Specialist - Advisor-Continuing

Position Summary

The Michigan State University Office of Undergraduate Education oversees undergraduate academic policies and facilitates institutional wide initiatives focused on enhancing undergraduate learning. We engage in everything from the orientation and welcome of first-year students to the enhancement and oversight of selected academic programs and co-curricular initiatives. Focused around the five opportunity areas for student success (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). Undergrad Ed seeks to ensure every student MSU admits can learn, thrive, and graduate.

The Pathways Persistence Programs in Undergraduate Education are an affirming, dynamic network of programs dedicated to fostering student success by supporting persistence, academic excellence, and community. As part of MSU’s on-going effort to redesign the university to ensure that all students can learn, thrive, and graduate, these programs address barriers to success and create structures that promote equitable outcomes. Grounded in equity and social justice, the Pathways Persistence Programs take meaningful action to reduce opportunity gaps and support students’ persistence toward graduation, recognizing that persistence—the commitment to stay the course despite challenges—is key to student achievement.

The cohort programs within the unit—Bailey Scholars, Dow STEM Scholars, First-Generation Leadership & Innovation (FLI) Vanderploeg Scholars, the Residential Initiative on Sustainability and the Environment (RISE) and TRIO Student Support Services (SSS)—offer high-impact experiences such as mentoring, career development, and living-learning communities. Through evidence-based initiatives, largely funded by external sources, the Pathways Persistence Programs cultivate conditions that empower students to develop self-discovery of purpose, educational success, sense of belonging, empowered community, and well-being.

The Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) program sits within the Pathways Persistence Programs unit and reports to the Director of Pathways under the Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Student Success. RISE is an interdisciplinary living learning community designed to support students who are broadly interested in environmental studies, planetary health, and sustainability. The program serves 250 undergraduates across four years.

Key components of the program include:

• Co-curricular Learning Experiences:
  Support several structured environmental experiential learning projects in partnership with faculty affiliates.
• Holistic Advising & Mentoring:
  Intensive, proactive advising, coaching, and peer mentoring throughout students’ tenure at MSU, addressing academic progress, career planning, and socio-emotional aspects of the transition to college.
• Student Success Programming:
  Academic, socio-emotional, wellbeing and career and career-focused programming designed to build community, strengthen cohort identity, and enhance sense of belonging
• High-Impact Learning Experiences:
  Opportunities such as undergraduate research, mentoring, and internships to support student success and career readiness

Michigan State University is advancing RISE 2.0, a strategic initiative to strengthen the program’s academic foundation, expand interdisciplinary curriculum, deepen faculty engagement, enhance experiential learning pathways, and ensure the long-term sustainability and institutional integration of the program. As part of this effort, the Assistant Program Director supports the Program Director in implementing key priorities emerging from the RISE visioning process over the next year.

The Assistant Program Director (APD) will report to the Program Director (PD) of the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) and assist in overseeing all aspects of the program with emphasis on co-curricular opportunities, advising, and cohort engagement.

This position will:

• Supervise several co-curricular student teams focused on various environmental topics including food and agriculture, water, and energy.
• Work alongside the other Pathways Persistence Programs to represent RISE within the Pathways and…