I was able to attend weekly BLLC meetings with the freshmen students. These meetings provided educational experiences for the students to help navigate their first year of college. I learned the importance of an LLC and the role housing plays in the success of LLCs on campus. 

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Throughout the semester, I observed many academic advising appointments. From there, I was able to learn the steps and processes of an effective appointment. I had many opportunities to lead advising appointments with students. I learned how to do four-semester plans, upper-level advising appointments, and senior graduation checks. In addition, I was to advise 25 of the BLLC students individually by working through the four-semester plan with them.

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By attending weekly BLLC meetings, Freshmen Business Connections, and doing advising appointments with the students in the living learning community, I was able to make myself available and provide assistance to the students, when necessary. 

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I learned a lot about the retention efforts in the Walton College. My supervisor is a retention specialist, so I was exposed to many facets of retention. I wrote newsletters for the retention students for the beginning of the semester, for midterms, and for the end of the semester. These newsletters provided campus resources to aid in their exams. These newsletters also provided a sense of support that the students needed. I also had an opportunity to sit in on the virtual campus retention meeting. This meeting was composed of retention specialists from each of the colleges on campus to talk about the different retention efforts being done. It provided great insight to see how much staff truly care about the success of their students.