Success Stop: New adviser position offers students academic support
Jason Bentley said success coaches are like a GPS — they provide the route, but only the student can drive the car to success.
The success coach is a new position on campus focusing on new students who are having trouble adjusting to life at Central Michigan University. Advising is available to all first-year students.
Bentley, director of First Year Experience, said the position was created because of increasing freshman enrollment.
“This is our trial year,” Bentley said. “We are working really hard. We meet weekly to discuss what we can improve on.”
Success coaches are located in the Towers residence halls and in the South residence halls’ Student Success Center.
Three success coaches were hired to work in different academic advising areas on campus. The new positions were created at the beginning of the semester by First Year Experience and Residence Life.
CMU alumnus Brock Sieb of Monroe is a success coach for the Towers Residence Halls. Sieb has worked in the position for about four weeks.
“This is a great thing that is happening,” he said. “It has been an area that was overlooked in years before.”
Sieb said the goal is to have 150 students per success coach.
The coaches offer help to students in several areas, including study habits, selecting a major, financial planning and academic support.
Time management is the biggest problem with students, Sieb said.
Success coaches also advise new students who may not have an idea of what they want to study.
“The typical students are the people we are kind of hoping we can tap into,” Sieb said. “They’re the ones that haven’t had as much outreach to them in the past.”
The new position is gaining more student recognition. Jackson graduate student and success coach Danielle Merrill said she has received about 30 e-mails over the last weekend.
The coaches reach out to students in need of help through e-mails and by calling dorm rooms. The position is different from academic advisors, which specialize in selecting a course schedule.
“We want to be personal — we can call on the phone or e-mail them, but it’s important to have a person to spend time helping you,” Bentley said. “I think it’s a really important part of what separates CMU from other schools.”
The coaches have prior mentoring experience, some as resident assistants or academic advisers.
CMU alumna Lisa Yount, success coach for South Residence Halls, is hoping more students invest in the coaching. Yount started work last week and looks forward to helping the students.
“We know the turf,” Yount said. “Why waste all the tuition money by struggling in classes — it’s your right.”
The coaches have different ways of getting to know the students. Merrill, a coach for the Towers Residence Halls, uses a survey to get to know her students.
Bentley hopes to add more success coaches in the future.
“You’ve made an investment into your future,” Bentley said. “We want to take your investment you invested in yourself and make sure that that investment is nurtured.”
