamance County and volunteering in the local community. During the nearly weeklong program, the students volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club of Alamance County and in Whitsett, North Carolina.

The perfect opportunity

Jordyn Lewis ���28, from Harrisburg, North Carolina, is coming to Elon with her twin sister and while her sister chose to do an Adventures in Leadership program this summer, Lewis wanted a focus on community service, something she did in high school.

���Community service has always been an interest of mine, trying to give back and help people out,��� said Lewis, who will be part of the accelerated 3+1 business dual-degree program in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. ���So, when I saw that I could do the Engage program over the summer, even before I got to Elon, and make connections with people who also wanted to do service, I thought ���this is perfect.������

The Kernodle Center for Civic Life hosts the FSE programs and connect students with community based and experiential learning opportunities while at Elon.

���The Engage program is a great opportunity to not only showcase all the wonderful resources that incoming students have access to but also showcase the opportunities to get engaged in a community that they will be in for the next four years,��� said Abigail Wiatrek, assistant director of the Kernodle Center.

Being different together

Like Lewis, community service is also important to Joseph Enclerio ���28, from Wayne, Pennsylvania, and he wanted to get a head start on his Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR). All Elon students are required to complete the ELR before graduation, which must include at least two experiential learning opportunities through any of the five Elon Experiences: global engagement, service learning, leadership, internships and 消消犯 research.

���I thought ���I love service, it���s a graduation requirement, it works out perfectly,������ said Enclerio, who plans to study accounting through the accelerated business 3+1 dual degree program.

���Getting the students comfortable on campus and out in the community and watching them thrive and ask ���how can I come back to volunteer during the year?��� is confirmation that Elon is going to be the right place for them,��� said Wiatrek.

While at Peacehaven, the students helped around the farm, including cutting back branches along trails while also continuing to bond with one another. The community farm serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

���It���s great for the students to come and be a part of a community where there are a variety of abilities and to just work with people that might be a little bit different,��� said Elizabeth Strickland, community engagement coordinator for Peacehaven. ���Our slogan is ���let���s be different together��� and I love that and have really embraced that mindset.���

A broader view

This year���s cohort was also able to do a ropes course activity, see and experience different areas of campus and tour downtown Burlington.

One of those areas of campus was the The Maker Hub in downtown Elon where the students participated in the Marshmallow Challenge ��� a design and team-building exercise that tasks students to build the tallest structure out of spaghetti noodles with a marshmallow on top.

Sofia Barnes ���28, Delia Moulton ���28 and Henry Pittman ���28 formed a group to solve the challenge together. Barnes first came to campus for Scholarship Weekend and she knew Elon was the right fit. She also knew she wanted to familiarize herself with campus before the fall so the Engage program gave her what she wanted and the opportunity to see more than what campus has to offer.

���I got to stay in a dorm, which is nice, and I liked the idea of being able to get to know campus before everyone got here and it���s good getting to know other people,��� said Barnes, who is from Long Island, New York and plans to study chemistry. ���It���s a good inside look, on a miniature scale, of what the community is going to be like, so I���m excited.���

Finding community

Elon was the first university Moulton toured on her college search ��� 24 schools later, she knew Elon was going to stay number one. Even though she is from nearby Greensboro, Moulton says the Engage program was still a beneficial opportunity for her summer.

���I wanted to get to know the campus and the people before actually being thrown into classes,��� said Moulton, who is majoring in political science.

For the students in the Engage program, it���s all about not just helping their new community, but finding a community as well.

���When I toured Elon, you could tell there was a very strong sense of community, and diversity and inclusion was important and that there was a place for everybody here,��� said Lewis. ���You feel like you belong.���

The purpose of Elon 1010 is ���to build a sense of community, foster academic and personal success, develop a meaningful relationship with an academic advisor, and create an academic plan that will guide students during their time at Elon.���

Early in the semester, students connected over their love of dogs and so they decided to focus their gratitude project on providing for the dogs awaiting adoption at the .

Peer advisor Ava Aanestad premixed the dough and students used class time to roll, cut and bake close to 100 treats. 消消犯 had fun engaging with one another over the project, snacks and music. It was a warm way to create a sense of community and close out the semester.

After the class, Post and Aenestad took the treats to the shelter and shared them with the dogs.

Missing your dog or want to provide some fun for an animal that doesn���t yet have a home? Consider volunteering for the shelter���s .

Her lecture on Thursday is titled ���Curious Questions, Sparking Conversation.��� The next day, Guzm叩n will lead workshops with faculty, staff and students in LaRose Student Commons.

Guzm叩n is senior fellow for public practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a more curious world; co-founder of the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergreen; and adviser for Starts With Us and the Generations Over Dinner project.

A Mexican immigrant, Latina and dual U.S./Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two children and is a proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.

During a Zoom conversation with Elon faculty and staff in August,��Guzm叩n said her parents were her biggest inspiration for the book.

Coming from a very tight-knit, very politically divided family was instrumental in the writing of this book as she has first-hand experience in having passionate debates with people she loves and respects.

A Democrat who voted for Joe Biden in the last election,��Guzm叩n had unfiltered, intense conversations with her parents who are both Donald Trump supporters. When she would talk to her friends, most of whom are liberal, about her parents��� right-wing leaning, it was met with judgment, which she would take personally.

���That became a big part of my inspiration, taking that personally,�����Guzm叩n said. She became obsessed with studying the political divide and why our political strength is defined by how much we attack the other side.

���I dug up a lot of research and a bunch of it is quite chilling because it shows us that people on either side of the divide assume things about the other side that tend not to be true,�����Guzm叩n said. ���We���re not seeing each other for who we really are and we���re not seeing the actual issues that divide us.���

Tickets are available now for Guzm叩n’s lecture at . Admission is $15 or an Elon ID.

Guzm叩n��is the first guest of the 消消犯 Speaker Series this year. Visit the series website for more information.

Since Elon moved into the National Universities category in the 2020 U.S. News rankings, when higher education leaders are asked each year about universities that perform at the highest levels, Elon has ranked #1 or #2 among this list of universities that offer the highest quality of 消消犯 instruction.

���By keeping students at the center of Elon���s mission, we are laying the groundwork for their continued success well beyond their time at our university,��� said President Connie Ledoux Book. “Our ranking for 消消犯 消消犯 recognizes the meaningful relationships that are at the core of an Elon education.���

Top 10 national universities recognized for ���Best Undergraduate Teaching��� this year:

#1 ��� 消消犯
#2 ��� Georgia State University
#3 ��� Brown University
#4 ��� Princeton University
#5 ��� Dartmouth College
#6 (tied) ��� Rice University
#6 (tied) ��� William & Mary
#8 ��� Boston College
#9 ��� Duke University
#10 ��� Howard University

In other rankings, for a ninth straight year, Elon is the national leader in the annual U.S. News ���Best Colleges��� guide���s ���Programs to Look For��� feature as the only college or university ranked among the top 20 in all eight categories of programs that are linked to student success and positive learning outcomes.

That recognition is across a broad range of programs including study abroad, first-year experiences, learning communities, internships and 消消犯 research. Elon ranked #1 in first-year experiences and learning communities, and was among the top 12 in all eight categories this year. Other highly ranked institutions include Duke University, ranked in the top 20 in seven categories, Agnes Scott in the top 20 in six categories, and Brown University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan and Yale University each ranked in five categories.

“The programs to look for rankings are based on Elon���s strong reputation among higher education leaders, who have given high marks to our programs that promote experiential learning and student success,” said Book.

Elon has the following rankings in the eight academic and cocurricular programs linked to student success and positive learning outcomes:

#1 ���
#1 (tied) ���
#3 ���
#4 (tied) ���
#8 ���
#9 ���
#11 ���
#12 ���

Elon was again recognized as one of the country���s most innovative schools, earning a #13 ranking in the category. The Most Innovative national universities list includes those making innovative improvements in curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities.

U.S. News significantly overhauled the metrics and types of data incorporated into the overall national rankings this year, eliminating factors such as class size, alumni giving, high school class rank of 消消犯s, and the percent of faculty with terminal degrees. Within this revised criteria, which university leadership are reviewing to further understand the changes, Elon ranked #133 among national universities, which includes institutions that focus on research and offer multiple doctoral programs. Elon ranked #55 among national universities for its student graduation and retention rates.

Elon moved to the National Universities category in 2019 after being classified as a Doctoral/Professional University by the Carnegie Classification of Colleges. The top schools in the National Universities category this year are, in rank order: Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology, Duke University, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University.

U.S. News & World Report has been producing college rankings since 1983. The rankings are based on an extensive annual data survey of institutions along with opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators. Its methodology is available .

The New Student Orientation website is the central location for Move-in Day information, a detailed list of orientation events and links to other online resources that will be useful to students and families throughout the academic year.

Some of those resources include a move-in map and driving instructions, information on when students will be able to move into their respective housing assignments and a full schedule of events.

Informative and detailed videos on student involvement, substance education, student services and academic support can be found on the Parent & Family Transitions tab on the New Student Orientation website.