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This is the fifth year of the LENS (Learn, Experience, Navigate, and Solve) program at Wake Forest, and librarians from ZSR have been embedded in the program since the first year! Each year the program as grown, but this year the number of students increased from 35 to 51, requiring the students to split into two teams, and doubling the number of workshops we held for these students! In addition to all the sessions the librarians lead for the LENS program, we also participate in LENS planning meetings before, during and after the program! About half the LENS students will end up as freshmen at WFU and all LENS students receive an admissions interview while on campus!Fortunately, with the increase in students participating in the program, the leaders of LENS increased the number of writing faculty involved in the program and increased the number of student program assistants. Meanwhile, the ZSR Library’s LENS team grew to three with the addition of Meghan Webb to the existing team of Hu and Bobbie! These additional resources allowed for a smooth and successful LENS 2014!

The Library kicked off its role in the program with a brief technology orientation on Monday, June 23rd, then continued with an Introduction to Google Tools on Tuesday and “Capture the Flag” on Wednesday! On Friday, Bobbie and Meghan led a scavenger hunt in the Library and a session on scholarly research. On Tuesday, July 1st I lead a session on presentation tools and on July 3rd we hosted a game of Humans v Zombies in the Library with the BTFT (Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute.) We wrapped up our time with the LENS program on Thursday, July 10th, with a clicker question survey of the program and attended the LENS concluding ceremony on Friday, July 11th. At the ceremony each group gave a final presentation of their sustainability project with a local community partner! The community partners included, Campus Kitchen and the Cobblestone Farmer’s Market, just to name two!

This is always a rewarding project, and this year was no exception! Even with the larger crowd, the students responded very favorably in the final evaluations and based on the citations in their final presentations, many of them were paying attention during the research instruction session! Many thanks to Meghan Webb, the newest ZSR staff member on the LENS team! Adding another person to the team was a huge help in meeting the needs of the LENS students!

-Hu Womack, Bobbie Collins, and Meghan Webb