Student Transition and Success

During the summer term, the newly established Department for Student Transition and Success launched one of its newest core services: Success Coaching. Peer and professional Success Coaches support undergraduate student learning through personalized one-on-one coaching appointments, weekly supportive accountability groups, interactive workshops and access to virtual resources. They are trained to identify potential barriers to academic success pertaining to effective goal setting, time management, study strategies, organization and productivity management and offer strengths-based solutions to guide the student toward success. In addition to their signature offerings, Success Coaching also produced several passive forms of programming, authoring a guide for students called “8 ways to not zone out on Zoom” as well as launching a “supportive accountability” listserv for students to receive weekly, motivating reflection prompts to inspire consistent and quality work. As a new addition to the University’s student support services repertoire, the Success Coaching staff gained some recognition from campus and local media, having been featured on an episode of Bearcat Chats and completed interviews with local news stations WICZ and WBNG to discuss student success in a virtual learning environment.

Additionally, the Success Coaching staff worked closely with campus partners, collaborating across divisions, with the goal of holistic student success in mind. Some of these collaborations include the Harpur College Collaborative Advising work group that was formed to ensure a streamlined process of student support is available for Harpur College students, as well as playing an active role in the Starfish Advisory Committee. Through these partnerships with various colleagues in Academic Advising, Success Coaching acts as a first level of triage with the response to the “I Need Help” function in Starfish that allows students to submit general requests for help from campus services, as well as a secondary form of support for students who are experiencing academic difficulty.