Maximizing Advising Effectiveness in TRIO Student Support Service Programs

Althea Counts, TRIO Programs Director, University of South Carolina

This is the second newsletter in a series that will serve as a report and thematic summary of content shared by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition’s multi-pronged engagement of TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) programs. This report will also highlight the National Resource Center’s work with the Advising Success Network (ASN).

Symposium’s Structure and Goals

A primary goal of the National Resource Center is to highlight potentially overlooked voices of people doing advising work that fosters student success and equity. With this in mind, the National Resource Center convened an SSS Professional Learning Community (PLC) as an exchange site for framing, learning, and sharing best practices to maximize advising effectiveness within TRIO programs. The goals of the PLC included:

• Amplifying the voices of key contributors to equity in the higher education landscape

• Sharing successes, as well as supportive solutions to challenges faced

• Contributing to the scholarly-practice knowledge base on advising and student success from the perspective of TRIO SSS programs

• Network expansion of TRIO SSS programs

• Engaging partners in thought leadership

The National Resource Center and the ASN facilitated a one-day symposium for Student Support Services staff participating in the SSS Professional Learning Community. The symposium allowed participants to meet face-to-face and share best practices for helping programs meet or exceed their standardized objectives.

The National Resource Center provided travel grants to 50 participants to attend the symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting preceded the National Conference on Students in Transition, also in Atlanta, and those who traveled could participate in the conference.

The symposium schedule included a welcome from Dr. Jennifer Keup, Executive Director of the National Resource Center, and two presenters for the symposium plenaries. Dr. Charmaine Troy, Associate Director of First-Generation Student Initiatives at Georgia Tech, presented The Importance of Centering Peer Mentorship Within First-Generation and Limited Income Student Initiatives, and Mr. Rodney Adams, Associate Vice President for Student Services & Coordinator for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Technical College of the Lowcountry, presented Building a Sense of Belonging for TRIO Students: Campus Initiatives That Work. The plenaries were followed by roundtable discussions facilitated by individual SSS PLC members who volunteered their expertise.

All sessions focused on initiatives that promote TRIO SSS students being retained in college, achieving good academic standing, and graduating from college — the three standardized objectives for all TRIO SSS programs. Common themes from the roundtable sessions included best practices in TRIO student services, the importance of cross-campus collaborations, building campus services to support TRIO SSS students, and creating a campus environment to promote a sense of belonging.

Symposium’s Roundtables: Doing More with Less: Maximizing Resources with Limited Funds

TRIO SSS programs have learned to master providing high-quality services with limited financial resources. This roundtable led by Passion Studivant, TRIO Director, and Student Support Services Director at Old Dominion University (ODU) illustrates this practice.

Studivant’s journey with TRIO began as a student in the SSS program, which paved the way for her to contribute significantly to Old Dominion over the years. She has worn multiple hats, starting as a dedicated federal work-study student, counselor, and program director before assuming her current role as director of TRIO programs. She supervises three programs: Student Support Services, Upward Bound, and the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at ODU. Studivant keenly understands the unique challenges TRIO SSS students face and has been instrumental in implementing programs and initiatives to enhance students’ academic success and personal growth.

Studivant acknowledged the comprehensive programming and services needed to promote TRIO SSS students’ retention, academic success, and graduation. She also encouraged SSS PLC participants to leverage campus partnerships to share and conserve resources. Collaboration with other offices on campus has allowed ODU to maximize programming resources.

In addition, the session allowed participants to learn and share best practices of SSS programs on their campuses, along with ways to provide required and permissible services, emphasizing free or low-cost resources. Participants also discussed low student engagement in programming and methods to evaluate programming to help increase engagement. Studivant also provided examples of tools and resources used to develop comprehensive SSS program offerings.

In summary, Studivant suggested TRIO SSS staff must ensure that all required and permissible services are provided regularly, connecting with students in multiple ways and at various times. She also advocated establishing a recognition program and taking a holistic approach to providing student services.

Supporting Self-Advocacy in TRIO SSS Students

This roundtable, facilitated by Carissa Johnson, focused on activities and practices for TRIO SSS participants that can foster a sense of belonging and investment in self. First-generation and underrepresented college students struggle with unique obstacles and increased barriers to self-advocacy (Kitchen, 2023), and these students usually experience a lower sense of belonging than their peers. To counter these effects, activities promoting community building, social capital awareness, and investment in self can help alleviate self-doubt, fear of failure, and tendencies to self-isolate. Johnson discussed how meaningful activities in first-year programming, scholarship mentoring, and fostering a mindset for creating success can positively impact TRIO SSS participants.

Carissa Johnson serves as the TRIO SSS Academic Advisor and First-Year Experience Faculty at Anoka-Ramsey Community College’s Cambridge campus in Cambridge, Minnesota. Before her work in TRIO SSS, Johnson was a single parent while in college and was in extreme poverty for many years. Despite adversity, Johnson earned an Associate of Arts from North Hennepin Community College, a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies, and a Master of Science in Higher Education Administration from St. Cloud State University. In her work, Johnson is passionate about helping students attend and thrive in college, no matter their background.

Building Long-Lasting Partnerships: Exchanging Ideas for Cross-Campus Collaborations

Leilani Harjati, another roundtable facilitator, is the Director and Academic Advisor for TRIO SSS at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Before her current role with TRIO SSS, Harjati served as an exploratory advisor and coordinator of Manoa’s First-Year Programs. She is a first-generation college graduate and a three-time graduate of UH-Manoa.

Harjati’s session focused on strengthening TRIO SSS programs by creating long-lasting partnerships within the campus community. Participants learned about career center collaborations, including partnering on a career exploration course for TRIO SSS students at UHManoa and career leadership training for TRIO student ambassadors. Harjati also highlighted UH Manoa’s Learning Center partnership with the SSS Program. The Center helped TRIO SSS staff become cross-trained in services such as academic coaching strategies. Those learned skills were then incorporated into designing workshops and student success courses, and creating advising practices. Participants then shared examples of collaboration from their campuses.

Conclusion

The symposium allowed participants to network and meet face-to-face to discuss what is most important to their work- support of students. Participants shared successes and discovered creative solutions to challenges they face on a revolving basis. They also discussed how to make the college experience more enriching and inclusive for students and how to prepare them for life after college better.

References

Kitchen, J. A. (2023). Developing Low-Income College Students’ Sense of Belonging: The Role of Validation. Journal of College Student Development, 64(2), 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1353/ csd.2023.0020.

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