by Lindsey Riebe, Student Success Coaching Program Coordinator
and Sam Hickerson, Student Success Coaching Program Assistant
Think back to your first week of college, or your first week in any important transition. You probably had new responsibilities and new freedoms, so finding balance was a difficult challenge.
Now imagine if you had someone to point you in the right direction. Someone who was passionate about your success. A teammate who was knowledgeable and connected and who cared about you. Thanks to an initiative spearheaded by NAU President John Haeger, students can have a Student Success Coach fill this role.
Student Success Coaching is a free program available to NAU students on the Flagstaff campus. Students work with a coach to develop success strategies and connections to campus resources. The goal of this relationship is to establish a foundation for success in college and life. By encouraging self-advocacy for success, Student Success Coaching increases the capacity of success throughout NAU.
As one student in the program put it, “Meeting with my coach really helped me get through the week. Using the tools my coach gave me was beneficial to me over the semester, in everything from grades to my social life.”
The program includes more than 40 coaches from 25 different departments across campus. The current coaching team consists of advisers, instructors, administrative staff and NAU retirees. Coaches are certified in a set of coaching tools that support the program’s model by helping students manage their transition, access their support and explore their career.
Student Success Coaching is currently looking for new coaches from across the NAU community. If you are passionate about student success and want to be a part of a unique team, then learn more about how to become a coach.
The students aren’t the only ones who benefit. “When I applied for this coaching program, I thought ‘I can do this!’,” said coach Linda Sorbo. “After successfully completing the coach training and practice, I thought to myself, ‘I am coaching.’”