Student Engagement
Happy New Year!
As we begin 2023, I am thinking more about ways we can bolster engagement with our students, student sections, and the youngest members of the OSH community. The student community is a fundamental part of ASSP’s structure, both at the national and local level. At the Chapter’s Planning Session in August 2022, student engagement was a key part of our discussion.
The chapter is committed to working with our local student sections and faculty advisors in every way it can to bridge the gap in student engagement. Through conference sponsorship, scholarship support, student spotlighting, and guest-speaking opportunities, the chapter strives to make sure that this group is supported as much as possible. This effort, however, is not only a chapter responsibility. Everyone has a role to play, directly or indirectly, in student engagement.
There are areas that could still be improved on, such as retention, mentorship, motivation, professional development, to mention a few. Speaking of retention, data from the Safety+Health magazine indicates that we are not retaining our recent grad and young professionals enough. Some of our recent grads that I spoke with on this issue last year, told me that they find it somewhat challenging to qualify for entry-level jobs requiring 1-2 years of experience. While this may not be representative of the situation, it’s something worth mentioning. Mentorship and motivation could go a long way to create a positive experience for our students as they transition in their professional journey. Thus, I encourage us to continue to harness our roles to positively influence the next generation of safety leaders.
If this topic resonates with you, I encourage you to join us in our Technical Meeting in March, where a faculty advisor will come speak to us and answer questions relating to this topic.
Finally, I want to thank those that made last month’s end of year social. It was nice to meet in person again, after several months of virtual meetings. All things being equal, we should be returning to face to face meetings no later than March 2023.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, I sincerely appreciate everyone’s support in the last six months. Let’s keep up the good team spirit in the months ahead!
Ogaga Tebehaevu, MS, CIH, CSP