On May 7, co-organizers Sara Rzeszutek and Stephanie Jacobson brought the inaugural BOBCATS cohort together to reflect and celebrate upon completing the yearlong program. The gathering was held at the Rocky Top Student Center on the York Hill Campus.

Rzeszutek, director of faculty advancement in teaching excellence, and Jacobson, associate provost for faculty affairs and development and professor of social work, spearheaded the initiative with funding received through a Davis Educational Foundation grant.

BOBCATS kicked off last August with the goal of supporting acclimation, training and pedagogy for 20 new faculty members with the assistance of seven program mentors and facilitators. Mentors are full-time faculty who have served at Quinnipiac for at least six years.

BOBCATS is geared to assist new, full-time faculty hired within the last three years. Monthly meetings, special activities and on-campus interactions help to foster belonging, encourage collaboration, develop skills and build bridges across disciplines, schools and experiences, said Rzeszutek.

“It’s really intended to build belonging and a welcoming community, and to help new faculty acclimate to our teaching culture,” said Rzeszutek.

BOBCATS integrates community-building with informative sessions while the program intentionally connects new faculty with multidisciplinary colleagues.

“Over the course of the year, we have a monthly meeting where we focus on a different professional development topic related to Quinnipiac. And on top of that, all of the new faculty members are in mentorship groups,” Rzeszutek said. “It’s a group of three new faculty with an experienced mentor and it’s organized across all schools and departments, so they are meeting people outside of their home base.”

The groups also engage in observational teaching circles in one another’s classrooms.

“They get formative feedback on teaching, they learn from each other and get exposed to different kinds of techniques and styles,” Rzeszutek said. “They learn together through that process.”

Jacobson said it’s been a whirlwind first year for BOBCATS, with a great deal accomplished.

“We’ve done a lot of things to build community. Our first week really involved just getting to know each other and the campus. We had a scavenger hunt and to become familiar with the local area, we had a snack every afternoon from local businesses. We gave tours so they got to see where students live and get a better understanding of where they are going for support and services,” said Jacobson.

As part of BOBCATS, faculty also received certification in mental health and first aid training.

BOBCATS inaugural cohort member David Kocik joined Quinnipiac in the fall of 2025 as an assistant professor in media studies at the School of Communications. Kocik said being part of a mentorship group led by an experienced teacher and comprised of faculty from diverse disciplines, including law, biology and media studies, was a great experience.

“It gave me a much better idea of what Quinnipiac is. It made me feel much more connected to what the whole campus is, rather than just my department, which I think is really helpful,” said Kocik.

Weronika Sabulis, a biology department assistant teaching faculty member, has just completed her second year at Quinnipiac. She said BOBCATS has made a difference in her ability to feel more connected to the university.

“I really took a lot from this experience. It was a great community-building experience throughout the year. It was nice to meet people from different majors and different departments. I feel like a built a little friendship circle and we can bounce ideas and pedagogies back and forth with each other,” Sabulis said. “I feel more involved in the community. With this, you really feel at home. I feel like a Quinnipiac faculty member now, and that’s really nice.”

With support from the Davis Educational Foundation, the next BOBCATS cohort will get underway in August to begin the program’s second year.

“We have funding for an additional 30 next year and 10 mentors,” said Jacobson. “There’s a lot of interest, and we’re having even more people apply.”

Rzeszutek said the long-term goal is to have every new faculty member go through BOBCATS.

“That will gradually really influence the teaching culture here and everybody will feel welcome and a sense of belonging from the beginning because they’ll have been onboarded to the institution’s teaching culture,” said Rzeszutek. “Even if somebody has 20 years of teaching experience somewhere else, it’s different to come in and do it at a new place. And, even if they don’t necessarily need a lot of initial feedback on teaching, they still benefit from being around people who are teaching it in this particular context.”