Student Success Specialist - Appendix D/ Temporary Assignment

Algonquin College•Ottawa, ON

9h•CA$37 - CA$43•Hybrid

About The Position

Reporting to the Dean, the Student Success Specialist plays a vital part in a student's academic success and is an important position in the strategic enrolment management process. Working within an integrated team of Faculty, Program Coordinators, Chairs and Academic Advisors, the Student Success Specialist plays a key role in the development and implementation of academic success strategies in a learner’s journey. A major focus of this position is proactively reaching out to learners deemed “at risk” through various student engagement initiatives and integrate with the work of other internal stakeholders (Faculty, Program Coordinators, Chairs and Academic Advisors) by delivering enhancement programming to learners in accordance with a student retention calendar. This position places particular emphasis on programming and interventions on level one students. Working closely with Faculty, the Student Success Specialist brings in supports and resources at key times along the student academic journey. The incumbent supports strategic enrollment management by successfully implementing core student retention strategies, identifying process improvements and recommending new initiatives. The incumbent will make recommendations based on analysis of student withdrawal data. The incumbent provides students with impartial guidance to support their academic success, offers resources and referrals to College services and respond to questions or concerns learners may have. The incumbent must work closely and partner effective with Student Support Services and programs.

Requirements

Minimum three (3) Social Sciences, Adult Learning or Education
Minimum of three (3) year's experience working with adult learners with demonstrated ability to improve academic success
Minimum of three (3) years of experience in strategic development of student success initiatives

Responsibilities

Support Student Success: Receives information on incoming students and provides proactive outreach (technology, individual and group interventions) at key points in the academic journey to enhance student academic success. Examples include Academic onboarding (First Contact), coordinating student intake workshops (in conjunctions with AC Start and Day1), academic (preparedness) onboarding workshops, working with the Transfer Coordinator to identify and facilitate transfer students transition, withdrawal process, academic onboarding reach out programs and late registrants; Advise and make appropriate referrals to College support services and resources such as the availability of bursaries, study skills workshops and peer tutoring. Support the development of further integration of College services and resources; Develops and delivers academic workshops on student success strategies such as time management and test preparation; Conduct exit interviews with students considering leaving their program or the College and collates related data to leverage as basis for future recommendations; Tracks participation in student success initiatives in order to evaluate the impact of programming and engagement; Advocates on behalf of students experiencing roadblocks when accessing services to overcome academic, personal or financial challenges.
Develops and/or promotes student success initiatives: Meets with Deans, Chairs and Program Coordinators at strategic points in the student life cycle to continually evaluate and update retention points within each program to determine needs for onboarding of learners; Work with Academic Orientation leaders to arrange student success resources for programs before the start of term. Examples include academic onboarding for accessible learning resources, School and program related academic success workshops during AC Start and Day1; Assists with the planning, organizing and implementation of retention initiatives that are approved at the Student Engagement Retention and Success sub-committees (SERS) and School retention committees; Undertakes special projects associated with their specific department of focus/ divisions.
Information Management: Assists faculty in dealing with the early warning system and other retention initiatives; Reviews "at risk" reports and other reports and determines action plan for students requiring guidance; these plans may be shared with and reviewed by the divisional coordinators and other professors; Provides ongoing updates of student success progress to the Dean and Chair through written and verbal reports; Use of the Student Information System (SIS) to perform information queries to assist in responding to questions and to gain insight into student trends; Analyzes withdrawal information to help identify possible barriers to student success; Determines the impact of student success, activities that have been implemented on academic standing and retention with basic reporting; Makes recommendations in regards to ongoing and new SERS/SEM initiatives based on analysis of information and student feedback; Collaborates with all student support services; Attend monthly SSS meetings and attend mandatory training provided by Manager of Student Retention.
School Specific Duties (Assigned by the Dean, specific to school practices) including but not exclusive to: Participates in group and committee meetings; Examples: KPI’s, Developmental meetings with students on Academic Probation. Other duties as assigned.