PT Academic Advisor (Tamaqua/Schnecksville Campus)

About the role

The Academic Advisor works from a developmental framework, assessing students’ needs and assisting them with a broad array of academic and career‑related issues. The Advisor provides direct assistance to students, collaborates with colleagues to strengthen advising services, advocates and leads the development of advising initiatives and strategies to support degree completion and career readiness, and implements proactive prevention and intervention strategies for students in academic difficulty. This position serves students from the Tamaqua Campus (including Health Sciences), reports to the Dean of Academic Support and Student Success, and travels to the Schnecksville campus one to three days per week (with occasional evening hours as required).

Responsibilities

• Serve as a resource and advocate for a caseload of students, assisting them in developing academic, career, and transfer plans and identifying strategies to achieve their goals.
• Assist students in becoming self‑directed in educational and career exploration and planning processes.
• Assess individual students’ academic and career progress; help determine suitable developmental steps and direct students to alternate majors or career options when appropriate.
• Work with students to complete an academic plan for graduation (using Degree Works and CRM Advise) that aligns with their needs, abilities, and timely degree‑requirement fulfillment.
• Support enrollment and registration processes.
• Refer students to appropriate departmental offices, faculty, and support services for career development, experiential learning, personal counseling, academic skills development, tutoring, financial aid, campus clubs, leadership opportunities, and other resources that aid academic, career, and transfer objectives.
• Identify options for satisfying specific degree requirements; evaluate and recommend petitions and adjustments to students’ programs of study.
• Help students identify factors that may contribute to or detract from their academic or career progress.
• Assist students on Academic Alert, Probation, or Suspension in developing specific strategies to improve academic success.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of the advising role through departmental and cross‑departmental collaboration and committee work, supporting student persistence, retention, and completion.
• Support the college’s accreditation efforts, including Middle States accreditation and program‑specific standards.
• Manage the CRM system: troubleshoot issues, provide mass communications to students, and use data reporting to measure student‑support initiatives.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree from an accredited institution (required).
• Act 153 clearances (Act 34 PA Criminal Background, Act 151 PA Child Abuse History, Act 114 FBI Clearance Fingerprinting).
• Two years of advising experience at a college.
• Familiarity with the mission of a comprehensive community college.
• Experience with student‑support CRM systems.
• Ability to be a productive team member in a dynamic environment.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills; understanding of academic processes; ability to learn and use administrative software; ability to interact positively and proactively with students, parents, faculty, and staff.
• Creative and resourceful, with the ability to establish collaborative relationships.
• High level of work skills and behaviors: teamwork/cooperation, initiative, customer service, and commitment to continuous professional growth.
• Preferred: Bilingual (Spanish).
• Preferred: Experience advising community‑college students.
• Preferred: Understanding of assessment practices in higher education.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, talk, and hear. The employee may regularly lift and/or move up to 5 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close and distance vision.

Work Environment

The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet to moderate.