Judy Arriaga Student Support Specialist

00:54 – ROLE OF STUDENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST

• Weed out unqualified candidates using Intake Questionnaire
• Interview potential students, determine their goals
• Assist and guide students through the program

01:54 – PROCESS OF SELECTING STUDENTS

• First of all, determine student’s major
• Looking for students who want to complete a certificate or Applied Science degree and then immediately apply their new skills to a job

02:25 – PROFILE OF INCOMING STUDENTS

• At ACC, approximately 70% of CBE students already have a college degree (ranging from Associates to Phd)
• Some already have some certification in the field they are working in but want to obtain additional skills to advance

03:26 – IMPORTANCE OF STUDENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST

• Hands-on advisor who guides and offers insight
• Looks at each student and recommends best course load and schedule for that individual based on outside obligations, prior knowledge, etc.

05:12 – A SUPPORT SPECIALIST IS ALSO AN ACADEMIC COACH

• Give credit for prior learning
• Helps students plan for future semesters by mapping out when to take each course

07:00 – USE MARKETABLE SKILLS AWARDS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS

• Track when students have qualified or are close to qualifying for awards and/or professional certificates
• Helps keep student motivated

08:12 – CBE STUDENT CHALLENGES

• Students often take on too much or don’t understand course expectations
• Not all students understand instructions in the same manner and some need clarification

09:20 – CBE FACULTY CHALLENGES

• Some students expect professors to immediately respond, even if those professors receive 100 emails a day
• Students might panic if they have a question and can’t get ahold of the professor near a deadline
• Student Support Specialist can help alleviate some of the panic

10:54 – STUDENT SUPPORT SPECIALISTS COMMUNICATE THE NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS

• Helps with communication between the student and the professors when one or the other has concerns

12:30 – CHALLENGES OF A STUDENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST

• Have to register every single student due to restricted sections of APT and WIT programs. Students don’t always remember that they can’t register themselves in restricted courses
• Plus-side of having to register every student is that it keeps Support Specialist knowledgeable about what courses are appropriate or needed

14:41 – TRACKING STUDENT DATA

• Keeps data on students in several ways
• Hard-copy files
• Excel spreadsheet – compare with registrations reports from data person
• Own program that alerts if students drop courses
• Salesforce

16:56 – CREDIT FOR PRIOR LEARNING

• Includes previous education, military training or certifications
• ACC does not automatically evaluate transcripts. Support Specialist instructs students to go to Admissions to request the credit evaluation of transcripts
• After evaluation, Support Specialist will look at what student got credit for and see if there are any more courses that could be used, due to being similar but having a different course number or being more advanced.

18:50 – ADVICE FOR THOSE STARTING CBE

• Don’t overload your Student Support Specialist
• Person for the Student Support Specialist job needs to be
  • Approachable
  • Passionate about helping students
  • Able to balance a lot of tasks at the same time
  • Able to create and maintain structure