Retention Specialist
South Carolina State University
Location
Orangeburg, South Carolina
Quick overview
The Retention Specialist provides intrusive advising and academic coaching to help students develop habits for college success and persistence. They design programs, monitor student progress via early alerts, and collaborate with campus departments to ensure students receive necessary support.
Requirements summary
A bachelor's degree and three years of experience in student development or academic advising are required. A master's degree in Higher Education or Counseling is preferred.
Job description
The Department of Retention and Student Success is seeking to hire a Retention Specialist to help students develop skills, behaviors and habits that contribute to success in college. This role functions as an intrusive advisor which involves intentional contact with students with the goal of developing a caring and beneficial relationship that leads to increased academic retention and persistence. These contacts include topics such as academic and career goal setting, learning strategies, time management and organization, self-regulation and self-efficacy.
Job
Duties and Responsibilities
- Design and implement programs to help assist students with navigating their college environment, maximizing their college resources and successfully reach college graduation.
- Help students create a structured and collaborative approach to support academic progress by identifying strengths and weaknesses, developing, and strengthening time-management and organizational skills.
- Refer students to other services on campus and off campus such as academic advising, counseling, career services, tutoring and other resources to support the students' personal needs.
- Assists students with identifying and navigating obstacles that may interfere with their academic success.
- Monitors progress of students in caseload with early alerts, check-ins, scheduled meetings or proactive outreach and communication, responding to students' questions, concerns, and needs.
- Conduct academic coaching through individual or group sessions that help students assess their own performance and develop academic success plans
- Assist students in developing self-efficacy by identifying and overcoming obstacles that may be impeding academic success; works with students to learn strong time management and organization skills; motivates students to practice self-regulation and take ownership
- Help students in identifying, developing, and implementing learning strategies and study skills specific to course materials
- Collaborate with on-campus departments to assure students receive the support they need related to financial aid, orientation, academic advising, tutoring, career counseling, and other support programs.
- Develops, implements, coordinates, and tracks intervention strategies that enhance student success, as well as provides qualitative and quantitative reports.
- Identifies issues, builds success plans to overcome obstacles, leverages resources for meeting goals, and ensures student accountability.
- Teach University 101
Minimum Requirements for Entry into Position
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in the discipline
- Three years' experience in student development programs, academic advising or related educational service programs
Preferred Requirements for Position
- Master's degree in Higher Education or Counseling
- Three years' experience in student development programs, academic advising or related educational service programs