Inside Temple University’s Fox Leadership Development Program (update)

Life with Suitable

Fox School of Business and Suitable partnered together and were able to transform Temple’s co-curricular and experiential learning program. They created the FLDP with best practices and guidance established by Suitable, which includes the Five Pillars of Student Development. 

For incoming freshmen in the School of Business, the FLDP is a requirement for graduation with a 250 point requirement for each year. Students are aware of the FLDP once they arrive at Temple because of its frequent use on campus, from freshman seminar courses to student organizations. By downloading the Suitable app, attendance can be tracked with ease and it also provides personalized activity recommendations so students always know what is happening on campus and how to keep progressing. The FLDP has 4 core competencies and all learning experiences fall under at least one, so students can understand the value of their participation and know which competency each activity is intended to develop. Many campus recruiters are beginning to adopt competency-based recruiting models when hiring students, so Suitable’s integration of competencies augments the students’ thought process and teaches them how to speak about their experiences in a meaningful way. With Suitable’s easy-to-use technology, students are able to see their level of proficiency in each competency and keep track of their accomplishments via the Co-Curricular Transcript Suitable provides. With Suitable, the FLDP is scalable and has an impact on the entire student body. The program is not a requirement for juniors and seniors just yet, but there are major-specific programs that they have started considering as a graduation requirement since Suitable has worked so well elsewhere.

Suitable’s gamified approach keeps students excited and engaged. They can progress through the program with levels, badges, and points which is appealing to students since 90% of gen Z report playing mobile games. Also, Suitable provides a mobile first strategy because research shows that low income students are just as likely to have a smartphone but less likely to have a computer. Suitable can even provide students with a personalized learning experience by using an algorithm to recommend activities to students that get more personalized the more they use Suitable. These factors have all helped in reshaping the co-curricular experience for students at Fox and has driven higher levels of engagement than ever before.