Advising Helps Students Find First-Year Success

Written By: Ian Silvester

Starting college often can feel overwhelming, but the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith’s ROAR First Year Advising Center helps students navigate the excitement, nerves, and challenges by providing academic guidance and support beginning the summer before classes and continuing through their first year on campus. 

“We typically start working with our first-time entering students and students who are coming in for the fall semester in the month of May,” said Kayla McIntosh, director of first-year advising, noting this gives students enough time to register and have access to necessary records to avoid multiple appointments at the ROAR. 

However, McIntosh and her team of professional advisors don’t just meet with students before school starts. They meet throughout the year, hosting group advising sessions as well as one-on-ones. 

One of the biggest misconceptions about advising is the belief that want an advisor tells a student is set in stone, McIntosh said. In reality, “it’s a partnership,” she added. 

“(Advising) is a collaborative process. Your advisor is there to guide you, but ultimately the student has the onus in their decisions and can make decisions after they leave an advisor’s office. We really encourage students to be good advocates for their academic progress and become very familiar with their degree plans and use their advisors as tools and resources,” she said. “But there is a time when your advisor is going to tell you, ‘Hey, this is a time where you can’t pass go and collect $200. You have to do this thing if you want to graduate in this timely fashion.’” 

The ROAR First Year Advising Center at UAFS serves students across all disciplines. It’s the first step in a three-part advising process all Lions will go through while attending UAFS. McIntosh said students begin at the ROAR, where they are guaranteed exposure to UAFS’ student support services, before being assigned a college advisor and a faculty advisor starting their second year.  

“We get to be the experts on the first-year experience and really help students settle in and get their foundation,” McIntosh said proudly. 

Advising is all about successfully progressing students from the ROAR to their college advising centers and, eventually, to graduation. 

“We try to not only forecast what is coming up in the next semester or to get a student registered for classes. Our advisers are doing quite a bit of follow-up with students and looking in their academic records more often than they’re even aware of,” she said. “There are a lot of things that might start in the advisor’s office. They may say, ‘Hey, I need you to go see the experts in financial aid or visit the registrar’s office to turn in grade replacement paperwork.’ Advising really touches a lot of things that are the responsibility of other offices.” 

From first-generation students who aren’t even sure where to start to students who come from generations of college graduates and know exactly what they want to do, there’s always value in meeting with an advisor, McIntosh said. 

“We want the student to understand their degree requirements and understand that there are a lot of things that interact with advising that really aren’t necessarily advising, but we’re going to talk about it anyway,” she said. 

Those conversations can unearth bumps in the road that may delay a student, McIntosh added. 

“Sometimes the fastest way forward is actually to take it a little bit slower to do the things that you need to do to be able to pay the bills, keep the roof over your head, stay fed, and be able to succeed academically because your college education could end up costing you a whole lot more money.” 

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• ROAR First Year Advising Center
• Advising