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BSC adds first-year student success counselor, other tools for new students
BSC adds first-year student success counselor, other tools for new students
For Immediate Release
Nov. 1, 2018
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Birmingham-Southern College has welcomed Dr. Kimberly L. Wright to fill a new role as first-year student success advisor. In this position, Wright will be available to help all new students make the transition to college, with a special focus on first-generation students, those in underrepresented groups, and those deemed at risk.
Wright’s hiring is an important part of BSC’s larger efforts to ensure that all new students, both first years and transfers, transition smoothly to life in college. Grants from the Mellon Foundation, AT&T, and Alabama Power are providing support for staffing, first-generation programs, and more.
“We’re so pleased and excited to have Kimberly here with us; she is going to be a great addition to the team and she is already making a difference in our students’ lives,” said BSC Vice President for Student Development David Eberhardt. “While we’ve always made first-year Orientation and academic advising a priority, she’s able to build personal, one-on-one relationships with students and she brings extensive experience in the best methods to help new and underserved students succeed in college.”
Before coming to BSC, Wright was coordinator of student services at Blue Cliff College in Shreveport, La., where she oversaw the college’s counseling services, conducted advising interviews with students, and worked with faculty and staff to improve student retention, among other roles.
She transitioned to that role after spending six years teaching freshman studies and English, including remedial courses, at Southern University in Shreveport. In her role as an instructor, she loved building relationships with her students and helping them overcome a wide range of obstacles to find success, she said.
“I would even go to their jobs to find someone who was struggling and talk to them,” Wright said. “At BSC, I will be here to give students extra support and try to alleviate any extra anxiety they are having, and to let them know they have an advocate outside their peer group.”
Wright earned in a bachelor of arts in mass communication at Grambling State University, a master of arts in education at the University of Phoenix, and a doctor of education in leadership studies from Louisiana State University.
She said her own experience as an incoming first-year student at Grambling also helped shape her current career.
“I didn’t know anyone there and I was scared,” she said; even talking to her assigned advisor made her nervous. But when she walked into the Mass Communication building and was welcomed by faculty, staff, and students in her major, she knew she would have the support to find her confidence.
Wright is a member of the National Association of Student Affairs Professionals, the Association of the Study of Higher Education, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the National Council on Black American Affairs. She has been published on such topics as how campus administrators handle racial incidents on campus and the need for community colleges to support vulnerable students.