This month we are spotlighting Angela Ryan, Academic Advisor, College of Health Professions from Ferris State University!

What has your career path been like up to this point?

My path has been unique. I always knew I wanted to go into education, but

 didn’t know I was able to work in higher education due to being first-generation. My degree is in elementary education, but I did not pursue that. I was a student employee in the records office at Grand Valley State University (GVSU). I saw a different side of education and felt a pull. I got a temp roll to do some reenrollment campaigning over the phone from 2003-2004. As I was working, a position opened within admissions processing. Admissions processing was already familiar with me due to the structure of the Registrar’s Office at GVSU.

It was there that I knew I wanted to be an academic advisor because I heard about the stories from the admissions counselors. I knew I could have benefited from more advising as a student so that drew me. One of my benefits paid for my master’s in Adult and Higher Education. I spent 8-9 years in admissions processing during the peak time of GVSU’s enrollment growth. I had the opportunity to learn about transfer equivalency, degree auditing, a Banner conversion, and this all solidified knowing that I wanted to be an advisor.

I was always trying to be an advisor so I volunteered at orientation. I wanted to gain as much experience as possible knowing that I was limited in my current role. I then had the opportunity to become Office Coordinator in the College of Community and Public Service. Dr. Jennifer McCaul took a chance on me despite me not having an advising background. She mentored me and provided me with opportunities to do prep for transfer advising and review course equivalency guides. I put my name in the hat for several opportunities at GVSU, but the opportunity finally came at Ferris State University (FSU) in the College of Health Professions.

At FSU I started my career virtually due to the pandemic. Going with the flow has been the theme of my career so far. I take the changes as they come because it is inevitable in higher education. I am now coming up on five years at FSU.

What brings you joy outside of work?

Outside of work, spending time with family is the biggest. I have two children, one in college and one in high school. I enjoy spending time outdoors especially when it is warm outside. I enjoy being present with them and trying to disconnect from the digital world. We love camping in state parks and Lake Michigan is a favorite place to visit in the summer.

I also enjoy reading for fun and to learn and grow. GVSU instilled being a lifelong learner in me and it is something that has remained in my life and career.

Your nominator mentioned your workshop you completed at Ferris called “Thinking Beyond an Advising Philosophy: Developing an Advising Syllabus to Guide Practice.” What are some of your suggestions for folks considering creating and using that tool?

My colleague Lori and I did this workshop together. Lori really started this process when she went through Kansas State University’s master’s in Academic Advising and had an assignment to create their own syllabus. I wasn’t familiar with what happened before COVID but noticed many students saying that no one explained many essentials to them. I know they get bombarded during their orientation and transition experience. As a solution, we wanted to give them something tangible they could take and use when they need it in the future.

One of the key goals in the syllabus is just knowing who their advisor is. Second is what is the advisor's role and what is the student’s role. We share that there are shared responsibilities and expectations. Finally, we wanted them to know how to communicate with us. We are in year four of being a Navigate360 school and are finding students are still unsure how to find us. We are trying to be upfront with sharing as much information as possible, while not overwhelming the students.

This process allowed us to develop learning outcomes as well. We need to be able to assess whether students are learning the things we say we are teaching them to know if we are being effective. We try and share the network of support systems on and around campus, but this is their academic journey, and they have to communicate when things start to change.

We are now focused on trying to teach them how to get engaged on campus. Students haven’t engaged in the same since the pandemic and if they do show up many aren’t truly present. They have to know that not only do they have to engage in class but there are standards of behavior that are expected in their career field.

Right now, this syllabus is a document, but we also want to turn this into a learning module in Canvas (our LMS). This way they can access it at any time while they are at FSU.

Your nominator described your approach to advising as structured and intentional. What efforts do you make to work in this way? 

Because of the programs I work with, I initially thought I needed to do strict appreciative advising. I have learned over the years there are appreciative aspects of what I do but there are also requirements of what students must take built into their programs. We do a semesterly registration cycle. To accommodate my caseload, outreach for the registration for the next semester must begin early, usually the third week of the semester, so I can assist as many of my 300 students as possible.

One of the tools I use to help manage this outreach is Navigate360’s campaign feature. I work to send frequent communication or “nudges” to any students not having an appointment, which can be done automatically through Navigate360. I also try and break outreach down by class standing and if a student shows some sort of risk. If they are in poor standing, I try and use those appointment campaigns to get them scheduled early in the semester.

I also offer drop-in hours for three hours once a week for the second half of the semester. I have a ton of students who have questions when it gets close to a withdrawal deadline, but don’t always have appointments available. It has helped a lot. Some students rely on the drop-in times, and I wish they would make an appointment so we could be more thorough in planning around their needs. Overall, it has helped students and met their needs when they needed me. I have also tried to do this in computer labs during registration so that they can work on registering on their own with support from an advisor present.  

What advice would you give to new advising professionals entering the field?

I would say take every opportunity you can to learn. I have been in higher education in one realm or another for over twenty years now. I wouldn’t be the advisor I am today if I hadn’t had the other experiences that I had earlier in my career. You need to take the time to understand the different processes so get out of the silos of the area you advise for. You can’t do advising without key partnerships across the university and understanding their processes. They also need to know what you do. You need to understand how you should all interact.

Some of the experiences I was able to get early on in my career were not always things that were in my job description. If you want to learn something, don’t be afraid to go outside that box. Go to events on campus so you know how to describe them to students and learn from the folks doing the work. There are opportunities all over the place.