Program Advising Specialist

Henry Ford College presents an opportunity for a Program Advising Specialist.

The Program Advising Specialist provides academic advising to incoming and current students within a specific area of study aligned with institutional program groupings and academic schools, either face-to-face, on the phone, or electronically via chat or other means such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This position delivers effective and holistic advising support, acting as an essential resource and single point of contact for students from enrollment through completion of their educational goals. The Program Advising Specialist will assist with clarifying students' educational paths through the development of academic plans, guiding students while on the path by monitoring academic progress and key performance metrics, and providing the necessary supports and resources to help students stay on track to completion. This position must work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community and requires substantial face-to-face student service and interactions with students and colleagues. All responsibilities are in support of student success as outlined in HFC's Strategic Plan.The most successful candidate will have a career that reflects the following competencies and qualifications. However, education, experience, and training that demonstrates proficiency and the ability to perform the essential duties will be evaluated for equivalence to the education, competencies, and experience qualifications listed below.

Experience - Minimum three (3) years of professional level experience with student advising, academic counseling, or other student support services in a secondary, post-secondary, or adult education setting.

Education- Master's degree from a regionally accredited institution or comparable combination of education and experience.

Planning and Evaluating- Organizes work, sets priorities, and determines resource requirements; determines short- or long-term goals and strategies to achieve them; coordinates with other parts of the organization to accomplish goals; monitors progress and evaluates outcomes.
+ Demonstrated ability to proactively leverage data when prioritizing and determining daily work.

Interpersonal Skills - Shows understanding, respect, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, and concern to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations; is sensitive to cultural diversity, race, gender, disabilities, and other individual differences.

Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, considering the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.

Public speaking experience and/or experience facilitating group educational presentations or forums.

Written Communication- Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.

Customer Experience- Anticipates and meets the needs of both internal and external customers including students, staff, and the community. Delivers high-quality services; is committed to continuous improvement.
+ A student-centered philosophy to his or her daily work.
+ An ability and desire to provide high-quality customer service to community college students in an effective and responsible manner.
+ Ability to perform in a fast-paced, high-value customer environment.

Problem Solving - Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations.

External Awareness- Identifies and understands economic, political, and social trends that affect the organization.
+ Demonstrated understanding of current labor market trends and career information resources.

The ideal candidate will have a career or experience that includes the following:

• In-depth knowledge of academic advising procedures and policies, advising information resources, and college's instructional programs.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with diverse student populations in post-secondary/college-level education.
• Experience collaborating with faculty in a higher education setting.
• Experience working with an integrated administrative computer software system and social media platforms.
• Awareness, empathy, and understanding of the various cultures and communities the College serves.
• Conversational ability with non-native English speakers. Applicants fluent in Arabic and/or Spanish are highly encouraged to apply.

In addition, we seek someone who values and demonstrates:

Teamwork - Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals.

Integrity/Honesty - Contributes to maintaining the integrity of the organization; displays high standards of ethical conduct and understands the impact of violating these standards on an organization, self, and others; is trustworthy.

Accountability - Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work as appropriate. Accepts responsibility for mistakes. Complies with established control systems and rules.

Flexibility - Is open to change and new information; adapts behavior or work methods in response to new information, changing conditions, or unexpected obstacles; effectively deals with ambiguity.

Academic Advising

• Manage and coordinate an assigned student caseload and collaborate with relevant departmental personnel to ensure appropriate educational planning to meet academic and career goals, including long-term planning and appropriate referrals.
• Monitor student progress to degree attainment and conduct proactive degree audits to ensure adherence to degree program requirements.
• Facilitate large and small workshops and orientations on standard advisement topics.
• Provide input to departmental leadership regarding the development of advisement, recruitment, and/or curricular programs offered by the school/department; may research information, compile statistics, and gather and compute various data, as needed.
• Assist with identifying campus-wide and department policies and processes that create barriers and impede students' timely degree/program completion.
• Advocate and champion progressive, positive change through high-level and effective collaboration with departments and student services offices.
• Teach students to register using Student Planning for classes based on student's needs and prerequisite status.
• Make appropriate referrals to other college student services areas in support of students' academic and personal needs.
• Document student interactions in accordance with department and institution policies to support accountability and program assessment.
• Ensure all relevant advising and career information is up to date, including but not limited to admissions requirements, new programs and course changes, important dates, college-wide initiatives, and transfer requirements and options.
• Interpret and explain college policies and procedures.
• Actively listen to the goals and needs of students. Meet them 'where they are' and engage HFC's community of resources to support student goals despite any barriers to success that may exist.
• Maintain focus on students' best interests, educating and empowering them to be successful college students.
• Maintain a growth mindset and be adaptable as the College evolves.
• Support the Academic Advising office, Advising colleagues, and Director of Academic Advising in meeting HFC's student success goals as outlined in the Strategic Plan.
• Provide training to entry-level Academic Advisors, where applicable.

Outreach

• Design and implement academic program/department-specific presentations and events for students, including welcome programs and community building events.
• Represent the Academic Advising department on college committees and task forces as assigned.
• Serve as the Advising lead for special events, follow-up efforts, and other service initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to provide equity based, culturally competent, efficient, and fair services.
• Maintain a high level of confidentiality of personal and institutional information in accordance with College policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
• Perform other related duties as assigned.