By Jennifer Hughes
Joining WISHES
Last summer, I remember learning about WISHES from a dear friend and Texas Tech colleague, Jill Stangl. My colleague, Jill, is a lawyer by trade and we’ve worked together for more than a decade on assessment-related projects. I would describe our relationship as very much “peanut butter and jelly.” We get along really well, and we’ve often collaborated on smaller projects. Jill is a matter-of-fact lawyer-type, and I’m your “kum ba yah” assessment professional. So, I was shocked to hear my colleague actually gush about WISHES. This was not my typical conversation with Jill.
Unexpected Findings
But, she was unequivocally right. WISHES is all that. At Texas Tech, we’re brand-new to WISHES. It’s been an extraordinary experience so far. We joined the WISHES community in Fall 2023, and we’ve administered WISHES three times since then. Although we’re newbies to this entire experience with ANEW, we’re learning a lot about our students that we didn’t expect. For example, we’re exploring how our students report feelings of “belonginess,” and we’re also looking closely at the connection between financial wellbeing and overall wellbeing. We’re also contemplating how we can more effectively address food insecurity issues on our campus. If we hadn’t administered WISHES to our student body, I don’t believe that we would have known about the deep effect of these issues on our students’ overall wellbeing. Although we’re still exploring and interpreting our data, I expect these data to continue to reveal themselves in ways that we could not have anticipated. The pulse-style nature of WISHES is in real-time and allows institutions like ours access to just-in-time information.
Community Support and Institutional Mentoring
ANEW has created a network of institutions that administer WISHES, and this has been one of the most rewarding aspects of our institutional participation. Jill and I and other Texas Tech colleagues join monthly collaborative online meetings with other participating institutions, and we’re learning about how other large institutions prioritize their students’ wellbeing. We’ve been peer coaches with Notre Dame, the University of Alabama, and the University of Maryland, and these experiences will shape how we move forward with our data. As an assessment professional, I have benefited from learning about these institutions’ methodological and measurement approaches. This is invaluable to me! Moreover, our fellow co-mentors are becoming good colleagues and folks with whom I would reach out for solid, professional advice.
Using WISHES for Accreditation Purposes
Jill’s first giddy introduction to WISHES has culminated not only into our institution’s broad assessment plan, but we’re using WISHES as an integral part of our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). Our QEP assessment plan places WISHES at the front-and-center of a 5-year assessment protocol. While our QEP doesn’t officially begin until Spring 2025, we’re putting WISHES in place as a mechanism to regularly assess our students’ wellbeing. I can’t wait to see what we learn about our students, and I’m thankful to Jill for introducing us to WISHES.