Academic Advisor, Rutgers University

>> So my name is Alicia Regina and currently I work at Rutgers University as an office manager and academic advisor for the School of Arts and Sciences Liberal Arts School. So I have sort of dual role in my office. I'm an office manager and I also advise students. So typically when I come in in the morning it's making sure that the office running smoothly, the schedules for appointments are for all of the different advisors are going to be ok for that day and then making sure my staff is prepared to handle the students that come in. And I also meet with students regularly so I have to look up their academic records and make sure that I'm prepared for the meetings I have with them. Students schedule appointments with our office to discuss their academic plans, figure out their major and minor, or figure out even what kind of courses they'd like to take next semester. So we as advisors help students kind of determine what goals they have and how they can reach them academically. So depending on where the student is at in their academics you know sometimes we have a student coming in not knowing what they want to do at all and sometimes we have students that know exactly what they want to do, or seem to know exactly what they want to do. And so by meeting with the students and discussing their either career goals, or their academic plans, we can help determine what kind of courses they would want to take that will help get them to a place where they can have the knowledge to pursue their career goals or their academic goals. So we'll sit down and we will discuss courses that are available and whether or not it's appropriate for the students to take them. A lot of times it's determining whether or not the student has the appropriate courses pre-requisite courses and also trying to see if the major or minor that they're choosing is something that they are fit to do and can achieve successfully.