Elevating Student Success: Inside the Academic Success Center

ANNOUNCER (00:00.78)

You are listening to the National University Podcast.

Kimberly King (00:08.568)

Hello, I’m Kimberly King. Welcome to the National University Podcast where we offer an holistic approach to student support, wellbeing, and success: the Whole Human education. We put passion into practice by offering accessible, achievable higher education to lifelong learners.

On today’s episode, we’re talking about the Academic Success Center and joining us is Dr. Meg Roberts, proofreading supervisor and academic coach. She holds a bachelor of arts in religion, a master of arts in higher education, a master of arts in biblical and theological studies, and a PhD in higher education. With her entire career in higher education, including academic advising, adjunct teaching and editing doctor, Dr. Roberts considers herself a professional nerd. I love that.

With her entire career in higher education, her research interests span andragogy, service learning, marginalized populations in higher education, and learning theory. Outside academia, she is an avid runner, having completed one ultramarathon, 15 marathons, and about 50 half marathons. This is incredible, and many shorter races. Her philosophy inspired by John Bingham, “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to even start.” I love this too. Guides her support for students at National University on their journey to graduation. And we welcome her to the podcast, Dr. Roberts, how are you? Wow, it’s so impressive.

Doctor Meg Roberts (01:43.928)

Thank you so much. This is so exciting. Thank you for sharing this space for myself and for the Academic Success Center, ASC.

Kimberly King (01:51.852)

I love it. Why don’t you fill our audience in a little bit on your mission and your work. I love what your mantra is to your students, but talk a little bit about that before we get to today’s show topic.

Doctor Meg Roberts (02:03.458)

Yeah, I often find a lot of connection between my running life and teaching life. Yeah, the quote from John Bingham, his nickname was, it is the penguin, very back of the pack runner, not one that was going to win the Olympics. And that quote, the miracle isn’t that I had that I finished the miracles that I had the courage to start that idea. I always tell students the blank page is the hardest part, and just really appreciate what students are diving into, especially adult students.

Like I will tell them to their faces on the Zoom all the time- How amazing it is that adult students already have these full, busy lives with work and family and volunteering and other commitments, and they choose to go earn that bachelor’s degree or a master’s or doctorate that they’ve been wanting maybe forever since they were quote unquote supposed to get it at a different age. And so getting to work with those students, I’m just amazed and inspired by them.

And so I get to help out along the side. I use my story of different experiences I’ve had as a traditional and adult student to offer suggestions, best practices, what not to do sometimes. And the running piece comes into it that what I like about races is that unless you’re among that, like the very, very front of the pack, everybody’s very nice. Like, I don’t know about the front of the pack, never been there, but the rest of us are very nice because we’re just trying our own race. We’re not competing against each other. We’re competing against ourselves and the same thing’s true in education.

It’s not like we run out of diplomas on a certain day or it’s like, sorry, your name starts with the wrong letter, no degree for you. Instead, it’s their race and their pace, and their win too.

Kimberly King (03:44.876)

You know what, I love that because you ooze passion and you’re connecting that with your students, and that’s the best kind of teacher and professor I think there are. So they’re blessed to have you. I love that. Today we are talking about academic success and the Academic Success Center. So Dr. Roberts, what brought you to National University and this- talk a little bit about the Academic Success Center.

Doctor Meg Roberts (04:11.16)

Sure. So I live in Portland, Oregon, and I was part of a university here that closed in spring of 2020, not due to COVID, but because of that, led to different challenges and finding a new job. I was working with doctoral students there in their education program, and a lot of them ended up transferring to then- North Central University. So I reached out to someone who I knew that works there and basically said, hey, a lot of my students, the students that I’m getting to work with are transferring to North Central. Any chance you need some additional staff to help them with their transition? And that got me connected with Dr. Ramon Danes.

And my first assumption was that my job was going to be kind of like a drop-in center. Like basically, I wait on the Zoom with my fingers twirling and see who shows up. I was like, OK. This is not career, but I can do this for a few months. And it turns out so much more delightful. And I have told this to Ramon. I get to see folks weekly or monthly, or they come back to group sessions and so get to actually have a relationship, instead of just whoever shows up that day and see their growth. I mean, there’s lovely students where I’ve gotten to work with them over the course of maybe two years and go to their defense or get a copy of their announcement for graduation.

And so, with the Academic Success Center, we have a variety of services that we offer to students. I mean, yes, our website has a lot of resources on that that students can get to any time, but it’s our sessions that’s really that connection. Individual, group sessions, drop-in opportunities, there’s ways they can get feedback via email, and getting to do that means that this afternoon, I’m scheduled to meet with three students, and I know all three of them by name, by face, by a little bit of their story. And I have students that are getting near the end of their degree and I’m so excited and will miss them. And that’s something I never expected when I joined in April 2020.

Kimberly King (06:13.258)

How refreshing is that, that what you just said, that these students know you, you know their names. They’re not just a number or a check off the box. You know them, you have these relationships with them. And I think that’s beautiful. And even, you know, I don’t know if all of your students are online, virtual, but you know, there’s a lot to be said. There’s connection there and you’ve made that. That shows as far as I’m concerned.

Doctor Meg Roberts (06:38.702)

I get to work with the students via Zoom. But yeah, not all, most of the students I get to work with are in their master’s or doctorate- that’s who most often uses our resource, but we’re available for everybody. So I will interact with folks who are in San Diego, and we’ll go to the campus and I will ask them about it because I haven’t gotten to go yet. So they will tell me about things that they’re aware of or just let me be super jealous of San Diego. And that’s, I love it. I’ve been there on for vacations and, but our team is all across the country. So students are interacting with us virtually wherever we are.

Kimberly King (07:17.422)

Which is a beautiful thing as well. So talk to me a little bit about the kinds of students that you just mentioned, you know, they’re in their masters or their doctorate, but that you connect with and your nickname or what you call it is the ASC, right? The Academic Success Center. Are there certain groups that use this than- Are there certain students that use this more than others and are some students not allowed or allowed to talk to me a little bit about the makeup about who makes up.

Doctor Meg Roberts (07:47.214)

Everybody’s allowed. Everybody’s invited. Everybody’s encouraged. It’s certainly the graduate students that are more likely, especially those folks that are working on their dissertation because they’ve got that really long-term project. I mean, dissertation is something that folks are working on for, you know, a year, years, and so they need that, like, connection and growth over time.

Since North Central and National merged a couple years ago, we’ve gotten more of the undergraduate because National had more of the undergraduate while North Central was primarily graduate students. So getting more of them, I know there’s certain classes that will require that students come to ASC, which is wonderful because then, you know- I had one student just this past week in a group session on basics of APA, so basic formatting, citations, those sorts of things, and they only signed up because they had to for their class.

And ended up they had so many different questions and things that we figured out that they were doing wrong with citations that they just didn’t know. I mean, and of course they didn’t know. Why would you know unless someone told you and no one wants to read the manual unless it’s your job, AKA I did. Only once, I only read it once and don’t recommend it. But these students, all of them. So I’d say doctorate’s the most common. Seems like education students would be the ones again, most common.

If we can get more and more, fabulous. It’s always great when our schedule is full and we’re getting to find new ways to help.

Kimberly King (09:16.6)

That’s great. That’s wonderful. Makes me want to go get my masters now. I’ll call you offline and I’ll be like-

Doctor Meg Roberts (09:23.272)

Different team, I’m sure there’s a number I can grab for you.

Kimberly King (09:26.974)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So what are the assumptions that students make about the ASC? What do people come in thinking about?

Doctor Meg Roberts (09:36.258)

Sometimes folks think it’s like when they’re in trouble, especially like if students have, know, their professors might encourage them or require them to go. And so it’s kind of like, this is my punishment. Or they will think if they reach out for support, like we have a chat, we have email, we have texts, that they’re gonna just talk to a robot instead of, there’s humans here who have, you know, all of us have at least a master’s, most have also a doctorate and it’s like, we’ve done this.

And we’re all humans with different personalities. So students can meet with a different coach, depending on if styles not quite fitting together, no problem. Let’s connect you with someone else who’s a different expert or different personality style. And so they will assume, yeah, they’ll assume trouble. They might assume it’s just a website, it’s just AI or something responding. It’s like, lots of humans, got like 40 of us.

Or they might assume that they have to, on the other end, be a certain quality already. I’ll have students sometimes apologize when they share something with me. And it’s like, it’s just a draft. And it’s like… fantastic. There’s no shaming in my Zoom classes or sessions. It’s like, yay for draft. You have words on a page. That’s how we fix it. And I got certain sayings. One of them is perfect is not available.

Kimberly King (10:53.143)

Great!

Doctor Meg Roberts (11:01.28)

So why would I shame anyone no matter what they have for their document? Since I graduated with my doctor, I have never looked back at my dissertation because I’m sure there’s errors probably by page three. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t good and I didn’t earn it and I’m not proud of it. And I’m letting it go and get to what’s next.

Kimberly King (11:21.378)

Love that too. And I’m sure in this mindset and who you deal with on a day-to-day basis, perfectionism is a thing, right?

Doctor Meg Roberts (11:29.134)

Oh my goodness, or feeling bad that they’re not and that they’re a professor or they’re a coach or as though everybody else, we have group sessions where students can drop in or can join for like paraphrasing, paragraph development, different parts of dissertation, statistics. And there will be folks that it’s like this insight of like, oh, others have trouble with this too? Yeah, this is a really normal stuck spot. This is not- I lead a session sometimes about problem statements and I’ll tell folks that I’m like, certain thing, know, 95% of people get this particular thing wrong at first. So that’s normal. You’re incredibly normal. Let’s fix it. And that seems to really bring down the emotions and just connect them with other students that they didn’t expect in an online program.

Kimberly King (12:23.66)

I love it. Yeah, I love that you’re human and you’re Shirley Lamont and saying that paralysis by analysis, you know, where you just get stuck and you don’t even start. So you’re there to say, no, you can do it and you’re normal.

Doctor Meg Roberts (12:36.078)

That’s why very much words on page and apparently, it’s a Ernest Hemingway quote, write drunk, edit sober. And I will tell students that one and I’m like, please don’t actually drunk, but just get right, don’t worry about it. Yeah. Turn off Grammarly, turn off spell check, just get something down and then make it better. Come back to it tomorrow.

Kimberly King (12:59.438)

Interesting. I love this. So if someone has never even heard of the ASC, where would you want to recommend that they start?

Doctor Meg Roberts (13:06.336)

Well, I would definitely wander around our website. I tell folks that all the time because you can’t break it. There’s lots of different icons to click on and lots of different sessions and it just opens up new tabs and so it’s also really easy to go backwards. So come wander around our sites. Then I would probably suggest one of our group sessions would be where I would say if they want to like engage with, get a little information and like get to know the coaches a little bit. Great. And good thing about group sessions is that they’re limited to eight to 10 people depending on the topic.

So it’s not just you, it’s not the pressure of like, I need to talk or I need to have thoughts. And it’s like, no, no, other people are there too. They’re not required to turn their cameras on. They can talk through the chat. So it’s very like, engage at the level they want. And then after that, if it’s like, oh, that was really helpful. Okay, come to more group sessions. We have over 35 of these at this point. We’re adding more all the time. Sign up for a one-on-one if you’re like, that wasn’t…

I needed more specific from my questions.

One student I have, she mentioned recently how she doesn’t like office hours or group sessions because she’s like, she’s very sweet and it was also very blunt. I don’t care about what other people are doing. I’m near the end and it’s like, yeah, where you’re at right now, other people aren’t helpful just right now. And you need the one-on-one. So that’s great. And, yeah, but wander on our website, come join a group session. There’s so many and you can just kind of pick a topic and a time that works for you. And worst-case scenario, it’s 45 minutes and it’s like, I knew all that. Well done. Congratulations to you.

Kimberly King (14:46.094)

Yeah, exactly. So those you talk about these coaches at the ASC, are they the same as tutors? And you’ve said a couple times, like 35 to 40 of them, who makes all of these up? And tell me a little about that.

Doctor Meg Roberts (15:00.046)

So we’ve got a variety of different folks. None of them would be called tutors. Tutors more about, let’s fix this assignment. Let’s work on this task and help with this specific thing, and what is needed for to get this a better grade. Coaching is more long-term. And it’s, let’s build your writing skills or paraphrasing or better understanding so that you can improve this paper and the next one and the one after that, like that long-term. Or it might be about study skills or other pieces that are getting in the way.

So our team is made up of, we’ve got our coaches, which include writing coaches, statistics, folks that are on our chat primarily who are interacting that way, so chat coaches. We also have our navigators, alumni navigators. They’re folks who actually graduated from the program. So that’s who we connect students with when they’re like, I don’t understand these websites, or I’m having trouble communicating with my professor.

So more of that like, you know, someone who’s literally gone through these exact same steps before. Coaches, some of us have graduated from National, others like myself went to a different program. We’ve just gotten to be here long enough that we understand some pieces and definitely like the academic writing or math or statistics. So we’ve got those different groups. And yeah, sometimes we’re working on that one assignment like a tutor would, but with that long-term focus, it’s like, okay, what can we learn for this one that’s going to help with next paper? Next course, maybe even long-term writing. When I’m working with undergraduate students, I’m trying to give them feedback that would not necessarily apply in their undergrad, but maybe if they want to grad school, I’ll tell them like, just so you know, if you keep going, no pressure, if you keep going, this is what will be the next one, next step of it.

Kimberly King (16:45.11)

Yeah, and I know people like to kind of see a roadmap so you’re there along the way. So now let’s talk about a few of the specific programs with the ASC. so I have three parts and I’ll start with the first. Can you share about proofreading and what a student can expect from a review?

Doctor Meg Roberts (17:02.638)

Yeah. So proofreading is definitely my little corner of the world. I’m the proofreading supervisor. And for that service, that one’s an asynchronous. So that means sometimes students think when they sign up that they’re signing up for a three-hour session with a proofreader and it’s like, do you really want to stare at a proofreader who’s looking at your document? Because nobody wants that. No. I think I can hear some of my proofreaders like crying a little bit on that thought of having someone stare at them for three hours. So asynchronous means you submit your paper and you get feedback later.

But the feedback isn’t just fix this, do that, punctuation there, space there, that kind of stuff. They get a reviewed copy of their document with feedback. Depending on the length of the document, it’s not going to be feedback throughout the entire thing, because if they submit 100-page paper, yeah, can’t do that whole thing. Instead, we’re like, here are some examples of things to work on related to APA, grammar, formatting. That’s our three main pieces that they can, again, they can use that information, that feedback.

Throughout their document and into other ones. They get that review document. They also get a coaching plan, which includes a link to a video of feedback. Because sometimes it’s so much easier to explain to a student how to fix their references verbally through a video than a giant comment on the side. Instead, we’ll do a screen share, video the screen with our audio. Okay, so here’s what you’re do. You’re gonna go up to this menu. As you can see, you come down here, know, walking them through it.

They have that link to the video. And students are welcome to reach out to us with follow-up questions. It’s not like, here’s your review, go away. But yeah, our proofreading is a paid service. you asked earlier about my mission in general. My mission for proofreading is the word trustworthy. Like that’s the key word since I have gotten to help develop this service and help it to grow within the ASC. I want us to be a trustworthy service for every student, them to know our team members care, that they have the skills, the passion, the prior knowledge, and that they get to follow up if they’ve got questions, concerns. Oh no, I sent the wrong document. Okay, let’s get the right one and redo it for you without any extra charge because you’re human. We’re willing to make this the best possible.

Kimberly King (19:20.174)

That’s great. Now, who are the alumni navigators? I know you mentioned them in the beginning. And why would a student want to meet with them? I kind of have an idea. Are these also recent alumni that just went through what they’re about to go through?

Doctor Meg Roberts (19:36.505)

Not necessarily recent. Definitely folks who’ve gone through what they have. I mean, we’re not going to kick anybody out. Our wonderful folks who, maybe they graduated four years ago. It’s like, no, we’re keeping you. Because I mean, they keep learning through their students.

But yeah, these are the folks who graduated from National, our alumni, and know what it’s like to submit papers through that platform or email back and forth or certain professors maybe. If not that professor, types, maybe suggestions on how to communicate, how to do a grade appeal, some of these things that’s like, a student will come and it’s like, this isn’t about how do I write this paper, how do I analyze this article, it’s how do I manage my time? Like that’s part of it too. It’s not just the technology, it’s lifestyle. I signed up for this program and it’s one course at a time and it turns out I’m drowning. I’m on week three and I don’t think I can do this.

Okay, let’s connect you with someone who’s had a lot of those exact same feelings in this program. And that’s who they get to, that’s who they meet with. And some of our navigators will lead, you know, sessions with groups. So again, like Dr. G, one of our full-time members, alumni, leads one, let’s see, I think it’s called afternoon tea with Dr. G is one of them, which is just social. It’s just come and talk and connect. There’s another one that’s specifically for students who are English language learners that she leads. Again, social, while other sessions are more specific about like an academic focus.

Kimberly King (21:08.718)

Which is great too. It’s finding your people and when you’re going through things that you know similar stories, I would imagine.

Doctor Meg Roberts (21:16.43)

Yeah, and you want some friends. You want to feel like you’re not alone in this, in the academic side or the social. I mean, there were students that I will, it’s fun when I lead a group session sometimes. In my group sessions, I always ask folks to share, I’m like, and I’m like, out loud through the chat, whatever is most convenient, your name, where you’re at in the world and what program you’re in. I just ask them those three things because it helps me a little bit in my planning.

And every once in a while, there’s folks that like are in the same area, not just San Diego, but maybe other parts of the country. I’ve had folks that are like, in towns that are 30 minutes apart in Tennessee or something like that or in the same course. It’s like, you, you please exchange emails, phone numbers, because yeah, y’all need to meet up at a coffee shop in Tennessee, or you should compare assignments for this because that can be, that can be hard at such a big university to find connections. So anytime you do it’ss like, claim them. Grab them, don’t let them go!

Kimberly King (22:10.81)

I love that. So for power hours and study lessons, are these the same as group sessions?

Doctor Meg Roberts (22:17.302)

No, they are different. So power hours and study sessions, they’re more like drop-ins. So you do have to sign up, but you can sign up, you know, if it’s like a two hour power hour and you’re like, I meant to go. Okay, sign up right then and join in. There’s no, I said that the group sessions have like a curriculum, a plan. Like my group session on scholarly writing, for example, that I lead every Monday. I have us go through a recent article from NPR to compare that casual with more academic writing.

The power hours and study sessions, there’s no specific plan. It depends on who’s there and what they need. So it’s more responsive. And like I said, I mentioned a couple of them earlier, that is that more social. There’s others, Dr. B’s writing fix up. There’s ones about statistics, technology. I think it’s called conquer the cursor, something like that. It’s about technology. A

nd we’re adding new ones when students need them. A lot- multiple about statistics. I went to several of those one year to help improve that area for me. And yeah, you just get to show up with your questions and there’s a coach there. And I tell lovely folks, you know, if you need help about something and that’s not the topic of the group of that session, well, show up anyways. And if no one’s there, can be like, I mean, I used to lead one on proofreading and someone came with stats questions and I’m like, I will try. I know enough about stats not to be dangerous. So… I’ll try and then I will get you to the ASC chat and one of our stats coaches that is not dangerous in any way, shape, form.

Kimberly King (23:52.11)

So how can a student get help if their schedule doesn’t match the coaching schedule and what if they can’t find appointments that fit their schedule as well?

Doctor Meg Roberts (24:00.974)

Yeah. So students are able to, through our website, they can go on the scheduler and see, here’s the group sessions that are available, here’s individual sessions. But sometimes there are individual sessions that are marked as, we have placeholders because every once in while, maybe an anxious student will be like, okay, I really have a paper that’s due this Sunday, so I’m going to grab that session and that one and that one and that one. And it’s like, we got to share. We have to take turns. You cannot have five sessions in a week because you’re not the only student here. Surprise.

So we will block some off. So we tell students reach out to ASC chat, reach out to our team, because there may be appointments that can get rescheduled or updated. The chat can see farther than seven days out. They can see farther into the future. Students can only see seven days at a time. Chat coaches can see the rest of 2026. I had that happen. Someone reached out and they’re like, I really want to meet with Meg at the end of the month, because they knew when they were going to be at a certain spot.

Cool, they scheduled them for three weeks later because that’s what the student wanted and they could do it. And we got some full-time members of our team like myself that sometimes can add an appointment at an unusual time or shift something because they asked. So when students assume, you know, I’m going to make the voice because it’s in text, they’re never available. I’m like, I’m sorry, we are. We just need to know from you. You got to reach out and we will adapt as much as we can.

Or if we can’t, here’s those drop-in sessions to go to. Here’s resources we have on our website. Sometimes chat. If it’s really quiet and slow, they can work more with a student than just the more immediate needs. You just gotta ask. As I tell lovely folks all the time, as long as you’re asking nicely, worst possible answer’s no. Really, truly. No one’s gonna be like, no, and you’re kicked out.

Kimberly King (25:55.786)

Yeah, yeah, and right and you don’t belong or whatever. Yeah, you sound like you have-

Doctor Meg Roberts (25:59.168)

No, of course. my goodness. It’s great questions. And sometimes those great questions lead us to changing our schedule or adding something new. One of the coaches had to be out for a while and so their group session wasn’t held and some students were like, we need that one. So I hosted it for three weeks at a different time so there wasn’t just this gap. It’s like, students reached out and said, we need that support.

Okay. No problem, we thought it would be okay. Like no one would have a fire for a little, okay, we’re doing it. And it’s fun because it’s not a function I usually get to lead and got to remember something I used to do two years ago.

Kimberly King (26:41.102)

See, and yeah, and you’ve walked that path before too. So yeah, you have that expertise. Yeah. So what if a student doesn’t think that they can handle their workload at National?

Doctor Meg Roberts (26:54.282)

You’re normal. You’re normal. That’s first thing. It’s like, uh-huh, yeah, this is really, it is hard. I mean, and that’s true for all things that are worth it. And that’s the word I use. It’s like, it’s worth it. It’s worth it for the undergrad or the master’s or the doctorate. Yep, uh-huh, you’re right. It’s hard. Absolutely.

And so I offer, you know, the advice that I got when I started my doctoral program at an orientation session, the one the professors talked about how starting

a graduate program or starting really school as an adult, it’s like adding a great big new piece of furniture to your living room. And he specifically said an armoire. And I remember that because I’m like, I had to look it up on my phone under the I did not know what the armoire meant. I was like, what? But I looked it up. And it’s the big closet like from Beauty and the Beast. That’s how I pictured it. So it’s a great big standing closet. Yes. Again, for me, from Beauty and the Beast that sings and – to go at one point.

And he’s like, you’re adding this new big piece of furniture to your living room. So some things are going to have to go in the garage. And it’s good if you can kind of be proactive on what’s going to go, if you can be plan ahead a little bit, but you may have to be reactive, like you may not realize, oh that’s a little bit wider than I thought or taller or whatever. Okay, move some stuff to the garage.

And I loved that framing because it wasn’t- throw it away. Set on fire, get rid of it forever. It’s temporary. Like I know for me in that program, I had to give up teaching for a while. I had to give up some volunteer work. I had to up lot of social for a while, temporary. And then I was able to figure out after, you know, a little time in the program, a couple small things I could reclaim from the garage.

That it’s like, I can still be, go to that small group on Thursday nights. I can still like, there was a TV show I just loved during that time called Once Upon a Time. And so I’m like, I wanna protect that one hour a week to watch Once Upon a Time. And that’s part of it. And so realizing it’s normal, figuring out what you can cut if, know, temporarily, and I think that’s really important to have that word like that or yet, who you can lean on and just keep asking, just keep getting advice from other people and anybody who tries to shame you about like when you should have done this or how you should have done this or any of that, send them my way and I’ll use some bad words on them if they need it.

That’s just like… no, forget them. And mostly it’s in our own heads that we say those unkind words anyways. So I’ll do it to, I’ve had students, know, first time I met with a student who I’ve now been seeing for a couple months, she said about herself, I still can’t get this, I’m just so stupid.

And I was like, no. We’re not using that kind of words with yourself. That is not okay. We’re not using, we’re not saying those kinds of things about ourselves. We do inside our heads and it’s like, no, you’re not. Like I can prove it. You’re working on a dissertation. That means you have finished kindergarten, first, second, all the way through 12 and a bachelor’s, and probably a master’s and all of your coursework.

And if it’s a student who’s in their bachelor’s that has that thought, it’s like, again, kindergarten, first, second, all these grades. No, you’re not. Like I can prove it. You’re just having feelings and feelings… What is it? Feelings are valuable, but not always valid. Something like that. I can’t remember the saying, but it’s like. No, you can do this and it’s hard. Use your village.

Kimberly King (30:29.706)

Use your village. I love that too.

Doctor Meg Roberts (30:31.244)

Yeah. absolutely. Everyone needs one. Everyone needs a village, different sizes. When I was in my dissertation, I specifically asked a few friends to be my dissertation community. I made bookmarks. I was that cheesy. My mom was a kindergarten teacher. I gave her credit. And so I gave them bookmarks to be part of my dissertation community.

And I was like, I need from you, you know, prayer and accountability and just attendance. I wanted them to be my graduation. So was like, this is the three things. And I was like, just check in with me once a week, see how things are going. If I tell you I’ve done nothing, ask me how I’m going to change that next week. Like, no responsibility for content. Your responsibility is for the human. I got professors who worry about the content.

And one of them beautifully, she got me a bunch of, she would give me presents every once in while from the dollar store. When I would hit milestones. And I still have most of them. And it’s just, you know, a bracelet with turtles on it and a water bottle and just like dollar store things. But it was just like, I never knew when I was gonna earn one. So was very exciting to be, I would tell her all of my updates, because I was like, I don’t know if this earns a prize, but I wrote 10 pages this week.

Kimberly King (31:52.824)

Where’s my gift from the dollar store?

Doctor Meg Roberts (31:54.958)

And Christmas cards. She would give me a dollar store present and a Christmas card was the note. And it was just like, so I would keep her up to date very well because I wanted my presents.

Kimberly King (32:05.838)

Well, you know, it is the little things, isn’t it? Absolutely. I like that you even shared that. You’re teaching others to learn how to not just use your resources professionally, but, you know, yeah, we do need our village around us. And you actually wrote that out and said, this is how I need your help. So I love that. I think that’s a beautiful testimony there.

So what recommendations would you have for a student struggling, and kind of you just answered it a little bit, but struggling with their academic writing or their workload specifically?

Doctor Meg Roberts (32:39.17)

Yeah, like I’ve said, coming to some of our sessions, the group sessions I think are great starts for some of the academic writing. The content part, that’s where I would start. If it’s the, I don’t know how to navigate this, I don’t know how to balance, I would recommend that one-on-one with an alumni navigator, if that’s the bigger piece that they’re feeling, it’s where I would want them to start, just so they get to just have some feelings and a safe one-on-one, and then maybe go to some of those power hours for hearing from others as well.

Yeah, just ask all the questions, reach out, because silence isn’t going to help them. I mean, just in our heads, it can get so loud already. So let us be part of it and trust that we want to. Like that’s why all of us are part of ASC, full-time or part-time. We got folks that are also working in education in other places and choosing to be part of this team for a reason, to help students, because we know this is hard and worth it.

Kimberly King (33:41.506)

Well, now that we have a little window behind the scenes to see your passion come through, I think, and I hope that the students that are listening to this understand that you also want to be a part of their journey and you have a vested interest to seeing them succeed and it really comes through. So thank you.

Doctor Meg Roberts (33:58.222)

And that’s true for all of our coaches, all the whole team, would say. Because yeah, they all care. We got different personalities and different styles, introvert, extrovert, all that good stuff. And they care about students. That’s why we’re here.

Kimberly King (34:11.118)

That’s wonderful. So there was a recent announcement about ASC writing nests. I guess, can you share more about this new program? Yeah.

Doctor Meg Roberts (34:20.302)

We’re doing basically it’s drop-in opportunity that’s consistent- every single day I believe it’s a 10 a.m. Pacific Standard, know, if we’ve changed it, we have it on our calendar. We always update our calendars if there’s any updates like let’s say we figured out a different time. But we’re doing it seven days a week so that students know, same time same link, every single day led by different coaches. So it’s not the same person facilitating it every day. So they still get maybe a little different personality if there’s folks they want to hear from in different ways.

But just having that consistency that they can know- you know, it’s like an office hour that they can have that drop in opportunity seven days a week if we post it on our calendar. If someone’s, you know, let’s say the coach who leads that week is sick, we pull it off so the students aren’t just like sitting there in the Zoom waiting room hoping someone will show. And chance, a different way to build community with that consistency and with a focus on helping out their writing, whatever the trouble is and connecting them, you know, with other services if needed.

Kimberly King (35:20.152)

Wonderful. So how can listeners learn more about the ASC or connect with someone for support? And I know you’ve talked about go and wander on the website.

Doctor Meg Roberts (35:29.742)

Yes, come on to our website. Once you go on there, you’re going to notice near the top right corner, there’s a little magnifying glass. That’s our search bar. That search is just the ASC. I always highlight this to students in group sessions because sometimes you feel like if I put something in a search, it’s going to look up the entire internet. It’s like, no, no, that’s just ASC. So if you’re like, where do I find something on PowerPoints? Or where do I find any resources on a certain statistical test or study habits?

Put it in there, it’s just gonna show you our ASC resources that can help navigate all the icons and options. And then right in the middle, we’ve got multiple ways to reach out. We got, you can text us, you can email us, you can send us a message. We got a chat box that opens up so they can send a message. If no one’s available on chat, you can still send a message. It’ll let them connect.

If there’s a specific coach they’ve already met with or have questions of, you know. I lead, when I talk about paragraphs, I have a metaphor about cheeseburgers that I will use. And so I’m like, if you need to reach out back to me to be like, why was Meg talking about cheeseburgers so much? Include my name and they will make sure it tags my way. But that’s where, so the search bar would be for the content, all those different chat options for the human, like I want to get scheduled and yeah, click all over.

I’ve been here almost six years and I have administrative privileges, and I haven’t broken the website so no student needs to worry about it. So you’re not going to break it and worst case you get lost come back to this come back to ASC, come back to our starting page.

Kimberly King (37:10.766)

Start over and look in the beginning and wander. Keep wandering. Well, I love your passion and I know you ooze support for others and again, you’re wanting to see them succeed. I hope that you are going to be able to help others, especially after hearing this podcast. So we appreciate you sharing your knowledge and if you want more information, you can visit National University’s website at nu.edu.

Thank you so much again for your time today, Dr. Roberts. We really appreciate it.

Doctor Meg Roberts (37:41.74)

Again, thanks for sharing the space for us.

Kimberly King (37:47.512)

You’ve been listening to the National University Podcast. For updates on future or past guests, visit us at nu.edu. You can also follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.