A Day in the Life: Sara Solloway, Director of Student Retention and Success Programs

Special thanks to Sara Solloway from the Arts and Sciences Dean’s office who agreed to be the first USF employee to participate in the “A Day in the Life” posts!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I thought it would be fun to have USF employees that our students work with or hear about participate in our “A Day in the Life” posts, so that we can all learn a bit more about what they do in their positions here at USF.  Many of you students and alums will recognize Sara from orientation, academic success programs, and trips to the Dean’s office.  I asked Sara to share a bit about her position and educational background. 

Sara Solloway, Director of Student Retention & Success Programs

Sara is the Director of Student Retention and Success Programs for the College of Arts and Sciences.  She has worked at USF for 5 1/2 years, and get this: she was a Communication Studies major at Ball State University!  She then went on to get her Master’s of Science in College Student Personnel/Counseling at Indiana State University.  In short, you are in good hands when you go to visit Sara!  Here is A Day in the Life of Sara Solloway: January 31, 2011:

6:30am     Walk dog

7:15am     Check personal email

7:35am     Clean house/eat breakfast

8:00am     Get ready for work

9:00am     Preparation for meetings of the day/responding to emails (I typically have 6 meetings per day)

9:30am     Meeting with a student on academic probation

10:00am  Proctor a make up final exam to a student – I don’t normally do this often, but a student had an incomplete grade last semester due to extreme sickness, so I helped proctor the final.

10:00am  Meeting with student about study strategies (*responding to emails)

11:00am   Meeting with student who wanted to change their major (*responding to emails)

Sara Solloway meeting with a student. Go see her for academic counseling! She is a smiling face and excellent at what she does.

11:30am  Made outreach calls to students who were struggling last semester to see how they were doing

• Talked on the phone to a parent of a student who is concerned because their child is on academic probation.
• Professor contacted called me regarding a student who is taking a leave of absence for spring semester and she wanted me to reach out to make sure everything was ok with the student.
• Talked with a student who turned in a drop form last semester to One Stop and the withdrawal was not posted to their student account.
• Contacted professor to be presenter for Academic Success Workshop Series.  If you want to attend any of our free workshops, with free food, go to our website at: http://www.usfca.edu/studentacademicservices/

1:00pm    Summer Reading program committee meeting, selection of new book for next summer for new student orientation

2:00pm   Reviewed statistics about how many students were removed from academic probation last semester and created report.

4:00pm   Emailed professors about a student who is in the hospital and won’t be able to attend classes this week.

4:00-6:00  Respond to emails

We interrupt this “A Day in the Life” post to bring you a public service announcement from Sara: If you would like any free one on one academic coaching, please contact 415-422-6113 to schedule an appointment.  If you would like to learn more about what services the Dean’s Office provides, please go to our website at: http://www.usfca.edu/studentacademicservices/

6:00pm   Walk home

6:15pm    Make dinner & eat dinner

7:00pm    Clean house for house guests coming to visit

8:30pm     Catch up on TV shows I like on Hulu.com (House, Glee, etc.)

10pm         Go to bed

Wow!  What a day!  Thanks, Sara, for participating!   We learned several important things:

1. Communication Studies majors can be found all over campus, not just in our department!
2. Sara does a lot of different things in her position in the Dean’s office.
3. Any student in need of academic coaching can go and see Sara and the Dean’s office staff.  If you don’t need one-on-one help, you can attend an Academic Success Workshop, which address topics ranging from test preparation and note taking to battling the blues to graduation requirements. 
4. Sara has good taste in TV (yay Glee!).