Making Academic Success Her Mission

Written By: Ian Silvester

Helping students find academic success isn’t new to Andrea Burton. It’s been her career for nearly 15 years. At the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, Burton is merely picking up where she left off after leaving McNeese State University in 2022. 

Burton’s foundation was formed in southern Louisiana at McNeese State, where she was both a student and an employee. She saw the school in Lake Charles as a way to get an education and stay close to home. After two years, she made other plans. 

“Long story short, I got to the second semester of my sophomore year. My advisor came into a class called Attitude Change in Motivation and said, ‘Welcome to class. Congratulations,  you’re majoring in unemployment,’” she recalled. “That was pretty shocking to me.” 

Burton was forced to reassess her situation—knowing education was the path she wanted to go down, but faced with an off-putting remark that made her question her plans. Erring on the side of caution, she did what most students wouldn’t: She dropped out. 

After four years of working at “a casino, the Forest Service, and a French market foods, you know, the usual jobs that students and young adults have,” Burton decided to give McNeese State another chance. 

This time, determined to get her bachelor’s degree in social studies education (2010) and become a teacher. 

“I ended up teaching American History at a high school in Lake Charles, but I didn’t do that for very long because I quickly discovered that while I love working with students, I don’t always love working with discipline problems,” she said.  

Reenter McNeese State. 

Burton was hired as an admissions counselor for her alma mater in 2011, and so began her career in higher education. 

While working in admissions, she was able to complete her Master of Science in Instructional Technology in 2013 and used this degree when she pivoted to the university’s testing program. 

“I like to joke, that when I inherited the testing program, we had two Windows XP computers on two folding tables, and I grew it to two 30-seat labs that were constantly full,” Burton said. “Then they added career services on top because apparently I was too efficient.” 

Burton left McNeese State as the director of professional and career services, ready to take on her new challenge as Director of the Academic Success Center at UAFS, located on the second floor of Vines. She has already left her mark on the ASC since arriving in the fall of 2022. 

“One of the first things I did when I got here was get permission to keep the doors propped open,” she said. “I thought, ‘Well, are we inviting students in or not? Do we want this to be their space?’” 

It’s amazing what some new paint, posters, and a whiteboard can do for a space when doors are open. She said it has helped students feel more comfortable and welcome. 

“Students know they belong here,” Burton said proudly. “We’re worth the walk up the hill.” 

In the ASC, students can meet with academic coaches and tutors, use computers, and take tests. Given her background, Burton said she was extremely comfortable with the testing side of academic success, but when she stepped into her role at UAFS, she had to “learn about the philosophy of academic coaching and some of the best practices in peer tutoring.” 

Academic coaching is working more on the skills around the content, while tutoring is specifically on the content to understand what the thing is that you’re trying to learn,” Burton said. 

“Academic coaching is more of the how are you taking notes in lecture, how are you reading your textbook, how are you preparing for exams, and how are you making sure that you have that deep learning that you need for the base level content to be sure that you’ll be able to build on throughout your career.” 

When students get to college, Burton has found that the way they have been taught doesn’t always translate. In college, she said, students have to do a lot more of teaching themselves. 

“Learning how to learn in a new way is a lot of what we focus on with academic coaching,” she said. “We try to emphasize to students that they’re not alone. There’s somebody here to help them out.” 

Burton said this desire to help every student is what makes UAFS great. The university has repeatedly shown interest in supporting students and ensuring their success. For example, she noted a recent conference where a university with a student population of over 35,000 was excited to share that it hired a second academic coach. 

“I thought, ‘Wow, how lucky are we that we have two full-time coaches, plus the coaching that Amber and I do,’” Burton said, noting her assistant director, Amber Wiley. 

Whether students need help emailing professors, want to learn new study strategies, need one-on-one tutoring, or simply want a quiet place to work, Burton wants every student to know that the ASC is a place to find support and succeed. 

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