UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING CONFERENCE

Disability Compliance and Accommodations for All
(Juan Ramon Jimenez 2208)
This presentation addresses disability compliance, accommodations for students with disabilities, and universal design practices that benefit all learners. Advisors will learn strategies to help students with disabilities advocate for themselves. We will share resources and best practices, leaving ample time for questions and discussion.
Emily Singer Lucio, ADA/504 Coordinator, Belonging and Community; Tessa Cahill, Director, Accessibility and Disability Service; Ginny Hutcheson, Learning Experience Designer, Teaching and Learning Transformation Center

Transfer Champion Training: From Insight to Action
(Charles Carroll A 2203K)
In 2024, the Pre-Transfer Advising Program launched the Transfer Champion Training (TCT) Program. TCT is an asynchronous course available to all UMD faculty and staff through ELMS, designed to inform, inspire, and cultivate a community of transfer advocates on campus. It delves into the unique needs and strengths of transfer students, empowering participants to consider their role in engaging transfer students.
Facilitators: Imani Burwell-Finch, Program Manager, Pre-Transfer Advising; Jill Nagiel, Program Manager, Pre-Transfer Advising
Panelists: Dr. Shannon Hayes Buenaflor, Director for Transfer Initiatives, Clark School of Engineering; Dr. JV Sapinoso, Senior Advisor, Letters & Sciences; Laura Widener, Coordinator, Transfer and Off-Campus Student Life

Reframing Success & Advising During Uncertain Times
(Charles Carroll B 2203K)

It is important to consider the role wellness plays in defining and achieving success. It is equally important to ensure that students and advisors develop tools to aid in leading healthy and meaningful lives.
In this workshop, facilitators will introduce the “Eight Dimensions of Wellness” framework as a basis for establishing broader, more collaborative definitions of success. Using this multi-dimensional framework, participants will engage in group discussions about advising case studies. These activities will help participants:
1) better identify areas of challenge and appropriate support,
2) improve communication with students and colleagues, and
3) foster collaboration.
Tatiana Menjivar, Graduate Assistant Advisor, BSOS; Danielle Worsham, Assistant Program Director, Social Data Science Major, BSOS

Advising International Students During Times of Change
(Benjamin Banneker B 2212)
This session will provide information about issues that international students face in light of recent immigration changes and uncertainty. It will include a brief overview of the F-1 and J-1 student population changes that have occurred and how this impacts both incoming and continuing students.
Aviana Symon, Senior International Student Advisor, ISSS; Makkie Haller, International Pre-Arrival Advisor, ISSS

Academic Planning & Advising Tools in Workday
(Juan Ramon Jimenez 2208)
In the spring of 2028, Workday will support academic and graduation planning activities, offer degree audit functionality, and allow students to explore programs through "what-if scenarios." During this session, the Elevate team will share more about this functionality and what academic advisors at UMD can expect to learn from the Elevate Student team over the upcoming years as the institution prepares to introduce Workday Student to campus.
Brittany Johnson, Elevate Student Analyst, Academic Planning & Advising Tools; Suzanne Ashour-Bailey, Director, Engineering Academic Services, School of Engineering; Eric Johnson, Assistant Dean, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Director, Functional Lead; Paulanne Walker, Elevate Student Assoc. Functional Lead; Anita Park, Elevate Student Functional Lead, Academic Planning & Advising Tools

Reimagining Student Services: How Shared Leadership and Adaptive Strategies Spark Collaborative Change
(Charles Carroll A 2203K )
The COVID-19 pandemic created a moment of unplanned transformation, challenging student services professionals to adapt quickly while finding new, creative ways to support students. In the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS), this disruption became an opportunity to reflect and reimagine how student services could best meet evolving needs. With support from the Center for Leadership and Organizational Change, BSOS launched a team-centered approach to self-assessment and project-based initiatives. This approach not only empowered staff but also built a culture of shared responsibility and innovation. Panelists will share examples of putting leadership into practice, the shifts in mindset required, and how the Teams Model created momentum for meaningful change.
Rosalyn Anderson-Howell, Director of Student Success, BSOS Feller Center; Kim Bethke, Associate Director, BSOS Feller Center; Katie Hershey Conlon, Specialist, Center for Leadership and Organizational Change; Erik Hanson, Advisor, Department of Anthropology; Jillian Santos, Advising Manager, Department of Government and Politics; David Tana, Academic Advisor, Department of Economics; Danielle Worsham, Assistant Program Director, Department of Social Data Science

Owning Your Role, Finding Your Voice: Building Confidence Through Shared Experience in Early-Career Advising
(Charles Carroll B 2203K)
New professionals in student affairs bring valuable skills, perspectives, and lived experiences into academic advising roles. At the same time, they often encounter significant challenges, including imposter phenomenon, burnout, limited advancement opportunities, supervisory dynamics, and questions of institutional fit (Tull, 2006; Marshall et al., 2016). Despite these obstacles, early-career advisors are uniquely positioned to engage today's students in meaningful ways. This session will examine both the opportunities and challenges faced by new and mid-level advising professionals. Participants will reflect on their professional growth, build strategies for cultivating confidence, and strengthen the sense of community within the advising field.
Isaiah Willett, Academic Advisor, Letters and Sciences; Armon Barnes, Graduate Assistant & Jr. Academic Advisor, NEUR

Snapshot of Terp Career Trends & Outcomes: Tools for Guiding Students Through a Difficult Job Market
(Benjamin Banneker B 2212)
Join The University Career Center (UCC) at UMD for a comprehensive session on supporting students in a challenging job market. Beginning with an overview of the massive First Destination Graduation Survey, the panelists provide key insights into where May 2024 undergraduates landed post-graduation. The survey also includes significant findings on internship history, successful job search techniques, and more. This will set the stage for understanding student career experiences, current trends in the job market, and their impact on job seekers, especially in the DMV region. Building on these insights, panelists will explore how advisors can effectively support students navigating this complex landscape. The session will highlight practical tools and tips from the UCC's recently developed "Jumpstart Your Job Search" workshop, specifically designed to empower graduating seniors. By integrating survey findings with actionable strategies, this session will showcase key tools, university-specific resources, and best practices to help advisors support students worried about their post-graduation plans.
Caroline Bodnar, Career Advisor, University Career Center @ ARHU; Jodi Hammer, Program Director, University Career Center @ SPHL; Kate Juhl, Senior Program Director, University Career Center @ ARHU; Piper Holly, Career Advisor, University Career Center @ CMNS; Rebecca Ryan, Program Director, University Career Center @ CMNS; Sharon Ousman, Research and Assessment Analyst, University Career Center

Reframing Advising Research: Using a Critical Disability Studies Framework to See the Complex Student in Complex Times
(Juan Ramon Jimenez 2208)
Academic advisors rely on data to identify markers of student success, but how much do they understand the methodological choices they make and the research on which they rely? This session will introduce advisors to the ableist origins of educational research, and empower them to critically examine their own research or the research on which they base their policies and practices, analyze whether such research perpetuates educational inequity, and brainstorm new initiatives and practices that meet evolving student needs. Data and numbers do not speak for themselves, and it is increasingly important that we understand the stories behind the numbers we believe they tell.
Jillian Santos, Advising Manager, Department of Government and Politics

Advising and Advocacy for Undergraduates Who are Parenting
(Charles Carroll A 2203K)
Although over three million undergraduate students are parents, their needs are often misunderstood and overlooked, in part due to a lack of research on their experiences. Student parents are often highly motivated to complete their degrees and typically perform better academically than their non-parenting peers. However, fewer than 40% of student parents obtain a certificate or degree within six years. Academic advisors play a key role in supporting undergraduate parents by helping them with course sequencing to meet their obligations off campus and connecting them with essential resources for childcare, food, and housing. Our session will discuss the results of a multisite pilot study exploring facilitators and barriers to student parents' success, as well as provide information on the updated Title IX guidance for pregnant and parenting students, including the recently passed MD HB0840, which requires higher education institutions in Maryland to publish parenting resources on their websites.
Kendyl Oliver, Senior Academic Advisor, School of Public Health; Carson Peters, PhD Candidate, Behavioral and Community Health, SPHL; Jessica Salzwedel, PhD Student, Behavioral and Community Health, SPHL

How Are Our Students? An Overview of WISHES and Collaborative Wellbeing Efforts at UMD
(Benjamin Banneker B 2212)
Student well-being is quickly becoming a top university priority as it can negatively impact student outcomes. At UMD, partners in the Division of Student Affairs have joined a multi-institutional Action Network for Equitable Wellbeing (ANEW) to address these challenges. One initiative is the implementation of the Wellbeing Improvement Survey for Higher Education Settings (WISHES), a free, brief survey that provides actionable data to help institutions improve campus norms, structures, and processes in support of equitable student wellbeing.
Through this data, new insights on our student population have emerged, including the well-being of first-generation students compared to multi-generation peers, their sense of belonging and connection on campus, and how students are flourishing. Attendees will explore WISHES implementation at UMD, the findings available on the data dashboard, and next steps for our campus.
Shayna Shor, Program Coordinator and Academic Advisor, Government and Politics; Tami Lee, Assistant Director, Fitness and Wellness, University Recreation and Wellness

Meaningful Metrics: Asking the Right Questions to Measure What Matters Most (Charles Carroll B 2203K)
As advisors and UMD employees, each of us is linked to a set of institutional goals and objectives, either through broad strategic planning initiatives or goals more narrowly established by our unit. It is essential to recognize that we all bring different perspectives and motivations to our interpretations of the data we present as evidence of achievement.
Ambiguous words and vague ideas render important goals immeasurable. Words like "amplify" and "innovate" are motivational and aspirational, but what do they really mean? How do we know, for example, if student experiences are enhanced? At the surface, these innocuous words are used to motivate audiences to support well-meaning institutional initiatives. This session will provide a framework for determining the big, burning questions that impact your work and practice refining them into clear, measurable, and meaningful metrics.
Megan C. Masters, Interim Assistant Vice President, Academic Technology and Innovation, Director, Academic Technology Experience, Associate Faculty, Department of Second Language Acquisition, Lecturer, Human Development and Quantitative Methodology; Alia Lancaster, Reporting and Analytics Manager, Division of Information Technology

The Academic Multiverse: Where Advising and Accessibility Unite (Juan Ramon Jimenez 2208)
At every university, countless students' experiences unfold across different realities – academic pathways, support systems, and individual challenges that shape their educational development. But what happens when those realities collide? This session examines how academic advising and disability services can work together to create a truly inclusive, student-centered environment.
This session will also highlight practical strategies for building bridges between advising and accessibility, reducing barriers, and fostering collaboration that empowers all students to thrive. Participants will explore strategies and proactive practices that help academic advising and disability services work together–not in parallel, but in sync. Through the lens of the multiverse, attendees will gain new perspectives on how embracing diverse student needs strengthens academic pathways and cultivates a campus where access, equity, and academic success coexist.
Monica Erin Aisenberg, Disability Specialist, Accessibility and Disability Service; Hannah P. Witschey, Disability Specialist, Accessibility and Disability Service

Big Ten Conference Realignment and Academic Impact: Academic Counseling and the Student-Athlete Experience
(Charles Carroll A 2203K )
As the NCAA Division I conference undergoes significant realignment, the ripple effects on student-athlete academics–particularly missed classes–are becoming more pronounced. This session will explore how academic advising can provide critical insights and help student-athletes adapt to changes, maintain academic progress, and remain academically successful. This session will also delve into a new and innovative missed classes report designed to collect data concerning time away from campus for athletic travel and competition. Teamworks: The Operating System for Sports is a platform for data-driven operations and holistic performance development.
Brady Rourke, Director, Gossett Student-Athlete Center; Chastity Frieson, Associate Director, Gossett Student-Athlete Center; Miranda Matias, Assistant Director, Gossett Student-Athlete Center; Sydney Steinberg, Assistant Director, Gossett Student-Athlete Center; Michael Pruchniki, Academic Counselor, Gossett Student-Athlete Center

Executive Functioning for Emerging Adults, Shifting the Conversation and A New Intervention
(Charles Carroll B 2203K)
Skills in executive functioning (EF), such as task and time management, are crucial for emerging adults to succeed in both post-secondary education and future careers. However, EF is often not explicitly taught in the classroom (Barron, 2025). When students lack these skills, they often run the risk of being misperceived by others as lazy (Galcing Growth Group, 2022). This session will explore the differences between developing EF skills and laziness and how advisors can shift the conversations in their units to make managing tasks and time a more critical learning objective for first-year students, drawing upon a real-world intervention available at UMD!
TimeKeeper is an asynchronous course on time and task management with original and acronymized strategies, curated videos from college-age influencers, and assessment quizzes that were delivered as graded assignments to over 300+ students in CMNS100: Becoming a Science Terp (fall 2024).
Shiloh Ortiz, Academic Advisor, Biological Sciences Undergraduate Program

Collaborative Advising Tools using Google Workbooks
(Benjamin Banneker B 2212)
How do students plan their courses and share their four-year plans with the colleges? The 2025 equivalent of the crumpled sheet of paper is often an email thread with multiple Excel spreadsheets, Google Docs, or screenshots from a student's Notes app.
The School of Public Health (SPHL) implemented standardized personal advising workbooks using Google Sheets, allowing advisors and students to view and collaborate on multiple scenarios for their academic experience. SPHL advisors will share examples of this tool and present results of a survey on student reception.
Catherine Donohoe, Asst. Director of Undergraduate Programs, Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health; Kayla Hoffman, Academic Advisor, Public Health Science Program; Samantha Griffin, Academic Advisor, Department of Kinesiology

TerpEngage in Transition: Advising Innovation in the Age of Workday and TerpEngage (Juan Ramon Jimenez 2208)
As advising technology and institutional systems evolve, advising practices must adapt. In partnership with campus experts, the TerpEngage Advising Team will present a dynamic, forward-looking session that addresses both innovations and ongoing changes in the advising technology landscape. Participants will: Gain a holistic understanding of the advising ecosystem that supports students throughout their UMD journey
Discuss how TerpEngage continues to support this path through recent enhancements
Learn about the upcoming transition to Workday for students and what that means for TerpEngage moving forward
The session will include a "Super User" Panel with colleagues representing undergraduate advising, graduate education, and operational units. Panelists will share practical takeaways, lessons learned, and emerging questions about collaboration, change, and continuous improvement in advising.
Jessica Chew, Asst. Director of Academic Affairs, Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, College of Education, TerpEngage (Salesforce) Functional Lead; Kenneth Kokason, Assistant Program Director, Feller Center, Advising and Career Planning, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, TerpEngage (Salesforce) Project Consultant; Eric Johnson, Assistant Dean, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Director, Office of Letters and Sciences, Workday Student Functional Lead, TerpEngage (Salesforce) Product Owner Advisor; Jason DeSanto Jones, Assistant Director, CRM, Division of Information Technology; Hind Alaasemi, Senior TerpEngage (Salesforce) Administrator, Division of Information Technology; Krishnapriya Sankar, TerpEngage (Salesforce) Administrator, Division of Information Technology; Evelyn Reisenwitz, Junior Project Manager, Division of Information Technology, Enterprise Planning and Continuous Improvement

Piloting a New Orientation Option
(Charles Carroll A 2203K)
With growing enrollments during the summer, many advising units are at or over capacity. How can academic units serve students and provide a more manageable experience for advisors? This workshop will discuss ways to pilot changes to the Advising and Course Registration portion of Orientation based on the EXST-Freshmen Connection advising model. Staff from Freshmen Connection will share how adjustments to their fall advising and registration processes have created more flexibility and a less demanding summer schedule for advisors while ensuring excellent advising support for students. This session will delve into logistics and explore whether and how a similar approach could be piloted for a subset of students served by individual advising units.
Anne Baum, Associate Director of Summer, Winter & Undergraduate Programs, Office of Ext. Studies; Genna Godley, Manager of Summer and Winter Programs, Office of Extended Studies

What Students Aren’t Saying: Designing Advising to Meet the Needs of GenZ
(Charles Carroll B 2203K)
Let's be honest: supporting students isn't what it used to be. Gen Z learners are navigating college with new expectations, evolving challenges, and entirely different ways of showing up (or not showing up at all). Add in growing caseloads, tighter budgets, and that blank stare you get when you ask, "Did you read my email?" and it's clear traditional advising methods aren't landing like they used to. In this interactive session, the Maryland Promise Program (MPP) team will demonstrate how design thinking–a human-centered problem-solving approach rooted in empathy, creativity, and experimentation– can be used to reimagine student support without increasing advisor burnout. Instead of doing more with less, they stepped back, identified root issues, and designed practical, scalable solutions that actually stuck. Then the fun begins: participants will roll up their sleeves and dive into a hands-on activity designed to tackle advising challenges.
Michelle Udeli, Program Director, Maryland Promise Program, Undergraduate Studies; Denis Garcia Reyes, Program Coordinator, Maryland Promise Program, Undergraduate Studies

Strategic Alliances: Driving Experiential Learning Success through Faculty-Advisor Collaboration
(Benjamin Banneker B 2212)
In today's rapidly evolving higher education landscape, preparing diverse students and stakeholders for the future is critical. Experiential learning serves as a practical framework that bridges theory and practice, paving the way for professional growth, meaningful reflection, and a dynamic, innovative approach to education. This session highlights how faculty members and advisors collaborated to create innovative experiential learning opportunities in two large undergraduate programs in the School of Public Health. Grounded in UMD's six standard contexts for experiential learning, participants will learn from two distinct program models that have uniquely integrated these approaches.
The Public Health Science Program will present its client-based learning approach, where students directly consult with industry professionals to tackle real business challenges while developing essential professional skills and applied knowledge. In contrast, the Kinesiology Program introduced a community-based learning initiative, in which students engaged in service-learning projects alongside local community partners. This session emphasizes the role of advising in strengthening experiential initiatives in the curriculum, the iterative nature of these types of programs, and campus resources to support implementation. Attendees will gain practical insights into building successful faculty-advisor partnerships that drive experiential learning forward.
Shannon Edward, Experiential Learning Manager, Senior Faculty Specialist, PHSC Program; Felicia Low, Assistant Director, Public Health Science Program; Emma Powell, Lecturer and Graduate Coordinator, Department of Kinesiology; Lindsey Winter, Assistant Program Director, Department of Kinesiology