Engineering Student Services honored with two Provost Advising Awards
Published: Mar 31, 2023 4:00 PM
By Cassie Montgomery
The Provost’s Academic Advising Awards recognize advisors across campus who have engaged students in the collaborative process of advising and have made a significant impact on students’ academic careers. This year, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is taking home two advising awards – Outstanding Student Support Representative and Outstanding Advising Program.
The awards were presented in a ceremony held Wednesday, March 29, in the Brown-Kopel Center.
Outstanding Student Support Representative
Academic Support Manager Kathy Friedenreich has made an impact on the academic journeys of thousands of students through her work in the Engineering Student Services Office and was recognized for her work with the Outstanding Student Support Representative award. Through her vision and leadership, Friedenreich has grown the college’s student support program from a small tutoring center into a full-service Learning Center with a professional team that includes a tutor coordinator, more than 40 peer tutors, graduate assistants and trained peer academic coaches.
“Kathy has just been exceptionally successful working with students in her role as manager of the academic support program. She is able to connect the dots for students,” said Janet Moore, assistant dean for student services. “She manages our Learning Center and the students who work there as tutors, and she also meets with students referred to her for academic support. Kathy meets with these students and she creates an individualized academic plan for each. This type of student support changes lives – she really changes lives.”
Friedenreich advocates a shared commitment to student success. Between the fall and spring terms, more than 2,500 tutoring sessions are completed. The Learning Center has also expanded its reach by collaborating with faculty to provide tutor training and regularly developing academic resources for students.
Outstanding Advising Program
The second award – Outstanding Advising Program - was presented to the entire Engineering Student Services team for its program, “Engineered for Success.” With the creation of an advising model and referral system to address pre-engineering students’ critical progression and mitigate GPA issues, Engineered for Success integrates advising best practices with psychological theories to support student success. Through structured Academic Success Meetings, academic advisors and students work together to create personalized Academic Success Contracts. By using motivational interviewing techniques, advisors use these meetings to help students set goals, identify potential obstacles to success, and determine critical strategies and resources to overcome individual academic challenges.
The program was introduced by Moore with the assistance of Candi Vann, director of advising, in 2017 and instantly started producing positive results – a 95% retention rate among pre-engineering students, with 89% achieving the goals created as part of their contract.
“We have a structured program but our academic advising philosophy is not to just tell students what to take for classes. It is much more about the holistic developmental approach,” Moore said.
Since its inception, the program has expanded in scope and now includes a referral system to the Engineering Academic Support Program, where students can access weekly academic coaching. By ensuring all pre-engineering students experience at least two semesters of intentional intervention, the program supports those who may struggle to meet GPA and progression goals and are prepared to transition into their chosen engineering major.
Media Contact: , cmontgomery@auburn.edu, 334.844.3668
Engineering Student Services staff accept the Provost Advising Award for Outstanding Advising Program.
