About the Project
Two Degrees is an effort to engage our entire university – every single employee – to build on the incredible student success work already being done by our faculty, academic advisors and student support teams. This project will connect students with staff who work in non-academic roles by coordinating one-on-one empathy interviews between staff and students. Through these interviews, we hope to better understand barriers to student success, connect everyone to their purpose at VCU, and foster a culture of caring and collaboration.
The project was initiated in partnership with the University Innovation Alliance.
What's an Empathy Interview?
An empathy interview is an interview strategy that uses open-ended questions to help people - in this case, students - share their feelings and experiences. We hope that by offering students opportunities to share their experiences, we can fully understand their current needs and priorities, and identify barriers to their success at VCU.
First-year Goals:
Conduct 100 interviews with graduating seniors by summer 2024.
Conduct 5,000 total interviews within the first year.
About the University Innovation Alliance
Want to know more about the work of the University Innovation Alliance? Check out this one-minute video.