Enrollment, experiences and employment opportunities inspire Purdue Global College of Social and Behavioral Sciences dean

Sara Sander uses collaboration daily to build successful outcomes for all students

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Sara Sander loves trying out new ideas, especially for higher education projects.

Sander recalls the time in 1994 when she was pursuing her master’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Administrators needed someone to teach a night class.

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“I remember thinking, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll try it.’ The class was filled with adult learners, and I loved it,” Sander says. “They had focus and determination, and it really meshed well with my teaching. Every chance I got, I taught those night classes. I knew then that working with adult learners is where I wanted to be.”

Sander now serves as dean and vice president of Purdue Global’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and she is interim dean of the School of Aviation.

That experience started her on a journey into the then-new realm of online education — one that has had her leading the way in shaping the experience of thousands of students.

Dialing up success

Sander has served as dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences since 2013, and previously served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2003-13. During her tenure, the college has seen tremendous growth in student enrollment and degree programs.

She began her career in online education in January 1997, reviewing and editing regional accreditation paperwork for the Higher Learning Commission. In 1998, the organization was selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s Distance Education Demonstration Program, which allowed institutions to use financial aid to teach online courses — a novelty at the time.

“We were picked for the project,” Sander says. “They needed volunteers, so I raised my hand again. I wanted to try this and see what the outcome would be.”

And she began teaching to an online classroom in 1998 — with students using dial-up modems to connect to online courses.

Looking back at the experience, Sander says it was rocky, but it eventually worked.

“The mentality at the time was to replicate everything that instructors did when we taught in person,” she says. “My first attempt was overly difficult for both me and the students, but I had never gotten to know and understand the challenges, hopes and fears of a group of students more. This made me a better teacher, and I realized then the overarching potential of online learning.”

Sander says advancements in technology, design and learning theory have all contributed to building supportive online atmospheres to help students progress through their degree plans.

First-gen student leading other first-gen students

Sara Sander, now dean of Purdue Global’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, with her family when she was receiving her doctoral degree. Sander uses her experience as an adult learner to help other adult learners earn their degrees. (Photo provided) Download image

A native of Illinois and Iowa’s Quad Cities area, Sander uses her personal experience as both a traditional and nontraditional first-generation college student to help others advance in their education and careers.

She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She earned her doctoral degree in 2010 from Capella University.

“Like our students, I had to balance family responsibilities and a full-time job,” she says. “That balancing act, that’s hard. I was in the sandwich generation, taking care of a parent and raising my children at the same time. Many of our students find themselves in that situation.”

The current student snapshot at Purdue Global includes these data points:

• 59% of students are 30 years of age or older.
• 40% of students are from underserved populations.
• 52% of students have a child or other dependents.
• 50% are first-generation college students.
• Approximately 10,000 are military-affiliated students, a population that includes uniformed personnel, veterans and eligible dependents.

Drawing on her experience, she has led the way, with her staff, in developing tools for first-gen and first-time students, including an online dictionary and reference guide that explains terms commonly used in higher education. She was also instrumental in starting Purdue Global’s First-Generation College Student Scholarship program, which awarded 22 scholarships in 2023.

Career creation and student success

Sander started at Purdue Global as a technical admissions coordinator, serving as an admissions advisor, full-time faculty member and dean of instruction before becoming dean.

Those positions have helped her and her team as they continually work with industry partners, faculty and Purdue Global’s Center for Career Advancement to design new degree programs that benefit students.

“We are always working and reviewing what is needed in the career landscape and how we can serve a need for students,” Sander says.

During the 2022-23 academic year, the college launched 11 new programs; four of them were new degrees, and seven were collaborations with other Purdue Global colleges, including a business fundamentals concentration that is open to all students so that they are exposed to basic management concepts.

“At Purdue Global, we make sure our degrees are multidisciplinary. We are responding to how there is more overlap in today’s workforce and making sure that our students have basic understandings of other areas,” she says.

The college launched its first professional doctoral program — the Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation — in 2023. The degree was designed for those who want to lead in nonprofit, corporate, government, higher education and K-12 settings and for those who lead training and development programs.

It has been successful, with more than 250 students enrolled. The first students are expected to graduate in 2025.

“This shows the value placed on professional doctorates in other workplaces,” Sander says.

Collaboration across majors and areas

Student growth is a key goal for Sander and her team and is measured in a variety of ways: enrollment, externship sites and employment opportunities for students. The college has more than 600 partnerships with employers — 192 of which hired Purdue Global graduates in the 2022-23 academic year.

The college includes majors and programs at the bachelor’s level in fire science, emergency management, early childhood education, aviation, psychology, human services, communication, legal studies and criminal justice, offering master’s degree programs in public administration, homeland security and emergency management.

“Collaborations are key for our success,” Sander says. “It’s part of our culture. We talk about collaboration every opportunity we can.”

Sander is grateful for the associate deans, department chairs and faculty who design curricula that keep the programs going and relevant to today’s environment.

“Most of our faculty are practitioners, meaning they understand what it’s like to be out there doing the job,” she says. “They are going to teach and develop courses on what it means to do the job. They all hold the appropriate credentials and certifications.”

For example, a judge is teaching in the public safety and legal studies area. There are 15 fire chiefs and assistant fire chiefs who lead fire science programs. And there is a forensic investigator in the criminal justice program who teaches about and creates a crime scene for her students in her car and driveway.

Comebacks and gratitude

Student success, to Sander, is when a student comes in, earns their degree, graduates and gets a job or promotion.

“The value they found in their education is going to help them either feel fulfillment in their personal life or advance their career. It’s great to see how it impacts their life,” Sander says. “There are things that happen when you get a college degree — you have higher self-esteem and self-confidence and become better communicators and thinkers. There’s a lot of other benefits of a college degree that make it worth it.”

Purdue Global’s National Association of Colleges and Employers First Destination Data 2021-22 report shows students have high knowledge and positive career outcomes in several high-performing programs in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, including the following:

• Master of Science in instructional design and technology (Education and Communication).
• Bachelor of Science in applied behavior analysis (Psychology).
• Associate of Applied Science in criminal justice (Public Safety).
• Bachelor of Science in environmental policy and management (Legal Studies).

Commencements are filled with moments of connecting with students, where several of them share how grateful they are to have a place for working adult learners. They also share stories of how they overcame challenging situations in the pursuit of their degrees, as well as their dreams.

“Those two days of celebration leave me invigorated to come back and continue doing what I’m doing,” Sander says. “There’s an inspiration with adult learners. Once they finish, they can change the course and direction of their family. They impact their communities. It’s the examples they set for their children. It’s stepping out of traditional roles in ways that they traditionally may have viewed themselves within their families. We have so many exceptional students doing exceptional things.”

Coming back to school to get a degree is something that Sander understands. It can seem so lofty, and it can take time to realize that the degree is within sight.

“My personal comeback is when I went back to school to get my doctoral degree,” she says. “There were seven years between the time I finished my master’s to when I started the doctorate. It was something that I had wanted to do. It just seemed impossible from many standpoints. There was no better feeling than when I finished it.”

About Purdue Global

Purdue Global is Purdue’s online university for working adults who have life experience and often some college credits. It offers flexible paths for students to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, military service and previous college credits, no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and backed by Purdue University. For more information, visit https://stories.purdue.edu/purdue-global/.

Writer/Media contact: Matthew Oates, oatesw@purdue.edu, 765-496-6160, @mo_oates

Source: Sara Sander