This document provides scenarios for a student success discussion board assignment. Students are presented with 4 hypothetical scenarios where each student experiences an unforeseen event that causes issues in their courses. For each scenario, students must determine which student is most likely to successfully navigate the event, explain problematic behaviors/characteristics before the event, and identify helpful behaviors/characteristics during the event. The document provides detailed descriptions of each student and the unforeseen event they experience.

1. FDR Cinderella Man Essay
Watch one scene of your choice from Cinderella Man and listen
to one of FDR's Fireside Chats. You can get access to these
clips on YouTube. You can also rent the movie or get these
items from your public library. Then answer the following
question:
Given the morale (or lack of it) at the time, Cinderella Man not
only strikes a poignant (look up the word if you don't know it)
chord in the hearts of people going through the Great
Depression but those today going through the Great Recession.
Select some key phrases or sentences that James Braddock said
publicly to describe what he and his family were going through.
What were the most moving and emotive things he said. Why
were his words effective?
For FDR's speeches, do the same. What key concepts were
reinforced by his choice of words and phrases? Does having
seen this movie make FDR's speech any more vivid for
you? Give specific examples from the film and FDR’s Fireside
Chat that you selected.
In addition, point out any specific events or dialogue in both the
film and the radio broadcasts that deepen your sense of the
despair that existed at the time of the Great Depression. How, if
at all, can you relate these feelings to what has been said about
or that you have experienced in the Great Recession (the U.S.
economic downturn since the financial crisis that began in
2008).
This 1-2 page, typed assignment is due in class on the assigned
date/. Formatting guidelines appear in your syllabus.

2. GU101 Student Success
Scenarios for Discussion Board Week 3
Even with the best of planning, life happens. Similar to last
week, you will meet four hypothetical students who are
attending ABC University. An unforeseen event happens to
each one of them, and this event causes issues in their courses.
Read each scenario and then:
1. Determine which student is the most likely to successfully
navigate the unforeseen event and be able to remain in school.
Explain why you selected that student.
2. Explain what behaviors or characteristics were problematic
before the unforeseen event and how those
behaviors/characteristics may have contributed to a harder
challenge for them to navigate.
3. Identify the behaviors/characteristics/circumstances that
were helpful to the student as the unforeseen event occurred.
For your follow-up posts, respond to at least two of your peers.

3. In each response, respectfully agree or disagree with the
author’s choice, and explain your position. Then, create 3 “next
steps” for the hypothetical student to help him/her get back on
track.
Scenario #1: Jayden
Jayden is 22 years old and is living at home with her parents
and two younger siblings (still in high school and junior high).
Her parents are letting her continue to live at home provided
that she either has a full-time job or she is in school full-time.
If she goes to school full-time, her parents will pay half of her
tuition. Jayden does not know what she wants to study, but
since the first year at every college she researched was focused
on general education, she figured she would simply get started.
Besides, she really doesn’t want to work full-time. She works
part-time at the local pizza place as a waitress, and those hours
are plenty for her to pay half her tuition and still have some left
over for fun. Many of her friends that went to high school with
her are still in the area, and she hangs out with them 3-4 times a
week. Jayden is technically passing her classes, earning Cs and
Bs for her assignments, but she admits that she has blown off a
few minor requirements and doesn’t really read the textbook.
She says she is doing well enough without doing all the work –
so why should she work harder? It’s not like she is on
probation or anything.

4. Unforeseen event: In the third week of the course, Jayden’s
father has a heart attack. He is in the hospital for a week, and
her mom is constantly by his side. It looks like he is going to
have to go through some rehab and therapy for a few weeks.
Jayden has to help take care of her younger siblings – preparing
meals, driving them to school, making sure they do their
homework.
Scenario #2: Kamden
Kamden is 35 years old and has three children under the age of
7. She also works full-time. She drops the kids off at daycare
every morning at 6:30, goes to work, and is home by the time
they get off the bus. Kamden is busy with “kid-stuff” until they
go to bed at 9:00. That is when she begins her homework.
Many times she is so tired by Thursday and Friday night that
she takes those two nights off from class and just goes to bed.
She then works hard through the weekend to catch up. She feels
bad that she isn’t spending as much time with the kids as she
used to, but she feels that her degree will make a better life for
her family. She has never missed any class work, and she has
submitted every assignment, but she is really struggling in her
economics course. She currently has a 67%, and it is the lowest
grade she has ever earned. She really does not know what to do
with this situation.
Unforeseen event: One of her children catches the flu and has
to stay home from daycare, which means Kamden cannot go to
work. She is falling behind at work, and also falling behind in

5. her classes. She wants to make sure her other two little ones do
not come down with the flu, so she is trying to quarantine the
sick child. This is hard to do as a single mom.
Scenario #3: Lloyd
Lloyd is 27 years old, and he is tired of working in a dead-end
job. He is really motivated to make a better life for him and for
his 3-year old son. Lloyd has never been the strongest student,
but he is going to tutoring every week to help him with reading
comprehension and writing papers, and his grades are mostly
Bs. With the custody arrangement from his divorce, he has his
son every other week. Lloyd is finding that during the weeks
that he has son, he has less time to dedicate to his studies, so
sometimes he has to catch up on reading chapters in the next
week. He finds ways to do that, but sometimes he doesn’t learn
important information until the week after it would have been
particularly useful. Consequently, his posts show that he
sometimes hasn’t read the material. Worse, he lost track of the
deadlines for written assignments. A big paper is due
tomorrow, and he doesn’t have time to do the research and write
the paper. He found a paper online. He figures he can change
and modify just enough of it that it will be mostly his work. He
has promised himself that he will pay better attention next time
and will never find himself in this situation again. Besides,
he’s not really doing anything wrong, right?

6. Unforeseen event: Lloyd lives in Florida, and a hurricane is
forecast to hit his hometown. The authorities are strongly
encouraging evacuation. He has 24 hours to make a decision –
hunker down, or get out of town. It is likely that he will lose
internet and power for what could be several days.
Scenario #4: Mark
Mark is 40 years old and does not have a computer at home.
His boss at work is allowing him to stay late after work and use
his work computer to complete his schoolwork. On weekends,
he goes to the library. He is finding time to complete and hand
in all his assignments, and he generally does very well on them.
Because of earning good grades in high school and his own
perception that he is completely capable of learning anything
thrown at him, Mark is confident that he will be successful, and
he believes he will do it on his own. He’s smart, but he is often
described as very, very quiet. Mark is not very comfortable
around people, and he doesn’t like interacting with them. Even
at work, he is rarely seen talking to or with his co-workers.
Because Mark is so confident in his own abilities and because
he does not enjoy discussions with others, he does not see the
point of the “reply to others” part of discussion posts. He really
doesn’t care what other students think about his posts – the only
person who matters is the professor because the professor does
the grading. Mark’s initial post is always the first one in the
thread, and it is generally more complex that anyone else’s

7. posts. Mark posts his initial comments every week, but never
responds to his peers in any of his classes. His professors have
been reaching out to him encouraging him to be more active in
the posts, but he has not changed his behavior. Mark usually
earns A’s on his tests, quizzes, and papers, and has figured that
even with losing the points on the discussions every week, he
will still pass the classes, so he sees no reason to change.
Unforeseen event: Mark has not read the syllabus for his
strategic management course – and what he doesn’t know yet is
that he must participate in a team project for this course. He
needs to work with a small group of his classmates each week to
complete verbal and written assignments. This means that he
has to have internet access on a daily basis, and must
collaborate with his teammates to make “strategic business
decisions” for the Business Strategy Game (which is an online
activity). At the end of the course, each group member submits
an evaluation of their peers, and so his teammates will have a
chance to determine part of his grade for this course.
Remember, your initial post should be 75-150 words in length,
and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two
additional posts from your peers.
Click here to see your discussion rubric.
Week 3: The Unforeseen Event

8. Click here to view the scenarios for this week's discussion.
Even with the best of planning, life happens. Similar to last
week, you will meet four hypothetical students who are
attending ABC University. An unforeseen event happens to each
one of them, and this event causes issues in their courses.
Read each scenario and then:
1.Determine which student is the most likely to successfully
navigate the unforeseen event and be able to remain in school.
Explain why you selected that student..
2.Explain what behaviors or characteristics were problematic
before the unforeseen event and how those
behaviors/characteristics may have contributed to a harder
challenge for them to navigate..
3.Identify the behaviors/characteristics/circumstances that were
helpful to the student as the unforeseen event occurred..