Full Conference Agenda

NM6A8959_sm

Bring your whole team so you don’t miss a thing!

There is so much in store for attendees this summer, make sure to check out everything we have planned for our 3-day conference!

Filter Agenda By Product

Get your nametag and swag bag and kick off your Pathways 2026 experience!

Have a snack before some afternoon pre-conference programming!

Join the Client Success team for some networking! This is the perfect opportunity to meet your Client Success Manager and connect in-person.

Join the Client Success team for an interactive session perfect for current/new partners!

Are you new to Suitable? Then this is the session for you! Learn everything you need to know about Suitable and our product suite.

Join our team to kick off the 8th annual Pathways conference! Followed by an exciting icebreaker!

In this transformative era, student success is being redefined by the dynamic interplay of learning mobility, practical utility, and the compelling narrative that emerges. Every individual possesses a unique story, and the profound mission of higher education has always been to cultivate metacognition—the invaluable ability of students to reflect upon, guide, and articulate their own learning journey. This is the 'holy grail' we strive for: creating an environment where learners can seamlessly document, verify, and leverage every experience—academic, co-curricular, and professional—throughout their entire journey, guided by dedicated people and empowered by innovative systems. It's a learner-centered approach that is interoperable, inherently valuable, and designed to dismantle barriers that currently hinder the learning experience. Institutions have the power to build more inclusive, transparent systems, break down these barriers, and ultimately help every student thrive, regardless of their background. Students are not just recipients; they are the co-authors of their own success.

Dr. Mike Simmons - Keynote Speaker Image

Dr. Mike Simmons

Celebrate a successful day 1 of Pathways 2026 with some refreshments and bites!

Take a ride through the City of Brotherly Love at night! Visit Landmarks and more on this night tour.

In Fall 2025, GVSU launched LakerLink as a centralized engagement hub, driving over 21,000 activity completions in one semester through an intentional and coordinated marketing strategy for student organization leaders and students. This session will highlight how we structured and positioned Suitable Hub to drive adoption, align activities with institutional priorities, and leverage LakerLink as a scalable engagement ecosystem, not just a tracking tool.

Collaboration & Confidence: Designing a Co-Curricular Degree Requirement

Montclair State University is implementing Suitable to support a comprehensive co-curricular framework across creativity, leadership, community engagement, and global learning in the Honors EDGE Program. Jeff Strickland and Jennifer Brooks will walk through design decisions, early successes, and challenges, and invite peer institutions that launched Suitable this year to share strategies and compare models.

Implementing new student organization software isn't just a technical challenge; it's a change management challenge. This session explores practical strategies for overcoming student and staff resistance, managing the transition from a familiar legacy system, and building adoption when users are juggling multiple campus platforms.

UConn Ready, students are to bridge the skills gap and finally articulate their skill development for further employment opportunities. Eran and Kristen will dive into their pilot, how they utilized students from start to finish to enhance the program. To learn how they have not only increased students' goals, but also encouraged professional development and comfort in asking for help.

CBA Advantage is a required engagement program for business students at Loyola Marymount University that processes more than 22,000 student submissions annually and is managed by a lean team of two staff members and five student workers. This session will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s workflow design: starting from activity intake and resource support, all the way to submission review, escalation protocols, resubmission procedures, and data integration. Together, these workflows keep the program organized, scalable, and sustainable. Attendees will gain practical insights into building systems that promote quality reflections while operating in a high-volume setting.

Provide a Roadmap to new and potential partners on how RBS grew our Guided Pathway, leveraging institutional support and increased partnerships with other existing student-facing offices over time. Share results in significant advancements despite challenges presented during COVID.

For the past several years, the MSSU Honors Program has used Suitable to log extracurricular activities, understand and track progress towards institutional goals, and connect academic learning with experiential opportunities. This presentation will explore how the MSSU Honors Program uses Suitable to track and visualize student involvement across different campus activities.

The UT San Antonio Carlos Alvarez College of Business team developed a comprehensive competency-based rubric that guided the launch of Career Compass and ensured consistent, equitable assignment of levels and activities across the program. This rubric has become a cornerstone of our implementation strategy, driving clarity, alignment, and measurable improvements in student engagement and program success. In year two, we are expanding this framework by creating activity-level grading rubrics within Suitable, strengthening assessment, standardization, and the overall student experience. This session will equip attendees with practical strategies and adaptable tools they can use to enhance consistency, quality, and scalability within their own student success programs.

Manja! Enjoy a delicious lunch spread and network with your colleagues.

DSC01470_sm

Having trouble getting students to adopt the Suitable app? This presentation will discuss challenges with student resistance to the Suitable platform and strategies to create lasting behavior change. Presenters will share crucial influence strategies used to increase student organizations to utilize the HUB product to gain critical student involvement data.

Having trouble getting students to adopt the Suitable app? This presentation will discuss challenges with student resistance to the Suitable platform and strategies to create lasting behavior change. Presenters will share crucial influence strategies used to help student organizations to utilize The Hub product to gain critical student involvement data.

How does a small campus achieve 98% engagement in an honors co-curricular program and 66% participation in a voluntary campus-wide pathway—all within three years of implementation? The answer lies in authentic collaboration. The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg successfully launched two distinct co-curricular pathways using the Suitable Platform: the GEM OCC (Greensburg Experience More Outside the Classroom Curriculum), open to all students, and a required Honors OCC. Rather than implementing a top-down mandate, we built these programs through intentional partnership with faculty, administration, staff, and most importantly, students.

The Tennessee Tech University College of Business developed Level Up, a student engagement and career-readiness platform powered by Suitable, to connect learning beyond the classroom with professional skill development aligned with the NACE competencies. What sets Level Up apart is its student co-administrator model, where selected students serve as operational partners alongside lead student success administration. This session will be co-presented by student administrators who actively manage the platform, offering a rare, authentic look at shared governance in action. Students contribute to platform operations, communications, analytics, event alignment, and peer outreach, gaining leadership, project management, and professional competencies while enhancing program effectiveness. Attendees will hear directly from students about their responsibilities, decision-making authority, training experience, and how serving as co-administrators enhanced their career readiness.

Colleges and universities increasingly seek scalable frameworks that meaningfully connect student engagement with measurable outcomes. This session explores how the University of Louisiana Monroe’s FLIGHT Program uses a competency-based badging structure powered by Suitable to foster deep engagement, quantify co-curricular learning, and enhance student success outcomes — leading to 100% engagement and multiple national awards.

In the rush to implement new features, manage data, and stay on top of technical updates, program administrators often find themselves "managing the tool" rather than "leading the mission." As a Suitable user in undergrad to now serving as an administrator for Poole Packways, this session will explore a unique "full-circle" perspective on program management. We'll evaluate the importance of having clear value propositions for students, staff/faculty, and your institution to build a successful program.

This presentation demonstrates how Nicholls State University has utilized our NGage platform, in only 2 years, to build and sustain student engagement through personalized challenges, rewards, and interactive experiences. By leveraging data-driven insights and community features, NGage powered by Suitable, encourages consistent participation and supports meaningful connections between students and campus initiatives.

This session would include Payton Herring (Student Experience Specialist) and Dr. Anne Hocking (25-26 Chair of Staff Senate) sharing about the novel ways faculty and staff have engaged and been developed through the ACU portal built specifically for them - CompassPro. Marrying Adam’s Center for Teaching and Learning efforts towards the faculty and Staff Senate's efforts with staff, this session will provide insights into how ACU has benefited from engaging staff and faculty through Suitable: familiarizing them with the same platform that students use regularly, and encouraging their own holistic development.

img-placeholder-square

Over the last 6 years, our program has grown and expanded, and we are now doing a hard review and rebuilding things from the ground up. This presentation will discuss the adaptability of Suitable as the Carson College of Business reevaluates our goals for the Career Amplifier Program, built using the guided pathways program. I will also discuss how the CCB is transitioning to a holistic advising method as part of a larger university-wide initiative and the benefits of already using Suitable and being able to add the Co-Curricular Transcript and NACE Ready program.

Thank you for an amazing conference. See you next time!

graphic-720x673-venue-bg-cta@2x

Student engagement starts here

Explore innovative strategies to enhance student engagement, make impactful programming choices, and celebrate student success this summer!

NM6A7462_460x460