Sometimes it’s difficult to prepare for graduation or to decide upon a major at all, but for students in the teacher education program, there is somewhere to go for help.
Kristy Dedmond is the advisor to the Office of Student Services that opened in February and is available every day to offer advising to pre-majors that haven’t been admitted to the program yet and for those about to graduate. The office also provides a place for non-education majors to go just to talk about the program if they’re interested.
“I’ve been here 16 years,” Dedmond said. “[I’m in the office] because I’ve done the graduation checkouts, have knowledge of the program and worked with students unofficially for so long.”
One of the reasons for the new office was the growth of the program and the low number of advisors.
For the Bower-Suhrheinrich College of Education and Human Services, “this is the only office of it’s kind,” she said.
One of the biggest challenges for Dedmond is going back and forth between the new licensing program involving the Revisions for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA) and the old licensing program. She helps students determine where they are as far as requirements go, and offers advice to any education-related questions they may ask.
She said she enjoys helping students succeed.
Before he began going to the office, Jacob Kohlmeyer, an English teaching major, said he already went to see Dedmond, who he considered to be the “go to person.”
He said the office provides knowledge and makes advising more available. Before the Office of Student Services, Kohlmeyer said he would have to wait in line in the main office to get help.
He originally went in to get class advice and prepare for student teaching, but said the office helps him prepare for the future. He typically stops in once a week.
Kohlmeyer has also told others about the office. Not just those in the education program, but those interested in it as well.
“I tell them, ‘anything you want to know, go there,’” Kohlmeyer said.
Robert Boostrom, professor and licensing advisor for teacher education, had plans drawn up for the office about three or four years ago, said Jeff Thomas, associate professor of teacher education. It was something they looked into together.
“The idea had been kicking around the department for awhile,” he said.
After a recent accreditation report, Boostrom and Thomas decided they really needed to move forward with it to “handle advising loads in a better way,” Thomas said.
Other colleges have non-faculty members helping with advising. The College of Education and Human Services didn’t have such an office.
Thomas said that so many of the faculty are involved with the community that it can be hard to advise students. He added that students need a place to go for reliable information if their schedules don’t work with their individual advisors.
“In a campus as large and productive as USI, they need to be able to walk up and ask questions,” he said.
There were a couple of hurdles to pass through before the office opened.
Thomas said they had to decide how to use their own internal efforts in a productive way and justify the need to exist to the university.
In the future, he said they’d like to expand services to include tutoring for the Praxis.
