Maria Colin

Professor Dyer

SED 496

February 12, 2021

Instructional Activity 3

9. Roles for MLFTC Secondary Teacher Candidates – Student Success Coach

I am lucky enough to be a Student Success Coach at the First Year Success Center from

ASU since Fall of 2020. I mostly work with students in their first year of college but have also

worked with transfer students in their second and third year. My role consists of meeting with

students as often as they want (weekly, biweekly, monthly) to discuss academic progress and set

goals. In order to set goals we use the SMART goal format where they identify the goal they

would like to work on, state why it is important for them, what steps they plan to take in order to

accomplish the goal, who or what the resource will be to help them accomplish it, and finally we

set a date on which we will discuss the progress they have made. It is important to recognize

students’ effort when they have worked on their goal and encourage them move forward, but it is

just as crucial no not judge those students who have not accomplished the goal they set for that

week. If you judge them and make them feel like they are not doing enough (in a negative way)

that will only push them away and make them feel uncomfortable. Holding them accountable for

what they originally committed to do is a big part of my role, but it also consists of letting them

know that life can sometimes get in the way of our goals and what matters is that we don’t lose

sight of them and that we keep working towards achieving them.

Pedagogical skills applied while on this role, and the one I believe is the most important,

is identifying the students’ needs. Active listening skills are crucial in order to be able to pick up
what each student needs, which also allows us to know how we are going to approach the

situation. As it is in the elementary and secondary ed classroom, each of the students we receive

as coaches is different, many of them come from different cultural backgrounds, home

languages, economic status, family environments, etc. It is important as a Success Coach to

respect, adapt, and meet students’ needs.

For the past two semesters the meetings with my students have been held online, through

Zoom. However, even though we are not in an office or a classroom, classroom management

skills still have to be applied. We have to set the tone with our students and let them know that it

is a professional environment. There has to be respectful language and appropriate attire, and we

lead by example. Part of having a respectful meeting is not being distracted by other things such

as phones, therefore, when meeting a student, I would never have my phone out for purposes not

related to our appointment and I expect them to do the same.

The biggest challenge for me in this job has been to not be affected by student’s

problems. Although many of my appointments end on a cheerful or positive note, sometimes

there are other appointments when the student is just going through a lot of issues and it can be

hard to not let that affect me once the appointment is over. Feeling like I could not help them as

much as I would have wanted to can really get to me and I know that it is something that I have

to work on or I will be devastated each time I encounter a student going through a rough time. I

know this applies to my future experience as a teacher as well as we will always have students

who experience more difficult things that others, and sometimes we will be the only ones who

realize or can help them in one way or another. I believe working on keeping my work-life and

personal life separate is a skill I definitely have to work on.

 My leaders in this role have told me I do a good job of identifying students’ needs and

provide them the proper resources to help them succeed or have a better experience during their

time at ASU. We also give our students surveys where they can let the leaders know how their

experience with us was, and I have gotten positive feedback from them as well.

This role has been important since it was created, but I believe in this time of confusion

and uncertainty, living through a pandemic, students need it even more than ever. It allows them

to express their feelings to one of their peers and find solutions that they may not even know

existed. Being a coach is all about pointing our students in the right direction and being their

support throughout the semester. It is incredibly fulfilling, and I absolutely love it. Therefore, as

I continue to do carry out this role during my time at ASU something I would do differently is

maybe look for more resources ASU has to offer in order to have more options for my students

when they come to me with questions.