Project Overview

Program Type: Onboarding & leadership development
Audience: Incoming students (new users) and peer leaders (facilitators)
Delivery Format: Multi-session onboarding + modular leadership training
Role: Program designer, curriculum developer, and program lead

I designed and led a peer-based onboarding and leadership training program to support new student integration while developing leadership capacity among returning student leaders. The program was designed to be scalable, sustainable, and adaptable across academic years despite frequent turnover among participants.

The Problem

Incoming students often entered the school environment without a consistent onboarding experience, leading to gaps in connection, belonging, and access to support. At the same time, student leaders responsible for facilitating onboarding lacked standardized training, resulting in inconsistent delivery and uneven outcomes.

The program also faced structural challenges:

  • Annual turnover of student leaders

  • Limited instructional time

  • Budget and resource constraints

  • Diverse learner needs and backgrounds

The goal was to design a system that supported both new users and peer facilitators while remaining sustainable year over year.

Users & Stakeholders

Primary Users

  • Incoming students navigating a new academic and social environment

Secondary Users

  • Student leaders facilitating onboarding and peer support

Stakeholders

  • School administrators

  • Staff advisors

  • Student leadership teams

Understanding the distinct needs of each group was essential to designing a program that balanced clarity, engagement, and scalability.

Constraints

The design process accounted for several key constraints:

  • Limited onboarding time within the academic schedule

  • Budget oversight and responsible resource allocation

  • Wide variation in learner confidence, background, and prior experience

  • Annual turnover requiring repeatable training and documentation

These constraints informed decisions around modular design, documentation, and facilitation support.

Design Approach

I approached the program using a learning systems mindset rather than a one-time event model.

Key design decisions included:

  • Conducting informal needs analysis through student and staff feedback

  • Defining clear learning objectives for both new students and peer leaders

  • Designing modular training sessions that could be reused and adapted

  • Creating facilitation guides to support consistent delivery

  • Building feedback loops to allow for iteration and improvement

The emphasis was on clarity, usability, and transferability rather than content volume.

The Solution

The final program consisted of two integrated components:

1. New Student Onboarding

  • Structured onboarding sessions focused on connection, navigation, and belonging

  • Clear session goals aligned to learner needs

  • Activities designed for peer facilitation and engagement

2. Leadership Training for Peer Facilitators

  • Training modules focused on communication, leadership, and peer support

  • Facilitation guides outlining objectives, timing, and key talking points

  • Documentation to ensure consistency across facilitators and future cohorts

The program design allowed new leaders to step into facilitation roles with confidence while maintaining program integrity across years.

Outcomes

While the program was not designed around quantitative corporate metrics, several outcomes were consistently observed:

  • Improved consistency in onboarding delivery

  • Increased confidence among peer leaders

  • Stronger sense of connection and engagement among incoming students

  • A scalable structure that could be reused and refined annually

The system-based design reduced reliance on individual facilitators and increased program sustainability.

Reflection & Learnings

This project reinforced several core principles of effective instructional design:

  • Onboarding is most effective when it is treated as a system, not an event

  • Clear documentation is critical for scalability and continuity

  • Peer facilitators benefit from structured support as much as end users

  • Designing for constraints leads to more durable solutions

If revisiting the project, I would explore additional methods for formal data collection to better quantify impact and inform iteration.

Why This Project Matters

This project demonstrates my ability to:

  • Design scalable learning systems

  • Translate user needs into structured solutions

  • Balance engagement with operational constraints

  • Create documentation that supports consistency and reuse

The skills demonstrated here directly transfer to corporate onboarding, leadership development, and learning experience design contexts.