I started my career serving as a College Completion Coach through AmeriCorps at Lorain County Community College. One of my supervisors was a former completion coach himself, and a current academic adviser for LCCC. Over my two years there, we would often talk about the differences and similarities between advising and coaching, and how both could be used to better a student's overall experience and promote student success. Each area has their own skill-sets, however there is a good amount of overlap. In fact, some may ask if there is really that much of a difference. Now that I have been both, I can attest that, yes, there is a difference, but there truly is a significant amount of overlap. With this, I can also say there are appropriate times to advise, and there are appropriate times to coach. Luckily, I am currently a graduate assistant academic adviser in an office that promotes both, and builds both into our meetings with students. A large part of coaching is empowering someone by helping them set goals for themselves. This past summer, this was the first thing I did with my incoming freshmen students. Helping a student set goals is a great way to get to know them, what they aspire for, and their thought process of how to get there. Doing this first in a meeting builds your student's trust in you, as showing genuine interest in them and their goals lets them know that you are there for them. This eases the sometimes tricky advising process, because sometimes the student looks to the adviser for recommendations, whether it be what class to take, or what a good schedule would be. I am glad my foundation is based in coaching, because a relationship based in coaching is a relationship built with trust.
When I was serving with AmeriCorps, my office was based in Lorain County Community College's Career Services office. Because of this, I have learned the importance of coaching and advising with the student's future career in mind. After all, the reason many, if not all, come to college is to prepare and equip one's self with relevant career skills. One of the first questions I ask students when they tell me their major is, "what would you like to do with that degree?" Their answer gives me an idea of what classes my institution offers that could enable them to get there. I currently advise early childhood education majors, and one of my favorite things is when I am able to tell them that they came to the right place for what they want to do. I also advise Sports Administration majors, so being able to drop a name like Nick Saban, arguably one of the top 5 college football coaches of all time, is pretty neat and encouraging for them. I am fortunate to be working for an institution that builds internships into so many of their programs, and offers abundant research opportunities to those who qualify.
Over my 2 years of coaching, and my one year of advising, I have come across my fair share of adult learners. One overwhelming thing I have been told from them boils down to how real I am with them. Adult learners are typically coming to college with a set direction and goal in mind. From my experience, they appreciate the support, but do not need to get into the emotional side of things. They are in college to either revitalize their professional lives, or give themselves a step-up to move ahead in their career. As a coach and adviser, the biggest things I look out for in these students are burnout and indifference. From my experience, adult learners can burn themselves out from not only balancing schoolwork, but their list of other daily responsibilities as well. I did my best to help them reorganize their daily lives with time management skills, and excel sheet planners. Additionally, I hear about a lot of indifference coupled with frustration from adult learners about not understanding why they have to take classes that are not relevant to their individual major. I have an example from Lorain County Community College. I was coaching a student who was in his late 30's early 40's who had been told by their adviser that, in order to graduate, he had to take our SDEV 101 course. SDEV 101 at LCCC is basically college 101. This man was in his final semester of his associate's degree, and he had to take College 101 to graduate. I am sure you can imagine his frustration, and indifference. When he came to me and voiced his frustrations about the class, I gave him the best advice I could give for this situation. I told him to, "take this as an opportunity to refine the skills that it's teaching, which you already have, learn the new skills that you do not, and be the wise and experienced voice that your younger peers need." Often times, due to how adolescents tend to treat authority figures, especially a professor teaching a "common sense class", being able to hear someone on the same level of them status-wise explain the importance and relevance of the material gives them a better appreciation for it. He took that advise and ran with it. By our final meeting before he graduated he happily told me how he assumed the role I brought up to him, and excelled in the class. His professor's office was a couple doors down from mine, and she made it a point to mention to me how successful he had been in the class. This was an instance that reaffirmed my desire to be in this field.