West Virginia University is pairing undergraduate students with graduate assistants who can serve as personal academic coaches in hopes of making it easier for struggling students to pinpoint their academic problems.
The Success Coaching helps students deal with study skills, time management, test anxiety and anything else the student wants to work on. Developed by the Office of Retention and Research, the program helps students who aren’t doing well and just don’t know why.
While the formal program is in its first official year, WVU has long offered coaching services for struggling undergrads. Regan Bruni, assistant dean, hopes by restructuring the program it can be of more use to students.
“The services we provide have always been there but we’ve redefined the program,” she said.
Instead of offering services in a piecemeal fashion on a request basis, Success Coaching aims to include all aspects that students could need help with through the semester and off them in one program.
This goal of Success Coaching is more than just helping students with their academic problems. It also aims to help students deal with the stresses that can result from juggling classes and not allowing enough free time for themselves.
“If you’re not doing well in your personal life, your academic career will struggle,” Bruni said. “Although it’s aimed at student success coaching, I think it often becomes life coaching.”
Carmen Abreu, one of the graduate assistants in the program, agrees that it goes beyond the academic needs of students.
“We like to think of ourselves as peer mentors,” said Abreu, who received a master’s degree in social work from WVU in 2010. “The students welcome that kind of relationship.”
Traditional academic advisers are often assigned so many students that many find it hard to connect on a personal level or find time to meet on a regular basis, Regan said.
Under the Success Coaching program, students can meet with their coaches multiple times a week or less often. Coaches will correspond with their students via e-mail multiple times a week as well.
“Some students just benefit from someone checking in on them,” Abreu said. “It all depends on what the student wants.”
Undergraduates of any level are encouraged to use the service as well as commuter students.
The program also works in conjunction with other services offered in the Student Affairs office such as the Mid-Semester Help Center and Students on the Road to Success seminars that offers students academic tips.
“I’m hoping now that when students see they need help they know where to get it,” Bruni said.
For more information on Success Coaching or to set up a meeting with a coach, visit http://retention.wvu.edu. While appointments are encouraged, students are free to stop in between classes on the third floor of Elizabeth Moore Hall.
-WVU-
jl/09/28/11
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