Holistic Advising: A Proactive Intervention for Success

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Arion Jett-Seals, Fayette County Public SchoolsFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Fayette County Public Schools

Second Presenter's Institution

N/A

Third Presenter's Institution

N/A

Fourth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Fifth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

This session is relevant to the HEAD conference strand, addressing Early Intervention and promoting learning for all students. This session will discuss how meeting the whole student and considering the student’s personal, emotional, social, cultural, financial, and familial issues before any can become a barrier to their educational success. This session is also relevant to the HEART conference strand, as the session will discuss the importance of student empowerment. Arming students with knowledge of resources, coaching, and encouraging them to overcome and become self-sufficient, moving beyond their past and present circumstances.

Brief Program Description

This session will introduce the process and effectiveness of holistic advising. We will discuss meeting the whole student, considering the student’s personal, emotional, cultural, financial, and familial issues before any can become a barrier, and negatively influence their educational success. Student support personnel, advisors, and counselors will take away a plan of action in holistic advising.

Summary

For many years, advisors and educational experts relied on O’banion’s model of advising, while simply revising the model over the years to adjust to changes of the times. Obanion’s model included 5 steps: (1) exploration of life goals; (2) exploration of vocational goals; (3) program choice; (4) course choice; and (5) scheduling classes. After O’Banion’s model of academic advising came Crookston’s writings, coining the term “developmental advising” which took into consideration “not only a specific personal or vocational decision but also with facilitating the student’s rational processes, environmental and interpersonal interactions, behavioral awareness, and problem-solving, decision-making, and evaluation skills” making the experience not only one of advising but one of teaching (p. 5). Thanks to Noel and Levitz, who have been acknowledged for significantly contributing to the understanding of the Developmental Advising Model by operationalizing O’banion’s model, put into effect early intervention methods. Taking these models and applying a social work case management like strategy, creates a more holistic approach by offering wrap around services for students, allowing for a more proactive intervention approach.

The holistic approach to advising takes into consideration all of the intricacies of a person. Holistic advisors offer both an educational and mentoring experience to advisees. Studies have shown that this approach makes students feel more connected, thus positively influencing retention and graduation rates. A study completed by a doctoral student Amber Morley, focused on first generation students and how the holistic approach ultimately provided students in the study with an overall more beneficial advising experience. Formerly a coordinator of Accelerating Opportunity Kentucky, I practiced a more holistic approach to advising the students in the program and offered wrap around services. The program was geared toward students who were considered non-traditional and/or at-risk. Due to this, I designed the orientation phases to be very proactive in nature, and was eventually honored by the state for having “exemplary retention methods.” I would like to share with others how holistic advising worked for students I advised and offer a guide on how to begin practicing this method.

Evidence

: As mentioned some in the summary section, there have been studies that have demonstrated the value and impact of holistic advising. Due to its effectiveness, companies such as Starlink have seen the need to provide a professional development training for educational professionals in Holistic Advising. Programs, such as Starfish used as an early alert intervention method is used at community colleges and universities to help advisors with their time management as holistic advising can be time consuming. There was a need of such technology to assist in the holistic advising process, and programs like Starfish bring much information on students to advisors and coordinators.

This proposal makes use of the previously mentioned studies and the studies like those of Museus and Ravello (2010) who researched at the characteristics of academic advising that contributed to the success of racial minority students at predominantly White institutions. Through this study there was also the common theme and mention of benefit of the holistic model of academic advising on a student’s success, as well as the proactive approach of advising. The study, through qualitative methods, sampled students from three institutions, and the results showed that students who received holistic advising believed their advisors were aware and helpful in understanding the many complex challenges experienced by students of color.

Biographical Sketch

Arion Jett-Seals is a Family Resource Center for the Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, KY. In her current role, Mrs. Jett-Seals is charged with assisting students and families with overcoming non-academic barriers to a positive and successful education experience. Her role is to assess the needs of students and families and become aware with any needs that are not academic, but that could ultimately affect a student’s learning. Prior to joining the public school system, Mrs. Jett-Seals worked at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in several roles, that all involved educating, advising, and counseling. Beginning as a counselor and advisor to undecided students in the Career Counselor and Counseling Center, and later becoming a program coordinator of Accelerating Opportunity Kentucky, then after the end of grant funds, the program coordinator of the Human Services/Social Work program. As the coordinator of Accelerating Opportunity Mrs. Jett-Seals coordinated a program with core values including: a student first approach, comprehensive support services to prevent drop-off points, and holistic advising services. While employed full time with FCPS, Mrs. Jett-Seals is now further providing her services through Holistic Rise: Personal and Professional Development Consulting.

Keyword Descriptors

Advising, Proactive, Intervention, holistic, Student Development, Barriers

Presentation Year

2018

Start Date

3-6-2018 8:30 AM

End Date

3-6-2018 10:15 AM

Recommended Citation

Jett-Seals, Arion, "Holistic Advising: A Proactive Intervention for Success" (2018). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 53.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2018/2018/53