Student Academic Success Center expands connections

Kelsey Pipes

TNE Writer

Deciding on a course schedule is not easy for Natalie McAllister. The sophomore speech

pathology major often depends on the services of the Student Academic Success Center to help

her with any questions pertaining to school.

SASC, funded by a federal grant, is a program designed to help students who may be struggling.

It offers help in areas such as time management, study skills and success tips, as well as class

enrollment and declaring a major.

“Our biggest purpose is to reach out in many different ways,” said Kristal Soderstrom-Junkens,

university advisor in the SASC. “We do academic advising for undeclared students, help decide

a major, help with career services, building a resume and cover letter, and we help with

tutoring.”

McAllister, a nontraditional student, said the SASC helped ease the transition for her once she

decided to go back to college.

“Although, I’m technically considered a transfer student because I had some college before

coming to NSU, it had been 8 years. The Student Academic Success Center was so helpful at

explaining how college life really works and easing my doubt and fear about being a non-

traditional student,” said McAllister.

Soderstrom-Junkens said the reach of the SASC is expanding.

“This last grant year, which is Oct.1 to Sep. 31 we seen 2,882 students, compared to the 1,500

last year, it’s improvement. It’s growing and we love that. Obviously it’s not more than we can

handle. We want to see students. We want that interaction time,” said Soderstrom-Junkens.

Tiffany Biggers, coordinator of learning assistance and tutoring programs for the SASC, said her

department prides itself on customer service and helping get the students on track for success.

“We try to call ourselves a one-stop shop. Basically, if a student can’t get what they need here,

we are going to walk them over to where they need to go. We are going to take them where they

need to find out the information,” said Biggers.

Biggers said the only things the SASC does not handle are financial aid and advising within the

majors.

“So we do everything from general education advising all the way to helping students fill out

forms for academic forgiveness, helping them out with enrollment and helping them figure up a

general education plan,” said Biggers. “Ultimately I think if we had one goal we had to pick it

would be to see that the students remained in college successfully.”

Published: 1/29/15

Cutline: Natalie McAllister, sophomore speech pathology major, visits the Student Success

Center to make a smooth transition into NSU.