Students Achieving Goals through Education
http://www.sage.columbiastate.edu
SAGE (Students Achieving Goals through Education) will be a broad-spectrum student advocacy service, trying together the resources of tutoring, Career Services, Success Counseling, advising and other areas of the college community, and focusing on the needs of non-traditional at-risk students.
Participation in the program will be through targeted invitation. The program is designed to serve three targeted groups as follows:
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First-time freshmen and returning adults over the age of 21
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First-generation college students
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Student-athletes
The SAGE program seeks to improve student success by providing the participating at-risk student with a customized and documented action plan and support system.
Here is how it works:
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A targeted student registers online for the SAGE program. Upon receiving the registration information from a SAGE candidate, a SAGE consultant will contact the interested student to arrange an initial face-to-face appointment.
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At this initial interview the consultant will welcome the student to Columbia State and explain what the SAGE program can do for them.
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The SAGE student will be provided with a SAGE notebook containing materials from a number of departments and programs that will benefit the student throughout his or her enrollment at Columbia State.
It is the SAGE consultant's responsibility to give the student a general overview of these materials, answer any questions (or find the answer to any questions) that the student might have initially or at any time in the student's Columbia State enrollment, and to be a liaison for the student in the use of these programs and services.
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Students and consultants will work together to set documented goals, both short-term and long-term. This plan for academic success is an agreement between both parties, wherein both parties agree to do their part to help the student achieve his or her stated academic goals.
This agreement of goals will be written down and added to the student's SAGE notebook for reference. After the session, the SAGE consultant will make a journal entry of the student's progress. Each session's journal entry will be added to the student information database.
This collaboration between the student and the SAGE consultant is designed to improve student retention among our higher-risk students. Students will benefit from early treatment of academic problems just as patients benefit from early treatment for illnesses.
Every student registering for the program will receive Career Counseling and Student Success Counseling, with documented appointments and progress noted in the database journal entries.
Ongoing sessions will continue each semester for as long as the student attends Columbia State and wishes to remain in the program.
****This information was prepared by SAGE representative Gina Johnson