Academic Advisor

The Academic Advisor will be responsible for sustaining an environment of academic and professional excellence for students and educational team members. The Academic Advisor supports students and learning through student advocacy, academic coaching, customer service, and campus and community referrals. The Academic Advisor works closely with all campus departments utilizing BSC’s personalized education approach to support student success and retention endeavors.

1. Maintain direct and proactive contact with student advisees. This includes meeting with individuals as well as small groups on an ongoing basis to build rapport, identify barriers to success, set, and review (and revise when necessary) academic and career goals and develop action plans for related success.
2. Convey to and discuss with students, the necessary aspects of curriculum, course sequencing, academic status, registration, financial responsibility related to educational loans and the importance of long-term career and academic planning.
3. Monitor program outcomes and requirements to ensure compliance with the Official College Catalog and to assure current knowledge of program offerings from a career and employment perspective.
4. Teach and model decision-making and problem solving skills to help students to become their own self-advocates and make independent, informed decisions regarding their academic and career future.
5. Schedule regular campus presence visits to hallways, student lounge and classrooms to proactively reach out to students and elicit regular and purposeful conversations to build student relationships, help student to affiliate with the College and to respond to emerging concerns.
6. Utilize and know when and where to apply appropriate academic advisement theories to help students strengthen their academic and career readiness skills and abilities.
7. Maintain professional relationships with admissions representatives, financial aid representatives and faculty to assure that they are easily accessible when needed to help address a student related concern.
8. Uphold processes, programs, activities or workshops that support student cohorts such as new students, Former Students Returning (FSR), At-risk students, Transfer students, Military students and other special populations.
9. Support curricular and co-curricular involvement through referral, participation and advertisement of available opportunities to students.
10. Participate in the coordination of new student orientation, new student reception, transition teams, First Year Experience, Portfolio Development Days, graduation, and other campus/department activities and other academic/advisement/student services duties as assigned by the Dean.
11. Maintain knowledge of current advisement practices through participation in professional advisement associations and maintaining commitment to regular review of scholarly academic reading within the advisement discipline.
12. Maintain an active professional (electronic) advisement portfolio.

SKILLS:
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Strong interpersonal skills with faculty, staff and student populations
Understand open-ended questioning, non-verbal communication and active listening
Presentation and public speaking skills
Strong computer and analytical skills

ABILITIES:
Ability to work independently or in a team. Interact effectively and work collaboratively with other departments.
Ability to listen and positively respond to student and co-worker requests.
Ability to exercise judgment in the application of college policies and procedures.
Ability to interpret instructions furnished in written, oral, or schedule form.
Ability to manage multiple tasks, adapt to changing assignments and successfully meet deadlines.

Bryant & Stratton College is an Equal Opportunity Employer.