Success Coaching is the individualized practice of asking reflective, motivation-based questions, providing opportunities for formal self-assessment, sharing effective strategies, and co-creating a tangible plan. The coaching process offers students an opportunity to identify their strengths, actively practice new skills, and effectively navigate appropriate resources that ultimately results in skill development, performance improvement, and increased persistence.
Robinson, C.E. 2015
The coaching methodology used by success coaches includes 8 focus areas which are used to assess students’ strengths, opportunities, and red flags. The eight focus areas impact a student’s ability to persist and stay in school.
Commitment to Graduation
This coaching area focuses on helping students clarify their personal motivations for obtaining their degrees. During coaching sessions, coaches reinforce student aspirations, helping them understand their purpose, holding them accountable to their goals, and empowering them to persist from year to year.
Academics
This coaching area focuses on the learning process and the “how” of learning. During coaching sessions, coaches help students achieve their educational goals by teaching them about college expectations and academic habits. Coaches help students develop effective learning strategies including reading, writing, test taking, critical thinking, and study skills, and connect them with campus academic support services.
University Community
This coaching area focuses on students’ sense of belonging or “fit.” Coaches help students engage with the campus community by identifying specific people, resources, and activities, encouraging them to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.
Managing Commitments
This coaching area focuses on helping students to successfully balance school and competing priorities such as work, friends, family, and relationships. During coaching sessions, coaches provide strategies for managing time, becoming more organized, and making decisions that will lead to success.
Finances
This coaching area focuses on helping students navigate the costs of their education and manage personal finances. During coaching sessions, coaches help students to identify resources on campus and in the community that can help them to manage educational and personal finances and responsibilities.
Effectiveness
This coaching area focuses on helping students understand their strengths and limitations, and develop a growth mindset. During coaching sessions, coaches help students build confidence, become more self-aware, create systems for productivity and learning, and tap resources that will positively impact their ability to achieve goals and be successful — in college and in life.
Health and Support
This coaching area focuses on helping students manage their self-care by getting adequate sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress management, and developing a support system. During coaching sessions, coaches help students identify ways to attend to their physical health and well-being and offer information on additional resources on campus and in the community that can support them in these areas.
Career
This coaching area focuses on helping students make intentional connections between school, potential career opportunities, and post-graduation goals. During coaching sessions, coaches help students to clarify goals and develop plans for achieving career aspirations.
Reg Kim
Working in higher education since 2007, Reg Kim has always focused his teaching and advising around college success. He has been an instructor for first-year students at La Salle as a lecturer in Religion and Theology for the past three years. He did his doctoral work at Fordham University in Theology where he taught core curriculum courses in religion and spent six years prior to coming to La Salle in a Visiting Instructor position at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. All of these teaching positions have provided Reg the experience to work with first-year students in developing academic success plans and to get them to see the value of a diverse educational journey. He loves hearing his students’ stories and feels privileged to play a part in the ones that they are writing for themselves about their young adult life.
Karla Delgado
Karla is a Student Success Coach at La Salle. Working in higher education since 2014, her areas of expertise to guide students include: creating an individualized plan of action with students, problem-solving academic challenges, navigating accessibility to campus resources, major exploration, and undecided student advising. Karla is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at La Salle in Professional Clinical Counseling. She has served as a TA in Seminar on Careers and Health Education & Science, a freshman course for students in the Undecided Health sciences program. As a success coach, Karla enjoys empowering students and working in collaboration with them to consider the endless possibilities they have over their higher education journey. As an alum, she uses her own journey as a first-generation student as an example of the transformative value of getting a college education.
Elizabeth Fever
Liz Fever has worked in higher education for over 5 years, with experience at a number of institutions, including Temple University. Liz earned her M. Ed. in Higher Education from Temple’s College of Education in 2019, with a focus in student affairs and college student development. As a success coach, Liz strives to give students a space to explore their potential and share their experiences without fear of judgement. Her goal is to help students develop plans to move through challenges by utilizing resources and understanding their core motivation: “I’d love for faculty to know that the coaching team is here to help support students no matter what they might be going through. Whether students want to talk through challenges they are facing in the classroom, goals they have for their future, or concerns about their ability to persist to graduation, we are here to give them a space to share, brainstorm and plan!”
Karen McFadden
Karen is a La Salle alumna, having earned her B.S. in Environmental Science and M.A. in Secondary Education here after transferring from the Community College of Philadelphia. Since 2017, she has been working in La Salle’s student support programs teaching courses in critical analysis and student success, and since 2018 has been a Student Success Coach. In her role as a success coach, she uses her experience as an alum and a non-traditional student to help current students explore, think boldly, and envision and build paths to their unique goals. She is grateful to be able to provide space for students to explore ideas and strategies and talk through trials, errors, and successes without judgement. She enjoys getting to know students individually and being able to collaborate with them on their plans to navigate challenges and opportunities and get the most out of their time as a college student.