Merge creates new advising office

The office of Retention, Advising and Career Preparation located at Ching 252 is currently being remodeled. It is temporarily located in Tredtin Hall.

Brittain Komoda

The office of Retention, Advising and Career Preparation located at Ching 252 is currently being remodeled. It is temporarily located in Tredtin Hall.

By Brittain Komoda, Staff Writer

New year, new office.

As of Jan. 1 student support services and academic advising merged to create the Office of Retention, Advising and Career Preparation. The seven full-time staff manage new student orientation and provide additional support to incoming and current students.

Five advisors will be doing academic advising as well as career advising. While students can still visit their favorite advisor, each advisor now has a specified focus.

“The reason behind it was that it’s an effort to ultimately look at the goal of the university, which is to prepare graduates that are competent and competitive when it comes to looking for jobs,” said Allison Jerome, director of Retention, Advising and Career Preparation

Yoko Aquino now has a focus on working with student-athletes. Since Chaminade has a smaller student-athlete population with just 10 teams, it doesn’t have an advising center or specific services for student-athletes like other bigger universities, so Aquino is the liaison working with student-athletes in terms of what their needs may be because of practices or traveling and also specifically working with the coaches.

Previously, Angela Coloretti McGough was the director of Career Services, and she is now an advisor focusing on career. Another advisor, Megan Robison, is focused on transition programs such as freshman orientation and CUH 100. Jessica Pratapas is the liaison working with faculty and staff since the office communicates with them a lot.

A fifth advisor will come on board soon who will be working specifically with students who are on academic probation and students that are high risk. This advisor will be checking in with them and offer them specific resources to help these students get back on track.

The new office will offer a space for seven full-time staff and one graduate assistant.
Brittain Komoda
The new office will offer a space for seven full-time staff and one graduate assistant.

The biggest change overall is what the office refers to as “proactive advising.” While working on it this semester, this will be in full effect starting in Fall 2016. Proactive advising focuses on reaching out to students first, especially first- and second-year students who are undeclared. This approach will allow students to talk to educated advisors on what majors may fit their interests and what types of careers that will suit them, while establishing a relationship with an advisor they can trust.

One idea the office is looking to implement is a career certificate program. This program will allow students to not only graduate with a bachelor’s degree but also a career certificate. This program entails helping students develop skills or strengthen skills that they may already have while making them more competitive when it comes to jobs after graduation.

“There are a lot of things that we are going to be doing in the next few years that haven’t been done,” Jerome said.

The Office of Retention, Advising and Career Preparation is temporarily located in Tredtin Hall next to the bookstore as its regular office in Ching 252 is being remodeled. When finished, the office will be physically bigger, offering a space for seven full-time staff as well as one graduate assistant.