Supporting Students Beyond Graduation: An Interview with Assistant Dean Lisa MacLeod

How can a liberal arts education at SUA prepare students for living a contributive life? This fall, Lisa MacLeod, associate professor of international studies and director of the International Studies Concentration, was named assistant dean of student success, a new position at SUA that supports student learning and development toward a life of contribution. This role focuses on helping students excel academically and fostering their preparation for careers and graduate school. MacLeod shared insights and reflections on her work as assistant dean and how she hopes to help students achieve their professional and educational goals.

Can you describe what your new role as assistant dean of student success entails?

This is a role that exists at a lot of universities, and usually the person in this position focuses on making sure that students are getting good advising and the support they need to graduate.

The exciting thing about Soka’s approach to this role is that it’s not just about supporting students while they’re here, but also about making sure we’re preparing them well for success beyond graduation. We have a long-term vision of our relationship with our students. It doesn’t end when they graduate. We’re as interested in how they do after they graduate as we are about their success here.

What are some of the student advising, internship, or career efforts that you’ll be leading or facilitating this year?

This semester, a lot of what I’m doing is learning and better understanding what’s already happening on campus. I have tremendous respect for the work that my academic and non-academic colleagues have already done. I want to make it easier for these programs to get the attention from students that they deserve. I’m focusing on how we can connect different parts of campus so that academic advisors can direct students to use what is already in place.

For academic advisors, this could mean encouraging students to talk to people in the Career Development and Internships Office. And asking students, “What do you want from your life after you graduate?” and “How can we think about what you’re doing here, both inside and outside the classroom, as helping you prepare for that?” Or if students don’t know yet, helping them explore different areas and being actively engaged with that process. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in programs, like the UN Study Tour, where I’ve partnered with the Career Development and Internships Office to take students to the UN Headquarters in New York to investigate what a career at the UN really looks like. This is but one existing program that supports this process.

The Career Development and Internships Office has been very active, but faculty may not know about their activities. Sometimes faculty know about internships that the office may not know about. I see my role as fostering collaboration. For example, the International Studies Concentration had a guest speaker who is a former career diplomat. The event was co-sponsored with the Career Development and Internships Office. I’d like to get everyone to talk to each other and recognize that there is a really rich set of resources for such a small university, and to take advantage of that. It’s about building attention for what’s already here and then using that as a foundation for thinking about how we can do even better.

I’ll also be doing some explorations, down the road, to consider models of integrated, whole-person advising that are being used by other universities. We might want to adopt some or all of their approaches. But I think there are strengths and weaknesses to these systems, so you have to be very careful in thinking about change.

We also have programs in the works to help faculty — without having them do anything differently in what or how they teach — support students in recognizing the career-relevant skills they’re developing in their coursework, so they can talk about these skills when they meet employers. We have many surveys from employers and professional organizations saying they want what are essentially liberal arts skills, but that doesn’t always translate to their hiring practices. On our end, what we have control over is how we can help students present their skills in ways that are more easily recognized.

What benchmarks do you use to measure student success when it comes to readiness for living a contributive life?

For student success, I think it’s really important to talk to our alumni. We can’t really talk about how student experience translates to life experience until alumni have been out in the world for a few years. Are they finding that their educational experiences were valuable? Did they feel that they had the right skills? The right exposure to subject matter knowledge?

It’s important to let alumni lead that discussion. A problem with a lot of survey questions is that you get data based on what you ask. It’s only when you have open interviews and other kinds of methodologies that you really get people to tell you what’s on their mind, and it may not be what you expected.

If alumni discovered that something wasn’t helpful to them, or they realized that their colleagues who went to different institutions have a background or experience that they wish they had — I want to hear about it.

What do you think is unique about the way SUA prepares students to contribute not only to their professional fields, but also their local and global communities?

I think our mission statement is something that a lot of students, faculty, and staff take to heart. I met with alumni last summer — some graduated a decade ago — and many of them said, “The mission statement is still important to me.” They could recite it. They said, “This is my guiding light in deciding what my next career step is going to be, or how I want to do things in my current position.”

We really discuss the mission statement in our courses. In Core 1 and Core 2, it’s an important aspect of the conversation. Getting students to think about the mission in a serious and engaged way empowers them to think, “Yes, I can really build a life around this.” I think for a lot of our alumni and current students, the mission helps them decide what project they want to work on.

What is your advice for current SUA students who might be feeling a bit anxious about life after graduation?

In many ways, that’s normal. We’ve all had that moment of insecurity about the unknown. But I’ve seen enough students go off into the world to be really confident that we’re providing a lot of the resources needed to be successful.

It’s not just about doing the things that give you a degree, but really engaging in the community here and taking advantage of faculty office hours, community events and clubs, and opportunities to develop leadership and social entrepreneurship skills. There are a number of opportunities for intellectual and personal development, and to get comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s where lifelong growth comes from.