From left: Jason Goode, Missy Lugo, Amy Horn and Juliane Such
NIU’s Office of Student Academic Success has welcomed four new members to its team.
These individuals will serve the university community as student success specialists in four of the colleges on campus:
- Jason Goode, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, completed his undergraduate and graduate degree at NIU. Jason worked on campus and taught COMS 100 as part of his graduate assistantship.
- Amy Horn, College of Education, completed her graduate work at NIU, and worked as a graduate student for the college beginning in 2008.
- Missy Lugo, College of Health and Human Sciences, completed both her undergraduate and graduate work at NIU and worked for a variety of departments on campus, including the Academic Advising Center and Housing and Dining. She also taught CAHC 211.
- Juliane Such, College of Business, completed her graduate work at NIU, and worked as a graduate student at the Asian American Center and as an intern at the Academic Advising Center.
The student success specialist role was developed in direct response to recommendations made by the Presidential Task Force on Student Success in 2008. Specifically, this task force set several goals aimed toward increasing the overall retention rates of the NIU student population.
“Students lead very complex lives and have to balance a myriad of responsibilities in addition to academics,” said Dana Gautcher, director of the Office of Student Academic Success. “The student success specialist position was created to assist students in connecting to campus resources while helping them learn self-advocacy skills.”
Specifically, the specialists are available to meet with students who have unanswered questions or who do not know what questions to ask. By partnering with faculty and staff, the specialists will work with each student to identify options and possible resolutions.
The student success specialists also provide leadership for the development, implementation and assessment of student success and persistence initiatives for a specific academic college within the university.
For more information about the Office of Student Academic Success or the student success specialists, call (815) 753-5721 0r e-mail osas@niu.edu.
