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Pentagon announces Howard University as the first HBCU to lead university-affiliated research center

Pentagon announces Howard University as the first HBCU to lead university-affiliated research center

The Pentagon has chosen Howard University to lead a university-affiliated research center, its first partnership with a historically Black college or university, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced this week.

“To sharpen America’s technological edge and to strengthen America’s outstanding military, the department is committed to investing even more in HBCUs and minority-serving institutions,” Austin, the first Black secretary of defense, said Monday.

Howard will receive $12 million per year for five years in funding, according to a news release. This is the first university partnership primarily sponsored by the Air Force, and this is the first time the department accepted submissions from universities to become an affiliated research center, according to Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick.

The new consortium will focus on tactical autonomy, an Air Force program that aims to develop technologies that require minimal human supervision, according to the branch’s website. The center looks to take advantage of Howard’s science, technology, engineering and math programs.

Austin described the technology as “central to US security in our changing world” and said the military needs the creativity and ideas of students in these programs to continue advancing the advantages American soldiers have on the battlefield.

“Responsibly used autonomous systems make our military faster, smarter, and stronger,” he added. “Howard’s new research center will protect our most precious asset—and that most precious asset is our men and women in uniform.”

The university will also focus on diversifying the pool of scientists and engineers that work with the Defense Department, according to the news release, and it will lead eight other HBCUs, including Hampton and Tuskegee universities, in the research effort.

Frederick told that this is “an enormous opportunity” for faculty and students to “work on cutting edge research in a technology space that is ever evolving.”

“It’s going to put us in a unique space to develop techniques and capabilities and skillsets that we otherwise wouldn’t,” Frederick said, adding that this partnership will allow the university to expand to other areas of research in the future.

The program “really emphasizes that for the country to be successful and for the country to compete, to continue to be competitive in terms of research, etc., that you have to diversify what that work force looks like in the arena of research,” Frederick said.

The Pentagon currently has partnerships with 14 other universities across the country, including Georgia Institute of Technology, University of South California and the University of Maryland.

 

From Focus Quest we believe that this announcement of Howard University as the first HBCU to lead a research center affiliated with the university is a significant development that has numerous advantages. This decision will create more opportunities for African American students and researchers to excel in fields that have traditionally been dominated by white scholars. Additionally, it will provide the Pentagon with a more diverse pool of talent and ideas, leading to better solutions and innovations. The research center will also serve as a model for other institutions to follow, promoting the importance of diversity and inclusion in academic and research settings. Overall, this news represents a major step forward in promoting equity and excellence in research and education.

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What’s The Science? An Examination Of What HBCUs Are Doing With The Bezos Millions
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What’s The Science? An Examination Of What HBCUs Are Doing With The Bezos Millions

What’s The Science? An Examination Of What HBCUs Are Doing With The Bezos Millions

MacKenzie Scott was married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for 25 years before their divorce in 2019. In April of that year, Bezos and Scott reached a settlement in their divorce that gave her a four percent stake in Amazon, valued at $38.3 billion at the time. 

 

 

She vowed to give billions away–and has. In July and December 2020, Scott announced $5.8 billion in gifts to colleges and various nonprofit and charitable organizations, The Washington Post reported. Of that, $800 million went to institutions of higher education, with Historically Black Colleges and Universities getting substantial amounts. The charitable donations to HBCUs by Scott, who still had a net worth of $27 billion as of December 2022, were doled out in two parts.

So where did the money go? What are the HBCUs doing with the Bezos millions?

In July, MacKenzie Scott Gave $150 million to HBCUs to six schools: Xavier University, Tuskegee University, Hampton University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Howard University. Then she donated more to a slew of HBCUs in December.

As we can see, Jeff Bezos’s $100 million gift to many universities in the United States has far-reaching benefits. The funds will help increase access to education for a greater number of students, improve campus infrastructure, and create new economic opportunities for communities. Additionally, the investment will support research and innovation, promoting scientific discoveries and solutions to global challenges. Most importantly, Bezos’s gift will promote social equity by ensuring that more students from underprivileged backgrounds have access to higher education. All in all, this generous contribution has the potential to transform the lives of countless students and communities for the better.

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It’s Time for a Break!

Dear Students,

As Student Success Coaches, we would like to take this opportunity to reach out and communicate with you directly. We understand that your academic journey can be challenging, but please know that we are here to support you every step of the way.

We want to remind you that your success is our top priority. We are here to provide you with guidance, resources, and support to help you achieve your academic goals. Whether you need assistance with time management, study skills, or navigating the university, we are here to help.

It is important to remember that you are not alone in this journey. For this reason we have created this entry to provide you with a direct message and to be able to contact us more directly. I hope you enjoy.

Student Success Coaches

It’s Time for a Break!

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Springtime! And with spring comes…Spring Break! (Wild applause!) So relax, breathe, have some fun. Take that break. You deserve it! After spring break, you may find it hard to get your head back into the game, and that is normal. But if you just take a moment to remember your goal and your purpose. Remember your “why”. Why are you in school? What is it that you want? Why do you want it? Can you see it? What does life look like once you have it? In other words, what does your success look like to YOU? If you keep those pictures in your head, it will be easier to step back into the academic routine with your head in the game! As usual, we are cheering you on every step of the way.
FocusQuest is focused on you. Our desire is that YOU are also focused on you!

Dr. Ndala Booker

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How HBCUs Are Helping Reduce the Racial Wealth Gap

How HBCUs Are Helping Reduce
the Racial Wealth Gap

Black households have a fraction of the wealth of white households, leaving them in a much more precarious financial situation when a crisis strikes, such as the pandemic. Wealth allows households to rebound from a financial emergency, invest in their children’s education, start a business, relocate for better opportunities and buy a house. Unfortunately, the wealth gap between white and black Americans has not decreased in the last 50 years. In 2019, the median wealth (without defined-benefit pensions) of Black households in the United States was $24,100, compared with $189,100 for white households. Homeownership contributing significantly to household wealth was 72% for whites compared to 42% for blacks. And the reasons for the black-white wealth gap are not a mystery. They have resulted from centuries of policies that have systematically disadvantaged Black Americans’ ability to build, maintain, and pass on wealth.

Research shows that one of the proven ways to narrow this gap is through higher education, especially for those who graduate in the STEM, legal and medical fields, which offer higher-paying career opportunities. Black professionals have relied on HBCUs more than any ot

her higher education institution for over 180 years. They graduate 80% of Black judges, 50% of Black doctors, 50% of Black lawyers, 40% of all Black US Congress members, and award 24% of all bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. And while HBCUs have received record funding over the last two years, with more than 6.5 billion allocated by the Federal government, that doesn’t begin to make up for decades of neglect.

Our Money Matters, a free platform to help HBCU students and community residents get on the path to financial wellness, offers six reasons why minority institutions need our continued advocacy.

  1. HBCUs have a 34% mobility rate of moving their students from the bottom 40% in household income into the top 60%. That is double the national average and five times more than Ivy institutions.
  2. Endowments for HBCUs are a fraction of comparable non-HBCUs, with an average of $15,000 per student compared to $410,000. Endowments are typically used to support scholarships, facility upgrades, and faculty hiring and retention. The difference is significant if you compare Howard University, sometimes referred to as the Harvard of HBCUs, and the HBCU with the highest endowment. Harvard’s endowment is about $42 billion, while Howard’s is around $700 million—less than a 50th of Harvard’s endowment. There is not one HBCU with an endowment of over a billion dollars, while there are over 100 white institutions.
  3. The pandemic required HBCUs to shift funds to remote learning. Many students needed computers and access to Wi-Fi, and schools needed to upgrade their technology infrastructure. Also, many students require student loan debt relief as well. This meant that schools diverted crucial funds from maintenance and other infrastructure investments. Nearly two-thirds of the surveyed schools said they had more than 5 million in deferred maintenance.
  4. Private donations and grants are significant funding sources for all higher education institutions. However, it accounts for a small portion of total revenue for HBCUs compared to non-HBCUs – 17% versus 25.8%. And because much private funding comes with certain restrictions, it means less flexibility for HBCUs to address pressing needs. And when HBCUs must turn to other sources for funding, they face higher fees to borrow money than white institutions. For example, a Black minority-serving institution would have to pay underwriters $35,000 more for a $30 million bond than a white university. In addition, historically black colleges and universities in the U.S. have been underfunded for decades, with billions of dollars in state funding diverted by lawmakers for other purposes, according to higher education experts.
  5. First-generation college students make up 39% of HBCU enrollment, and many rely on student loans. While costs at HBCUs are less than at non-HBCUs, tuition is increasing universally across all institutions. This forces many Blacks to choose between a degree and the accompanying astronomical debt or forgoing college altogether. In fact, in a 2021 nationwide survey of nearly 1,300 Black borrowers conducted by the Education Trust, many questioned whether the debt they incurred was worth it. And yet, Blacks that had a degree were much better equipped to weather the pandemic than those without one.
  6. For faculty members, choosing to work at an HBCU means being unfairly penalized in terms of salary. On average, HBCU faculty earn $18,000 less than those teaching in non-HBCU institutions. HBCU faculty earn about $69,180, compared to $87,385 for faculty in non-HBCUs, making it much more challenging to recruit professors and administrators, especially in expensive cities.

HBCUs have traditionally had to do much more with less. And yet, they have positively impacted society to a far greater degree than the historically meager investments made from private and public sources. HBCUs provide an average of 6,385 jobs in each state and territory where they are located and generate an average of $704.7 million a year in total economic impact. They make up just 3% of higher education institutions in the country, but they educate 10% of all Black college students. And according to recent research, increasing the strength of HBCUs around the U.S. could increase Black worker incomes by about $10 billion, strengthening the economy with $1.2 billion in incremental business profit, additional consumer expenditures of $1 billion, and help to reduce the wealth imbalance.

In conclusion, Black History Month is important for HBCUs as it allows these institutions to celebrate the contributions and achievements of African Americans, recognize the legacy of their institutions, and provide a space for students and faculty to learn and share their perspectives.

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Turning This Moment Into a Movement

Black History Month:
Turning This Moment Into a
Movement

February is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans to American society. One of the most important institutions in this history is Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). These institutions have played a crucial role in educating and empowering black Americans for over 150 years.

HBCUs were founded during a time when African Americans were not allowed to attend white institutions of higher education. These schools provided an opportunity for black students to receive a quality education and to become leaders in their communities. Many HBCUs have produced some of the most influential figures in black history, including Martin Luther King Jr., Oprah Winfrey, and Toni Morrison.

HBCUs have also played a vital role in shaping the African American community. They have been a beacon of hope for many students who have come from underprivileged backgrounds and have provided them with the tools and resources they need to succeed in life. HBCUs have also been a safe haven for black students who have faced discrimination and racism on predominantly white campuses.

However, despite their importance, HBCUs have been underfunded and under-resourced for decades. This has led to a decline in enrollment and a lack of support from the government. This is unacceptable and it is time for change.

We must turn this moment into a movement. We must advocate for the support and funding of HBCUs. We must ensure that these institutions are given the resources they need to continue to provide a quality education to black students. We must also raise awareness about the importance of HBCUs and the role they have played in shaping black history.

HBCUs are a vital part of black history and they continue to play a crucial role in educating and empowering black students. It is time to act and make sure that they receive the support they need to continue to do so. Let’s turn this moment into a movement and ensure that HBCUs are recognized for the valuable contributions they have made and continue to make to the African American community.

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Stay the course…

Dear Students,

As Student Success Coaches, we would like to take this opportunity to reach out and communicate with you directly. We understand that your academic journey can be challenging, but please know that we are here to support you every step of the way.

We want to remind you that your success is our top priority. We are here to provide you with guidance, resources, and support to help you achieve your academic goals. Whether you need assistance with time management, study skills, or navigating the university, we are here to help.

It is important to remember that you are not alone in this journey. For this reason we have created this entry to provide you with a direct message and to be able to contact us more directly. I hope you enjoy.

Student Success Coaches

Stay the course…

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As we still consider this year new, make this time about continuing to grow “you.” Not outcomes (or even incomes)- you. Anything you want starts with you anyway! Consider the Be-Do-Have model: who a person needs to BE to accomplish the goal; what a person needs to DO to accomplish the goal; what a person will HAVE in accomplishing the goal. Truth be told, most of us function from Have-Do-Be [once I have, I’ll do, then be] or Do-Have-Be [the more I do, the more I’ll have, the better I’ll be] models, oftentimes setting ourselves up to live passively and with reliance on external factors out of our control. But we are not bystanders in and of our lives!

When we start with BE-coming the person we need to be, we acknowledge our power. With this model we renew our thinking, our will, and our emotions (BE), to walk in the fullness of a blueprint (DO) designed with fruitful expectation (HAVE). And as we reciprocally engage our works and our faith, we magnetically influence the world around us to meet our needs. So no matter when, make time and review your plans NOW to ensure that they start with you living as the best version of yourself for the life you desire and deserve. Because regardless of what you may think, you are the most powerful model for your life. So become the leader that you want to follow- from there is where it all flows. Are you with me?

Dr. Jaché Williams

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4 Ways Universities Can Use AI to Streamline Operations

4 Ways Universities Can Use
AI to Streamline Operations

As enrollment in higher education continues trending down, colleges and universities need to get creative in order to strengthen their margins and maintain profitability. At the same time, they need to figure out how to improve the student experience to buck enrollment trends.

One way to accomplish these goals is by making smart investments in technology. For example, by investing in artificial intelligence (AI) tools—and AI-powered chatbots in particular—institutions of higher learning can provide their students with better support while empowering their staff to focus on higher-level initiatives and tasks.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at four specific ways AI chatbots can help universities and colleges streamline operations and save money to crystallize profitability in the face of declining enrollment.

1. Reducing call and email volume

When you invest in leading chatbot solutions, you empower students to self-serve information at their own convenience. For example, a student might have a simple question about where to send payment or when enrollment opens for the next semester. When extrapolated across thousands of students and prospective students, however, the ability to answer simple questions can be severely hampered, impacting enrollment and retention, thus delivering a negative student experience. A chatbot can easily answer these types of routine questions in higher volumes, freeing staff from having to respond to the same inquiries over and over again while successfully meeting students’ needs.

A full-featured chatbot solution will be available across channels. Whether someone’s going to the website, calling on the phone, sending a text, or shooting an email over, a bot can answer routine questions. In turn, this saves staffers a great deal of time which can be invested in higher-value activities.

With the time saved by implementing a chatbot, you will be able to repurpose your existing staff to handle the more significant and complex interactions with students. For example, a first-generation prospective student might speak with a financial aid advisor to explain that they really want to go to college but they’re not sure if they’ll be able to afford it and want to know more about their financial aid options. This is the type of conversation you want your staff to have the time to engage in. On the flip side, if a new freshman is curious about where the library is located on campus, the chatbot can provide the library address and a map of campus. The vast majority of student inquiries fall into the latter category, making an omnichannel chatbot essential in providing 24/7 access to resources and information.

Recently, one large state university that had been outsourcing calls and emails to a third-party contact center invested in chatbot technology. Thanks to that investment, they were able to deflect 75 percent of calls and messages by utilizing the bot for tier 1 inquiries. Ultimately, this enabled them to bring their contact center back in-house again, saving a significant amount of money along the way.

Similarly, Broward College saved upward of $500,000 using chatbot technology. At the same time, chatbots helped Temple University reduce call volumes by 50 percent.

 

2. Streamlining the application process

Ultimately, higher education institutions make money when students enroll in school. This is why it’s so important to build a streamlined, optimal application process that maximizes the chances a prospective student will complete it.

This is another area where chatbots can be particularly helpful. For example, if a student begins the application process but walks away midway through it, an AI chatbot can automatically nudge them: “It’s been 10 days since you looked at your application. Is there anything we can do to help you through this process?”

These automatic reminders require no human involvement. They’re an easy way to increase the likelihood that students will complete their applications, which should translate into better enrollment figures. Additionally, the chatbot can have knowledge of each field within the application, allowing the prospective student to ask questions about how to complete the required field. If the bot’s answer isn’t sufficient, an Admissions Advisor can intervene and provide assistance via live chat, increasing the likelihood of application submission.

3. Increasing availability and accessibility

AI chatbots don’t need to eat, sleep, or take breaks. And that means that they work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whenever students have questions, they can self-serve answers via the chatbot—even when your entire staff is asleep.

This is a godsend for both traditional students and nontraditional ones, like the folks who have full-time jobs and can’t call admissions during the day. At the same time, leading chatbot solutions offer multilingual support. This enables international students to find the information they need easily, too.

Taken together, this increased availability and accessibility translates into better margins because all student populations have access to the information they need when they need it, which strengthens their experience and improves the chances they’ll ultimately enroll.

4. Improving operational efficiency

Higher education, like all other industries, is having a difficult time hiring enough workers to fulfill their missions. Thanks to chatbot technology, colleges and universities can overcome labor shortages by increasing operational efficiency and enabling staff to do more with less.

At a high level, chatbots improve operational efficiency across campus, which improves the staff and student experience. Instead of having to endure long wait times, students can get answers to their questions quickly, increasing satisfaction.

At the same time, staff can handle calls faster and have better-informed conversations when they need to intervene. Rather than being forced to track down information from their colleagues to address student concerns, that runaround is eliminated.

What’s more, because chatbots help provide a smoother application and enrollment process, the yield rate increases. And because the chatbot can also nudge students to make account payments automatically, checks come in faster, accelerating cash flow—all without human intervention.

As you can see, chatbots can have a profound impact on university operations, making life easier for staff and students alike. A simple investment in chatbot technology may be just what your university needs to weather the current storm academia faces.

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Welcome to 2023!!

Dear Students,

As Student Success Coaches, we would like to take this opportunity to reach out and communicate with you directly. We understand that your academic journey can be challenging, but please know that we are here to support you every step of the way.

We want to remind you that your success is our top priority. We are here to provide you with guidance, resources, and support to help you achieve your academic goals. Whether you need assistance with time management, study skills, or navigating the university, we are here to help.

It is important to remember that you are not alone in this journey. For this reason we have created this entry to provide you with a direct message and to be able to contact us more directly. I hope you enjoy.

Student Success Coaches

Welcome to 2023!!

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And just like that, a new year has begun! Welcome to 2023! No matter where you are on your academic journey, January always seems to represent fresh newness, a chance to do something different and set new goals. Whether you are in you second semester of your Freshman year, or in your Senior year and 5 months from graduation (YES!!)…carve out space to refocus on your plan for success. Reaffirm your goals. Revamp if necessary. And don’t feel bad if you have to! Successful people are constantly reviewing their previous goals and making them stronger. As you create, reaffirm or revamp your goals, add a few things. Promise yourself that this year you will Be KIND to yourself. Be HONEST with yourself. And SUSPEND YOUR JUDGEMENT of yourself. Allow yourself to be HUMAN. Make mistakes and LEARN from those mistakes. Turn failures into OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH. 2023 is going to be a new adventure for all of us. I’ve heard it said that life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. May this year be filled with those beautiful, adventurous moments! Here’s to a FANTASTIC 2023!!

Happy New Year!!!

Dr. Ndala Booker

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The 3 Best Note-Taking Apps

The 3 Best Note-Taking Apps

Taking notes used to be so simple. She would take out a sheet of parchment, dip her quill in ink, and begin to write. In 2023, we’re faced with a dizzying array of note-taking tools and apps. How do you choose which one to use? Here are the top 3 note-taking apps you can use back to school:

Notion

Offers a powerful, database-driven note-taking experience that’s unlike most apps out there.

Pros: 

  •  Flexible pages. Notion has a template engine that allows you to turn pretty much anything into an easily-duplicated template, including a multi-layered collection of pages. It also has great media embedding and previewing tools, including a gallery view for photos and videos.
  •  Powerful tables. Tables in Notion aren’t just charts; they’re databases. Think of Notion’s databases as Google Docs + Google Sheets. Every row in a table is its own Notion page that you can go into and update.
  •  Nested hierarchical organization. You’re probably tired of this. But Notion does this. You can even turn a set of text into a dropdown so you can roll it up when you want non-immediate information out of the way.
  •  Hybrid editor. Notion lets you write in Markdown or use normal keyboard shortcuts and UI elements to format your text.
  •  Free personal accounts. As long as you don’t mind the 5 MB file upload limit, Notion’s free plan offers everything you need to take notes.

Cons: No offline support. Currently, you need to have an internet connection to use Notion. The team is working to change this, but it’s a big limitation at the moment.

Price: Free

Platforms: Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Web

Evernote

Evernote is a cross-platform note-taking app that’s great for processing hand-written notes and clipping articles from the web. The price, however, could be prohibitive on a student budget.

Pros

  •  Multiple file formats. If you’re on a paid plan, Evernote can hold anything your professor throws at you: PDFs, PowerPoints, the 3 different sheets of requirements for one project. One fun extra: If you paste a Google Docs link, Evernote creates a Google Drive icon in-line and changes the URL to the name of the doc.
  •  Scanner for mobile. You can use Evernote as a scanner to take photos of pages of books when you don’t want to pay for photocopying. It also has optical character recognition.
  •  Web clipper for browsers. Great for saving those New York Times articles that are hidden behind a paywall so you can use them for your essay later. You can pick how much of the page you want to capture: everything, just the article text, or a highlighted selection of text.

Cons

  •  Limited organization. Imagine your study area’s desk: You have notebooks lying around that contain class notes, random doodles, and frustrated journal entries. You can pile up semi-related notebooks into stacks. You can put sticky notes or flags into pages of the notebook that contain certain topics you want to refer to. That’s the extent of organization with Evernote: stacks, notebooks, notes, and tags.
  •  No Markdown support. If you typically write in Markdown to speed up your writing process, you’ll find its lack of support in Evernote frustrating.
  •  Pricey. If you use Evernote to scan documents and save research papers as I do, the 60 MB included in the free plan won’t cut it. And if you want to use it with more than 2 devices or use optical character recognition, you have to go Premium. At least students get 50% off Premium for a year.

Price: $7.99 / month

Platforms: Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Web

OneNote

Microsoft’s free cross-platform note-taking app gives Evernote a run for its money, though the interface leaves something to be desired.

Pros

  • Totally. Free. It has everything Evernote can do, but there’s no premium tier. So you get the full feature set out of the box.
  • On basically all the platforms (for free). Just had to emphasize this: With OneNote, you get unlimited devices — a feature that other note-taking apps, like Evernote and Bear, keep behind a premium subscription.
  • Freeform. Unlike Evernote, you can put text boxes everywhere on the screen for OneNote. You can draw. You can even change the background to look like a ruled notebook!

Cons

  • Even less organization than Evernote. It lacks note sorting options, such as sorting notes by newest created or newest modified.
  • Messy interface + Limited tagging capabilities. With OneNote, you have notebooks and dividers within notebooks. Then you can also indent notes within notes. But it’s all over the user interface: notebooks on the left, dividers up top, then notes on the right. I’m a messy note-taker myself, but c’mon.

Price: Included with a Microsoft 365 subscription (starting at $69.99 / year). Check if you have free access through your school or company.

Platforms: Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Web

There are a lot of note-taking apps out there. And as with most recommendations, you have to figure out what works for you.
I hope that this list will help you decide on your note-taking app, whether it’s on this list or not.

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All the Benefits of Having a Student Success Coach

All the Benefits of Having
a Student Success Coach

A Student Success Coach (SSC) is an individual with experience and knowledge in a certain vocation, profession, or field of study. SSC provide guidance and support to students, who seek their advice and counsel. Together, the a Student Success Coach and the student work to identify strengths, weaknesses, and strategies for accomplishing short- and long-term goals.

Support for Growth
Individuals often seek out a SSC when beginning a new career or enhancing their skills in a certain field. The best SSCs understand the complexities of each mentee’s path and provide the support to keep them encouraged and motivated. Whether you’re starting from scratch with zero experience or building upon your current career, a SSC acts as a pillar of support for your individual growth.

Helping with Setting Goals
Goal setting helps to create clear expectations and a plan for executing those goals in the future. Learning a new skill or trade can feel daunting, but a SSC helps you create obtainable goals and track your progress. Most introductions with a SSC begin with laying out your goals and determining milestones or timelines to work within to achieve those goals. For instance, the graduate Lyndsie Jones reflects on how her SSC helped create a manageable checklist to earn her degree: “Listening to my SSC was critical. I was overwhelmed every single day, but I knew if I did a little bit that my SSC asked me to complete, it would add up to finishing each step.”

Holding You Accountable
Accountability is a key aspect of the SSC-student relationship. It’s important to have regular check-ins to assess goals and determine areas of improvement. Oftentimes, SSC set a schedule to meet with their mentees in person, by phone, or via email. These meetings provide accountability and a time to assist if the mentee needs help getting back on track with their goals. Practicing active accountability in this manner is a valuable tool for self-improvement in your personal and professional life.

Making Connections
Coaches also help in building their SSC’s professional network, connecting them to potential opportunities or individuals. Many SSCs are seasoned experts in their fields, and a reference from them has the potential to open doors to internships or job opportunities. Moreover, the practice of finding an established advisor in your field to connect with and learn from is beneficial long-term.

Receiving Constructive Feedback
Constructive feedback is an essential process of growth. SSC help provide an objective perspective on the areas an individual may not be able to see clearly themselves. Unlike the sometimes biased feedback received from a friend, a SSC holds your success and personal growth as the highest priority. Additionally, the practice of receiving constructive feedback from a SSC helps the mentee have a healthier outlook on feedback via employer reviews in their career.

Different Learning Strengths
Every individual has their own unique needs and style of learning. SSC are often trained to help understand, support, and advocate for their mentee’s individual differences. For example, a SSC hosting an evening study group for a working mom who is going back to school can be life changing. With a wealth of resources at their fingertips, SSCs can guide individuals to understand their learning needs and build a plan of action around those strengths. Furthermore, working one-on-one with a SSC helps cultivate your verbal communication skills, which is important for collaboration in the workplace.

How to Choose a Student Success Coach
Unlike traditional models of higher education, where the majority of the responsibility for success is on the student, FQ’s SSCc provide customized support for each student to reach their highest potential. The SSC role is one of support and guidance with regular check-ins, accountability, course advising, and connection to resources. The SSC and student work collectively to set goals and take action towards achieving academic success.

Your road to success starts here, we will help you find the SSC you are looking for.

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