Registration & Morning Refreshments

Welcome

Concurrent Sesson 1

Retention Through Connection: Addressing Student Needs to Foster Success

Presented by:

Reilly Zwanzig | Academic Advisor; College of Education: Middle, Secondary, & Math Education

Dara Hall | Executive Director of Teacher Education & Student Success

Paul Mabrey | Associate Professor; Director, Student Success & Enrollment Analytics

Regina Wine-Nash | Student Sucess Systems Coordinator

Session Description:

Retention is about more than keeping students enrolled; it’s about helping them thrive. This interactive session will facilitate a dynamic conversation among advisors and educators to brainstorm innovative strategies for retaining students in college programs by addressing their holistic needs. The discussion will focus on identifying common barriers to student persistence, such as deficiencies in professional values like time management, communication, and resilience, as well as potential economic and social needs. Participants will explore how connecting students to campus resources—such as the Career Center, academic supports, financial aid, and mental health services—can bridge gaps caused by these challenges. The session will include collaborative discussions to identify common challenges, share successful practices, and design actionable solutions tailored to diverse student populations. Attendees will leave with a toolkit of ideas to consider implementing with their program for creating a supportive ecosystem that empowers students to develop resilience, adaptability, and other key professional dispositions while addressing critical economic and personal needs.

GenAI and Advising

Presented by:

Paige Normand | Advisor & Student Success Strategist, Computer Science

Session Description:

A RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is an approach to train an LLM on specific content - for example, all the content I have populated on my Advising Canvas site. In this session, I will discuss my experience building multiple Advising AI assistants with three LLMs: Gemini, ChatGPT, and Llama. Participants will gain insight into the advantages and pitfalls of these LLMs for advising purposes, where consistently reliable information is key. While I have built a few AI Assistants trained on the specifics of the JMU CS curriculum, I have not tested them with students yet because I have many ethical qualms with these tools. I’m eager to engage in a broad conversation of the ethical implications of utilizing AI for advising and hear from our community about your perspectives, concerns, and ideas. My hope is that we can have dialog about the decision-making frameworks essential for considering and evaluating AI integration into our work as advisors.

When Students Struggle: Rising Stronger

*Hybrid Format

Presented by:

Josh Bacon | College of Businesss Academic Advisor, Advising & Support Center 

Session Description:

This training is based on my book: I SCREWED UP! NOW WHAT? 7 Practices to Make Things Right and Conquer Adversity (Bacon, 2022) and over twenty five years of coaching thousands of people through their setbacks and failures. I developed a restorative process to help people who were facing storms, struggles, setbacks, and failures, not only holding themselves accountable but growing stronger and wiser from the experience and better able to meet the next challenge. Simply put: these were the practices that worked, it is not easy and not a quick fix, facing major struggles and rising stronger takes hard work and is a lifelong process. I found one practice doesn’t work for everyone, different people responded in different ways and individuals must discover which way of using the practices worked best for them. These practices are tried and true and assessment based. This training includes hands-on experiential activities, including short practice of interactive restorative journaling, restorative mentoring, restorative quests, restorative circles, self-assessments, and trust building activities. It also teaches people how to develop a support network, motivate themselves to change their behavior, and create opportunities to reframe their struggles into their ongoing life story, and ultimately develop into the person they want to be.

Concurrent Session 2

What's New in Transfer Advising

*Hybrid Format

Presented by:

Jennifer Jackson | Transfer Advising Coordinator

Kate McDaniel | Transfer Advising Coordinator

Jessica Hyde | Transfer Advising Coordinator

Session Description:

The JMU Next Transfer team is excited to share what’s new with transfer! Our involvement within the JMU community, our community college partners, and at the state level has grown, and we look forward to sharing new initiatives, new partnerships, and new advising tools. Transfer students bring unique experiences and backgrounds to our JMU community, and we understand that sometimes advising them, before and after they enter JMU, can be intimidating. Our team will share our experiences as we advise and support transfer students before their transition to JMU, as well as share how we have developed new initiatives to continue that support during their first semester and beyond. Our hope is that you leave our session with a better understanding of who we are, how we can support you, and how we, as an advising community, can best serve our transfer population.

EdTech Tools for Advising

Presented by:

Ivan Guadarrama | Instructional Media Consultant

Session Description:

This workshop is designed for advisors to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness in supporting students. Participants will learn how to leverage three essential tools: Canvas, Zoom, and MS Teams - for streamlined communication, organization, and file management. Through hands-on activities, demonstrations, and discussions, participants will gain practical skills to organize resources, facilitate virtual office hours, and manage team communication and collaboration. By the end of this session, participants will be equipped to use these platforms to improve their workflows and provide a seamless experience for their advisees.

Voices of JMU: Student Perspectives on Effective Advising

Presented by:

Katie Fisher | Assistant Director of Pre-Professional Health, Health Professions Advisors for Pre-Medicine, Pre-PA, & Pre-Vet

Student Panel

Session Description:

In this session, participants will gain insights from JMU students about their unique advising experiences and learn about the types of communication and support students have found to be most valuable in their advising relationships. Participants will discover various forms of support that have positively impacted students across different colleges, majors, and minors. The session will offer an opportunity for an interactive Q&A segment, allowing participants to address specific questions about the student advising experience. By the end of the session, advisors will explore practical ways to enhance their advising practices based on student feedback and experiences, fostering a more inclusive and supportive advising environment for a diverse student body.

Lunch (Hot Baked Potato Bar provided by JMU Catering)

Focused Community Discussions

Advising Transfer Students

Advising from a Faculty Perspective

Advising for Underrepresented Populations

 2:30-3:45pm

Concurrent Session 3

Empowering Struggling Students: Strategies for Academic Advisors

*Hybrid Format

Presented by:

Jessica Kyllo | Exploratory Advisor

Session Description:

As academic advisors, we have a lot of strategies, tools, and resources to support students. However, despite our best intentions, these solutions can sometimes go underutilized or fail to be used by students who need them the most. So, how can we bridge that gap and effectively meet students where they are academically? In this session, I will draw from my experience as a former athletic academic advisor and learning specialist, and a current exploratory advisor to provide practical strategies for assisting students facing academic challenges. Participants will gain knowledge and insight in identifying common struggles and barriers with academic struggles, develop strategies to encourage student engagement and provide practical tools to connect students to resources. You will learn how to inspire students to take ownership of their learning. Advisors will gain actionable techniques for connecting with and supporting students in a way that encourages long-term academic success. Whether you're new to advising or looking to refine your approach, this session will provide you with the tools to foster an inclusive, supportive academic environment where all students can thrive.

Our Transfer Journey: A Transfer Student Panel

Presented by:

Jennifer Jackson | Transfer Advising Coordinator

Student Panel

Session Description:

JMU welcomes close to 1000 transfer students every year and their transition to the university varies from our traditional students. In this session, our student panel will share what their transition was like, how they felt entering the university, their orientation and advising experiences, and how they've acclimated to the campus community. Participants will gain valuable insight from transfer students and their unique transition. This session will be an opportunity for participants and students to engage in Q&A, and our hope is that advisors will gain insight and knowledge on how we can continue to best serve our transfer student population during their time at JMU.

From Data to Dialogue: Elevating and Supporting the Advising Community at JMU

Presented by:

Danielle Maxham | College of Education Graduate Programs Coordinator

Session Description:

This session will explore the findings of the 2024 General Member Survey, which aimed to better understand the advising community at JMU and to identify ways to enhance its support for advisors. The survey received 33 responses from a broad representation of advising roles and loads. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss these findings, share their own experiences, and collaborate on strategies to elevate advising at JMU. 

Social Hour at Pale Fire Brewing Company