Saint Mary’s recently announced the hiring of Kari McCloud, a new senior academic advisor. McCloud will work mostly with first and second-year students, and Tracy White, another senior academic advisor, will remain the advisor for third and fourth-years.
Karen Chambers, dean of academic services, said the position opened after some previous shifting.
“We had somebody leave the college a little while ago, and we also had Sarah Pressey, who used to be the first-year advisor, move over to the Registrar’s Office,” Chambers said.
Chambers explained that Saint Mary’s utilizes a blended model of advising with both faculty and professional advisors. While faculty advisors are advisors within a student’s department, professional advisors take on a different role.
“Professional advisors, which is what [McCloud] is, help students when there’s confusion,” Chambers said. “Maybe they haven’t hooked up with faculty yet, they’re switching majors, there’s a policy that they’re not sure how to proceed with. We meet with them and help them find the resources to make academic progress.”
Chambers said part of what drew the college to McCloud was her previous experience in roles similar to the one she will fill at Saint Mary’s.
“She has a lot of experience in advising and particularly with students who are undecided and exploring majors,” Chambers said. “She seems like she’d be a very good partner with Career Crossings in terms of helping students bridge career advising and academic advising together.”
Originally from St. Joseph, Michigan, McCloud said she is happy to be back in the area after working at colleges in places like Iowa and North Carolina. Between the different schools she has worked at, McCloud has worked in student housing, student activities and advising.
However, advising has always been her favorite, she said. Because of her previous experience in advisory roles, she knows that she likes the job. She said it is something that she wants to keep doing, calling it “a good match.”
“It’s a helping profession and that’s what I like to do. I always joke with people and say even if I’m at the grocery store, I’ll find somebody that I can help,” McCloud said. “I wouldn’t be happy if I wasn’t doing something in a helping type of position.”
On top of first-year advising, McCloud will also be in charge of advising transfer students and study abroad students, as well as helping evaluate the Sophia program that all first-year students take.
“[McCloud] will also be working with us on developing and re-envisioning the freshman seminar course, which we are always revisioning,” Chamber said.
McCloud explained that working at Saint Mary’s is different from previous institutions she has worked at.
“It’s definitely a learning curve,” McCloud said. “I’m trying to figure out more of the liberal arts side of things and how it works here. But I find it really fascinating, especially some of the titles that I see for some of the classes I’m like ‘Oh, that sounds so cool!’”
While she hasn’t been able to do much yet, as she just started at the beginning of March, McCloud says she is ready to jump right into helping students through advising.
“I’m excited about summer advising, just to see kind of how that works and to meet more students,” she said.
