How Can I Help My Student Succeed?

Understand how we will work with your student to advise them, what the student’s responsibilities are in the process, and think about how you can help keep them on track here.

Be open to their ideas and assist them in finding the information they need to make informed decisions.

Engage friends and family whose careers match areas of interest to your student and encourage casual conversations to get acquainted with potential paths.
Use the tools we have available for students to explore their options and research career paths so you can talk with them about their choices and the information they discover.

Once your student has had a few conversations with friends and family, help them learn the art of professional networking by introducing them to some of your professional contacts for informational interviews. By starting with a “warm” connection, students can begin to engage in this valuable process in a less intimidating way. This is one step in the process of helping your student to create their own Personal Advisory Board.

“Advising” is not just something that happens a few days before course selection each semester. The most successful students develop deeper relationships with faculty and staff. Recent studies have shown that students who develop these strong relationships early in their college career reap professional benefits well into their early career and have greater “well being” even later in life.

A college degree and a good GPA are no longer enough to guarantee post-graduate success
Students with multiple experiential learning experiences get hired faster and earn more in their first jobs.