Staff Senate Names Academic Support and Outreach as This Year's Outstanding Team

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Academic Support and Outreach Team, from top center clockwise: Danielle Dunn, Erich Washausen, Ana Ayala Barker and Kathryn Lammers

The 2023 Staff Senate Outstanding Team Award winner is the Academic Support and Outreach Program, or ASOP team. Led by Danielle Dunn, this team's duties are to connect with students experiencing academic struggles, create and administer academic success programming, coordinate the approximately 45 student guides for the Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence and develop and execute strategies for improving retention and graduation rates at the U of A.

This mighty team started in a new building with new objectives in January 2022. The student guide program is much more than folks knowing where the bathroom is — these student workers are highly trained and ready to assist other students with any campus questions. Additionally, the guide program uses learning objectives, 360 performance evaluations and professional development to provide a high-impact experience to its students. The ASOP team continually researches and develops outreach strategies to help students of all academic backgrounds achieve their goals. Through this, they developed the Academic Outreach Calendar, which is a continual model of different modes of outreach throughout the school year with the goal of retaining those struggling students.

The team has also developed the Major Exploration program, which helps students navigate choosing or changing majors. The ASOP team saw the students who change their major may not always experience the same level of support and guidance as those who do not change majors. Exploration coaches offer holistic major exploration support to students.

The Staff Senate is pleased to award the Academic Support and Outreach Program the 2023 Outstanding Team Award. The 2024 Outstanding Team Award nominations will open in January 2024 — please check the Staff Senate website for updates.