BATON ROUGE – Executive Director Kenneth Miles along with Associate Director of Student Learning Jennifer Timmer and Manager of Student Learning Leah Saal represented LSU’s Cox Communication Academic Center for Student-Athletes at the 35th annual national convention for the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics held in Salt Lake City.
Miles held a panel discussion joined by Mr. Kevin Wall, Director of Student-Athlete Support Services from Syracuse University, Ms. Colleen Campbell, Director of Academic Affairs for Student-Athletes from Loyola University (Md.), Ms. Danez Marrable, Associate Athletic Director for Student Services from University of Alabama-Birmingham and Mrs. Brittany Wagner-White, Director of Academic Services from East Mississippi State Community College entitled “Recommendations for Rookies” to provide aspiring newcomers with strategies for navigating the industry.
Attendees had the opportunity to join five veteran academic advisors from small and large institutions as they share their knowledge and experience working in the in the field of student-athlete support services. The topics included developing relationships, maintaining a work-life balance, effective counseling and advising techniques, managing advisor-coach issues, managing advisor-student-athletes issues, managing APR/compliance issues as well as sharing best practices in the field.
“This presentation was a great opportunity for all of us to showcase what we do but better yet how we do it,” Miles said. “Ms. Campbell and I have done this presentation together for at least three years and are amazed that the audience typically reaches seating capacity every time and includes not only novices but experienced advisors as well. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to develop and cultivate meaningful relationships after an hour and fifteen minute discussion. We look forward to doing this again next year.”
Timmer and Saal presented “Who are your students? A model for student assessment.” Why assessment is important, what to assess, and how to assess were the three questions the presentation addressed.
“The conference was a great opportunity to share valuable information about assessment best practices with colleagues from around the country who can return to their institutions and implement programs to benefit even more students,” Timmer said. “The collaboration and feedback also helps us continue to improve our services for student-athletes here at LSU.”
The program model utilizes educational best-practices which other institutions can implement within their own centers. The workshop also included an activity during which the attendees worked to create a student assessment tool they can use with their own student-athletes.
The convention provides an opportunity to showcase the assessment programming provided at LSU through the ACSA as well as collaborate with other professionals to learn about ongoing trends and issues in services pertaining to student-athletes throughout the country.
“I hope that this presentation provided an opportunity for meaningful collaboration among professionals throughout the country and this learning process will serve to enhance services for all student-athletes,” Saal said.