Academic Advisor and Success Coach

SALARY:

POSITION TITLE:

DEPARTMENT:

JOB DESCRIPTION:

EMPLOYMENT TERMS: Full-time, 12-month

PRIMARY DUTY:

This highly collaborative position serves as an Academic Advisor and Success Coach for students, providing individualized advising, interventions, and support to promote academic success and retention. The position assists students with preregistration, major exploration, connections to campus resources and services. The position also instructs university-required courses that provide students with support, skills, and accountability for academic success.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Serve as an academic advisor and success coach for a designated caseload of first-year and second-year students, proactively managing advising relationships and providing individualized support. Assist students with course selection, registration, connections to campus resources, and introduction to profession-based experiences that support their academic and career goals.
• Provide holistic and personalized advising that engages students by incorporating their interests, strengths, and skills to foster meaningful academic and campus connections and support continued academic success.
• Serve as a trusted resource for students by helping them understand university policies, academic requirements, and the steps necessary to maintain or return to academic good standing.
• Maintain knowledge of academic majors and disciplines and apply university policies and procedures to advising and student support.
• Assist the unit with walk-in advising and occasional appointments that may include new incoming students, transfer students, or other unique situations.
• Utilize university technology platforms, including Northwest Success 360 (Civitas Learning), Northwest Online (Canvas), CatPAWS, and DegreeWorks, to review and analyze student information; identify at-risk students; document advising interactions; schedule appointments; register students; and manage support courses.
• Coordinate with Academic Advising and Success Coaching team members and Academic Success & Retention leadership to provide intensive, individualized support to students on academic probation and other at-risk students, including monitoring academic performance and meeting individually with students as needed for additional support.
• Teach Northwest’s Academic Success Coaching and Strategies for Academic Resilience courses weekly, covering topics such as time management, organization, study strategies, task analysis, and development of individualized learning paths.
• Work with assigned departments, Enrollment Management, and Student Success to support prospective student visits, major visit days, and freshman onboarding through SOAR, Advantage, and throughout students’ first two years of enrollment.
• Communicate and collaborate effectively with department chairs, faculty members, and students within assigned disciplines.
• Collaborate unit leadership to provide a coordinated, informed, and cross-functional approach to academic advising, student success, and course content.
• Attend and participate in Academic Success & Retention unit meetings and collaborate with team members to achieve unit goals and approach university and unit initiatives in a positive and collaborative manner.

REQUIREMENTS:

Education: Bachelor’s degree, with completion of a Master’s degree within one year of hire.

Experience: One to three years of related experience working with undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds or in student services.

Skills: Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills, with an emphasis on understanding and responding to student needs; strong collaboration, learning strategies, planning and time management, problem analysis, and problem-analysis and resolution and proficiency in technology.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

This position works in an on-campus office environment with a work schedule determined by service needs, typically from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm but regularly includes weekend hours and occasionally early morning or evenings.

COMMUNITY:

Northwest Missouri State University located in Maryville, Missouri, a community of 12,000 with a diverse economy and a strong industrial base. Maryville is located 45 miles north of St. Joseph, Missouri, 90 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri, and 110 miles southeast of Omaha, Nebraska. For more information visit the city’s website at www.maryville.org.

UNIVERSITY:

With an enrollment of more than 8,500 students, Northwest is a coeducational, primarily residential four-year university that offers a broad range of undergraduate and selected graduate programs on its Maryville campus and through Northwest Online.

Founded in 1905, Northwest boasts a high retention rate and a graduation rate in the 95th percentile among its peers. Additionally, results of the Ruffalo Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory show Northwest students are more satisfied than students at national peers, and 78 percent of Northwest students report they would repeat their university experience, compared to 75 percent of students surveyed nationally at their respective institutions.

Furthermore, the University is a national model for student success and career placement with 93 percent of bachelor’s degree earners and 98 percent of master’s degree earners securing employment or continuing their education within six months of completing a degree at Northwest, according to the most recent data. 

Northwest places a high emphasis on profession-based learning to help graduates get a jumpstart on their careers while maintaining competitive tuition rates and generous financial assistance to help minimize the financial barriers students may face when pursuing a college degree.

Students have opportunities to build their résumés with experiences on campus in nearly every area of study, including the Horace Mann Laboratory School, National Public Radio affiliate KXCV, the R.T. Wright Farm, Mozingo Outdoor Education Recreation Area,  a partnership with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or Knacktive, a student-driven integrated digital marketing communications agency. In conjunction with its emergency and disaster management program, Northwest organizes and hosts Missouri Hope, an annual mass casualty training exercise that attracts first responders and emergency workers from throughout the nation and provides hands-on training in preparation for a natural disaster.

The University’s vibrant and diverse learning community also offers more than 150 student organizations, and textbooks and a laptop are included in tuition, saving students an estimated $6,900 over four years. Northwest offers 1,200 student employment positions, allowing students to build professional skills through its internationally benchmarked student employment program. 

For more information about Northwest and its performance, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/aboutus/facts/.