After a year of uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic, students are back on campus, focused on their future. Salt Lake Community College’s academic advisors can provide direction and guide students to meet their goals with the course scheduler.
Gordon Storrs, an academic advisor for SLCC’s School of Arts, Communication and Media, highlighted the importance of building a professional relationship with your advisor.
“SLCC has trained advisors that guide students to think critically about their careers,” Storrs said. “People are afraid because they’re afraid they’ll make the wrong decision.”
The purpose of academic advisors is to aid college students as they aim to accomplish their professional and educational goals.
Storrs believes students suffered from lost social interactions with their peers and academic advisors due to classes being taught virtually last year.
“Students must feel comfortable with the advisor and their approaches and change it up if it’s not working,” Storrs said.
Each enrolled student has an academic advisor and pathway advisor, which can be found on the MySLCC page under the advising tab.
Nataly Rodriguez, a fellow SLCC Bruin, said she felt overwhelmed when registering for classes.
“Academic advisors are super helpful,” Rodriguez said. “They provide you with so much information and even help you step by step, especially when applying for certain programs.”
She is currently pursuing an associate degree in dental hygiene and is expecting to graduate this upcoming year. During her academic planning session with advisor Angela Harvey, they were able to plan her final semesters at SLCC.
“They plan out each semester for me, which takes stress off me,” Rodriguez said.
SLCC offers services in career coaching and exploration for students needing help to choose a major.
Incoming or returning students will get to choose a career pathway. The Career Center works to help students choose a major through designed assessments to align personality traits to careers.
“Community college is to help people take some time and figure out if their passion is really their passion,” Storrs said. “One might change, that’s okay as long as one isn’t changing to nothing.”
SLCC’s general catalog enables students to view program requirements and plan of study to complete their degree within two years.
To access the catalog, students can use the search function on the SLCC website.
“Every first set of classes should depend on the student. Not everybody wants to do or can do 15 credits,” Storrs said. “Not everybody can do math and English in the same semester.”
Storrs assists students with their academic plans through DegreeWorks’ planning method.
Lastly, Storrs encourages students to meet with their advisor prior to enrolling in classes. For more information, visit the academic advising page to find out your assigned advisor.
