Gemenskap Series: Building intentional student communities

GPA measures whether a student can perform. It says nothing about whether they feel seen, know where to go when a class goes wrong, or believe they can find themselves in the community around them. Elsy Ayoub, Assistant Director, Student Retention at the University of Miami, works in that gap. Drawing on both American and Scandinavian models of education and a special education background, she talks with Anna Moustakas about belonging as an ecosystem, the four capacities students carry out the door, and why the questions an institution asks decide what it optimizes for.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Gemenskap Series

00:35 Meeting Elsy Ayoub

02:16 A college memory that stayed with her

03:55 From pre-med to education by accident

07:38 Discovering passion in the doing

11:00 Can education be different

15:15 Designing beyond the average student

17:56 Why students really drop out

18:09 Belonging as an ecosystem, not an event

21:36 GPA eight and normalizing challenges

25:47 Where to start: changing the questions

27:04 From skills to the four capacities

29:39 What AI can and cannot do

31:29 Words create worlds

34:27 Success stories and the domino effect

35:56 The most impactful practice

38:47 Design thinking and failing fast and forward

40:16 Closing the gap and goodbye

You can follow Elsy Ayoub here:

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/elsy-ayoub-1b58a31b4

Learn more about University of Miami:

Website - https://miami.edu

Students arrive at college with fewer social skills, a different baseline in mental and physical health, and a different academic starting point than a decade ago, and the offices meant to support them keep getting smaller. Jessica Carron, Senior Associate Dean of Students at Lewis & Clark College, runs an office of two and covers conduct, case management, BIT teams, on call, and campus living. She talks with Anna Moustakas about restorative practice, training other staff to carry a five part conflict program across campus, using AI honestly, and choosing the practices worth keeping.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Gemenskap Series

00:33 Meet Jessica Carron and her many hats

02:00 Why she stayed in higher ed

04:13 What an exceptional student experience means

05:42 How student belonging has changed in 20 years

09:06 AI in higher education and student pushback

12:48 Using AI as a tool, weighing the cost

18:09 From avoiding conflict to restorative practice

19:05 The first conduct case that changed her view

21:59 Sharing information instead of hoarding it

24:48 Training every office in the conflict program

27:02 Inside the five part conflict series

30:00 Doing more with less on a small budget

34:20 Using data and technology to pick what works

37:37 Communication as the root of community

38:22 One practice: tell me more about that

39:09 Wait time and reflecting words back

You can follow Jessica Carron here:

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/jessicacarron

Learn more about Lewis & Clark College:

Website - https://lclark.edu

For students to succeed, they need to feel they belong - and that starts where they live.

Gemenskap brings together housing directors, residential life leaders, student affairs professionals, and RAs for honest conversations about the real work behind student belonging, social-emotional growth, and persistence.

Each episode explores how practitioners are building communities where students are truly understood - from roommate conflict resolution and early intervention to community design and RA support. No corporate jargon. No easy answers. Just the people doing the hard, precise, human work of creating residential experiences that matter.

Whether you manage on-campus residence halls, Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), or off-campus residential communities, this podcast speaks to a shared mission: creating spaces where students don't just live, but grow.

Enabling self-excellence through community and understanding.

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Sponsored by Coly.io - the student insight platform helping universities understand who their students really are, and build residential communities where students belong and persist. Learn more at https://coly.io