The Wildcat 360° Student Experience
In the spirit of ancestral belief that “It takes a village to raise a child,” the Wildcat 360 Student Experience is a collaborative team-based approach intended to provide individualized, coordinated, student-driven care to meet the academic, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of the students of Bethune-Cookman University. The wraparound process brings students, their families, faculty, and key staff members together to deliver a customized method to success that responds to the unique needs of the B-CU scholar. By bringing people together from different parts of the student’s experience, the focus of care, based on the student’s vision, strengths and needs, is to keep the student whole, healthy and progressing towards graduation and job or graduate school placement in a safe community with the lease possible obstacles.
The Wildcat 360 Student Experience is driven by 10 principles:
- Student Voice and Choice
- Individualized
- Strength-Based
- Spiritual and Natural Supports
- Collaboration
- Unconditional Care
- Community-Based
- Culturally Competent
- Team-Based
- Outcome-Based
The Wildcat 360 Student Experience is not a program or a type of service. It is an unconditional commitment to create a personalized recognition of not just the student, but the person. To say we see you, your hopes, your dreams, and your God-given potential.
The Wildcat 360 Student Experience is not something that you “get”, it’s something you “do”; it’s a process, not a plan. These fundamental principles merge from the “whatever it takes” philosophy of Mother Mary McLeod Bethune that embodies an absolute dedication to a student’s development, empowerment, and outcome.
Often students and their families have needs that cross over service boundaries. Therefore, interoffice coordination is an integral part of the Wildcat 360 Student Experience process. It is essential that all services are developed cooperatively and become integrated into the care and support each student receives.
The Wildcat 360 Student Experience Care Teams share responsibility, expertise, ownership, and mutual support of each individual student while designing creative services intended to meet their strengths and needs across all majors. Historically, those needs had to fit into “one size fits all” services. In the Wildcat 360 Student Experience, the goals of the student drive the services that are needed. The condition of the student is continually reviewed to assess how those strengths and needs are evolving.
Our hope is as an alumnus, you’ll reflect on your time at B-CU and be able to say unequivocally, “B-CU respected me. It held and cared for me. My B-CU experience made me who I am.”
Like any good village should.