Iowa Central Community College takes pride in its curriculum standards and capacity to offer high levels of academic and personal support for students. As an institution of higher learning, we are dedicated to student success and continue to plan and grow in support of our mission to offer a meaningful educational experience for all who attend our college.

Student success is a top priority at Iowa Central Community College. Students attend Iowa Central for various reasons — two-year degree or diploma completion job training, transfer degrees, professional development and to increase or acquire new skills– and because student success is individually defined, measuring student success must be tailored for each individual student.

Iowa Central Community College provides numerous services designed to assist students in making their educational experience a successful one. And, as part of the college’s continuing campus wide effort to increase student success, the college expanded the scope and functions of the Triton Enrichment Center to include advising services and as such renamed the center the Triton Enrichment and Advising Center.

Research strongly suggests that individualized academic advising and a meaningful experience with a faculty or a staff member are the top strategies to increase student success, retention, and completion.

The Triton Enrichment and Advising Center is proactive in terms of student success supporting the goal to enhance the lives of all who utilize the center. Adding the advising director and the dedicated advising component to the Triton Enrichment Center, supplements the college’s already comprehensive advising services. The advising director will focus on a group of students that meet three specific at-risk criteria; first-generation, low income, as established by the Federal Financial Aid application, and a low high school grade point average. Students who meet these three established criteria will be advised by the advising director and their success will be tracked throughout the semester. This provides students with a dedicated point of contact who can make a significant impact on their success and graduation.

The Triton Enrichment and Advising Center staff act as a liaison between students and services on campus and connect students accordingly. Students can also be referred to the Triton Enrichment and Advising Center through alerts, referrals, and walk-in visits.  It is our purpose to understand what success means to each student and then to assist them in the realization of their goals. The services provided by the Triton Enrichment and Advising Center are tailored to each student according to the student’s goals and success plan both in and out of the classroom. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• One-of-One academic advising,

• Assisting students on choosing the correct major or changing their major,

• Student mentoring (staff and faculty volunteer to mentor individual students),

• Success coaching (working one on one with students and connecting students to services across campus)

• Time management,

• Goal setting and

• Soft skills-professionalism

The Triton Enrichment and Advising Center provides study tables, desk top computers and other resources so students may study or they may simple use the area as another place on campus for social connections. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the many demands of college, the Triton Enrichment and Advising Center is a dedicated place on campus where students can integrate into their campus environment and find another home away from home.

We invite you to visit The Triton Enrichment and Advising Center on our beautiful campus. We are located in the Student Support Services building in Room 124. You may contact us by calling 576-7201.

At the Triton Enrichment and Advising Center Jenny Shivers is director of advising and Tracy Crippin-Haake is director of student success and retention.