The mission of Pierce College is to create quality educational opportunities for a diverse community of learners to thrive in an evolving world.

Recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the Top 10 community colleges in the nation (2021), Pierce College is an innovative, mission-driven, data-informed and equity-minded community college dedicated to helping all students achieve their academic and professional goals with a focus on racial and social justice and equity.

A little about us. Pierce College at Joint Base Lewis-McChord has been serving the military community since 1967 and is fully committed to providing direct educational services that meet the needs of our military-connected community. We are a small team making big impacts. We operate with 20 full-time staff, 4 full-time faculty, and a cadre of part-time faculty who have a passion for serving with equity-minded excellence. With offices located at Lewis Main in the Stone Education Center, and at McChord Field in the McChord Education Center, our team is embedded in the JBLM community and ready to provide quality services and instruction to our service members and their families.

We are honored to serve those who serve and have served. Through direct student care, support and innovative programs, Pierce College at JBLM delivers full academic career pathways online and in-person that meet the needs of todays military-connected students. We L.O.V.E. (Listen, Observe, Value/Validate, Embrace/Empower) our students to success.

Serving Military-Connected Students: The Student Success Coach (SSC) serves in a key role for the success of students pursuing their education at Pierce College at JBLM and other locations within Pierce College District. The SSC works under the general direction of the Director of Student Success & Outreach. The SSC provides advising and student support to a caseload of students with a primary focus on military-connected students (servicemembers, spouses, dependents, and veterans). This position also serves as a liaison with multiple military education partners on the installation, as well as those located in other geographic areas around the world.

Advancing Pierce College Mission: The Student Success Coach (SSC) works to advance the equity-centered mission of Pierce College through a purposeful focus on serving systemically nondominant (1) students, particularly African American/Black male identified students. This includes relational engagement to close college access gaps and areas of inequity in order to increase retention, degree completion, and university transfer and/or workforce readiness. The SSC will work in close collaboration with Pierce Colleges Equity, Diversity, Inclusion – College Access, Retention, and Engagement Services (EDI CARES) team to support student engagement and belonging.

Advancing Guided Pathways: Within the context of a Guided Pathways framework, the student success coach will engage in culturally sustaining practices that center racial equity in order to remove barriers and support students in successfully navigating the Pierce College experience. The student success coach provides expertise and builds relationships with students to identify interests and needs, develops a Graduation Plan, and advance the strategies, skills, and self-efficacy that lead to individual and community growth and success.

About the District
The college enjoys a strong presence in the community and participates in numerous partnerships with business, community, government, and educational organizations.

Pierce College at Fort Steilacoom
Located on a beautiful 140-acre site adjacent to a 340-acre community, recreational park, and Waughop Lake. Want a feel for our District, take a peek with aerial campus views!

Pierce College at Puyallup
Located on a luscious site with 125-acres of wooded land including modern facilities and beautiful hideaways.

Pierce College at JBLM
Located at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord military sites, serving many of our military and active duty families serving our country.

The Student Success Coach (Program Specialist 3) will be responsible for the following, but not limited to:

Advising caseload management

• Provide culturally appreciative advising case management services to advance the engagement and success of marginalized and minoritized students.
• Create an atmosphere for students to feel affirmed, empowered, and valued.
• In a culturally responsive and sustaining manner, support and guide students through their educational journey, exploring past educational experiences and trauma, identifying cultural/racialized barriers to success, and support dismantling and/or navigating barriers to program completion, including appropriate referrals to internal and external partners.
• Engage in race-conscious and sustaining practices to achieve equitable outcomes for students from admissions throughout the journey in higher education.
• Collaborate with military education liaisons, Financial Aid, and other funding source teams to assist students on caseload through the funding options and processes.
• Collaborate with the appropriate faculty and staff in support of student development of their career goals, career pathway, class requirements and opportunities.
• Work to ensure students have the opportunity to connect to culturally sustaining engagement opportunities.
• Work to build sustainable relationships with students to better understand and support educational success in the context of their unique lived experience.
• Partner with students to develop rapport, respect, and trust relationships via meetings, participation in events, communication, etc.

• Partners with students to identify initial strengths and challenges in academic, career, and personal pathway by identifying factors impacting academic progress.
• Examines alternatives based on changing goals, academic progress, or personal/systemic situation, and interpret analytics to guide and empower students to establish academic and career goals.
• Provides expertise within assigned career pathways as appropriate.
• Partners with students in identifying a career pathway and planning a program of study that achieves their education and career goals.
• Communicates with student caseload in a culturally sustaining manner frequently and intentionally through multiple methods, including but not limited to face-to-face meetings, college-supported technology solutions, e-mail, telephone, text messages, and social media.
• Provides unofficial evaluation of transfer credits to assist with program planning, graduation planning; military-connected funding request approvals, and graduation reporting in military portals.
• Partners with evaluations and job and career connections team to support students through graduation process including an official evaluation and requesting transcripts, and preparation for transfer, and career entry.
• Promotes removal of barriers to degree/program completion by assisting students in requesting Academic Credit for Prior Learning (ACPL) Assessments and connecting them with appropriate faculty for interview and evaluation.

• Monitor academic progress of caseload by analyzing progress reports, satisfactory progress toward degree.
• Identifies current and potential needs and opportunities for resource referrals, and partnering with students in gaining early access to key college resources (e.g. library, writing center, tutoring, basic needs resources, student life opportunities, and more.); Knowledgeable of military-connected resources and promotes timely connection for military-connected students who would benefit.
• Independently utilizes technology for advising and comprehensive retention management of caseload.
• Supports students in making decisions about their career pathway (registration including adds, drops, withdrawals, incompletes, funding, delayed completion, transfer planning, career entry, special admission program admission criteria, etc.) to support student retention and completion.
• Support students in understanding their pathway and graduation plan through official evaluation of previous college, military, AP, and other alternative credit; through continuous, on- time enrollment for each term; and through timely application for graduation and preparation for next steps post-graduation.

• Actively supports, engages in, and works to advance Pierce College's goals for equity and commitment to antiracism in order to provide access and support for our diverse community of learners.
• Assists in the development, preparation, and updating of advising and coaching materials, specifically to advance the experience and success of marginalized and minoritized students.
• Participates in career and college fairs.
• Actively works to implement recommendations related to improvement of advising and coaching services to better serve those who have been excluded from systems, policies, and practices.
• Regularly integrates learning from professional development and provides share-outs to team to advance team learning and development.
• Participates in shared governance and committee work.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Required Education

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university.

• One (1) year of experience working in an educational environment providing direct student support (such as academic advising, financial aid, TRIO, AANAPSI, multicultural services, or Workforce Education), OR one (1) year of experience in an agency or school setting managing a client caseload.
• Experience providing culturally responsive services and assistance to students/clients with intersecting identities and multicultural backgrounds.
• Experience working with electronic information management systems/database software.
• Experience working with privacy laws and confidentiality requirements.
• Experience in providing effective referrals for students or clients.