One of the busiest services on a college campus takes place late summer into early fall when the Outreach Team needs to make certain students are enrolled and ready to begin their college careers. Eleven strong, the Miramar College Outreach Team is the gatekeeper for most new students who arrive on an unfamiliar campus. Navigating ones first year of college can be tough especially during a worldwide pandemic. However, a new feature at Miramar College is helping students connect to the campus even while most Miramar College classes and services remain remote. UChat, located on the school’s Outreach and School Relations webpage, gives students a chance to connect with an Outreach Team member or mentor Monday through Friday.
“Our Career Center had the tool first,” said Jennifer Peña, outreach coordinator at Miramar College. “And once COVID-19 hit and we were inundated by emails and we knew we had to move to remote operations, we decided as a staff that we had to have this feature on our page.”
Here’s how it works. Students can visit the Outreach & School Relations page here http://sdmiramar.edu/campus/outreach#. Once there, look at the right side of your computer. You’ll notice a tab pop out with 11 smiling faces ready to help. Click on the tab’s arrow and see which employee is online and ready to answer your questions. You can also access the chat via your mobile devices.
“We started this feature at the end of July,” said Peña. “In that time, we have seen several students reach out with all sorts of questions from how to enroll to how do I apply for financial aid?” Two other departments at Miramar College also use UChat-Financial Aid and the Career Center. “If a student has a question that we can’t answer, often times we are able to send them to another department’s UChat feature for better service,” said Peña.
The Outreach Team staffs its UChat feature Monday-Thursday from 10am-4pm and 10am to 1pm on Friday’s. If Peña isn’t there to answer your question, one of Outreach’s ten other representatives will be there. “We assign outreach mentors to the chat for 4 hour blocks,” said Peña. “These mentors are either current or former students who are well trained to answer questions from current and prospective students”
As a fluent Spanish speaker, Peña can also help those speaking Spanish, a demographic that makes ups more than a quarter of Miramar College’s population. “If a Spanish speaking student or parent logs onto to UChat and I am not online, they can always send me an email and I will respond.”
A majority of the students who have used the UChat function since its debut in late July are high school students either about to start college as a San Diego Promise student or looking to take a dual enrollment class during the upcoming semester. The UChat features also appears on the college’s CCAP webpage, San Diego Promise page, and the College’s Assessment Office page.
The Financial Aid department has 4 representatives available to answer questions. You can find their UChat link at http://sdmiramar.edu/campus/financial-aid#. Due to staffing issues, the Financial Aid department does not post UChat hours. Check out our social media platforms for available times. Meantime, the Career Center has 8 representatives to work its UChat Monday-Thursday 8am-6pm and Friday’s 8am-3pm. http://sdmiramar.edu/campus/careerservices
