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Smart Start 2024

The Catholic University of America's Smart Start program is a pre-orientation program hosted by DSS for incoming students with a documented disability or condition. The purpose of the program is to prepare students and their families for the transition to university life by introducing various academic, social, and other campus resources and personnel.

The goals of the Smart Start program are:

To help students new to Catholic U. prepare for their college experience through targeted programming offered by DSS;
To assist on-campus, residential students by providing additional time to physically movie-in to their residence hall room;
To introduce DSS staff to our newly registered students and their family members while attending informative sessions on the services and programs offered by DSS;
To review and understand how the most common academic accommodations are managed in practice and learn how to access various services provided by DSS to our registered students with accommodations;
To begin the development of self-advocacy and a sense of community with other DSS registered students.

Dates

DSS will offer Smart Start as both an in-person and as a virtual program, over two half-days of programming: the afternoon of Tuesday, August 20, 2024 and the morning of Wednesday, August 21, 2024. If living on campus, students will be able to move into their residence halls early on Monday, August 19, 2024. There is no cost to attend or participate. However, students are strongly encouraged to complete the Participation Form for the Smart Start Program by the priority deadline of Thursday, August 8, 2024.

You can access the Smart Start 2024 schedule here for a full sessions breakdown

The Participation Form will be sent to students once they have registered with our office. Visit our How To Register page to review the process for registering with DSS.