USM’s Center for Student Success is launching an extensive Success Coach program for the fall 2024 semester to improve academic outcomes and enhance student support. The initiative, aimed at providing personalized guidance and mentorship to undergraduate students, is now seeking dedicated faculty, staff, and graduate assistants to join its coaching team.
The program is open to all Southern Miss students on the Hattiesburg campus pursuing a bachelor’s degree. While all undergraduates are welcome to apply, the primary focus is on students facing challenges adapting to university life. Success coaches will work one-on-one with students, offering guidance on goal-setting, time management, study skills, and social skills.
Dr. Ashley Burnside, Director of the Center for Student Success, expressed. “We really are trying to make sure that students feel that they have that support to go and succeed academically, but that they also feel like they’re part of a larger community so that they can go and rely on other folks and feel connected,” she stated. “I think sometimes we presume students know. But students don’t always, and so we can go and make sure that they know whether that’s academic services, whether that’s social services, whether that’s services on campus or frankly, even within the community. That’s really important because students have a lot of different varying needs that really impact their academic success and their progress.”
Students participating in the program will meet with their assigned success coach four times throughout the semester. Each session is designed to be personalized, focusing on motivating students toward achieving their definition of success by accomplishing academic and personal goals.
The benefits of the Success Coaching program are numerous. It provides students with one-on-one connections with faculty, staff, and graduate assistants, helps them outline and make progress toward their goals, connects them with on-campus academic and social resources, and offers accountability and support for successful skill development.
Testimonials from previous participants highlight the program’s effectiveness. One student shared, “My academic coach really pushed me to do my best at all times. She helped me throughout my entire semester and I appreciate her so very much!” Another stated, “Success Coaching helped me improve my grades and have a better outlook on not only my school but also my future.”
The Center for Student Success is casting a wide net in its search for coaches, inviting applications from faculty members across all disciplines, administrative staff, and experienced graduate assistants. This diverse pool of mentors aims to provide students with a broad range of perspectives and expertise.
“We want to make sure that everybody who is interfacing with the program, whether that is the students themselves or the coaches, feel like they’ve got a really good handle on basically what’s going to happen when they go into it,” said Dr. Burnside. “Faculty, staff, and graduate assistants are really able to go and make sure that students feel like they’re integrated into the campus community, that they’re able to go and ensure that they get the support services that they need, for instance.”
The Success Coach program is just one facet of the Center’s comprehensive approach to student support. The Center also oversees several other initiatives designed to foster academic excellence and personal growth, including ACES Living-Learning Communities, JUMP Scholars program, Barnes and Noble Textbook Scholarship, and First Generation Support Programming.
For more information or to apply for the Success Coaching program, students and potential coaches can email [email protected].
