Building Skills for Student Success: Characterizing Success and Today’s Learning Environment
Sponsored by Sage
Recorded on 05/03/2023
Posted in The Authority File
Episode 315
In this series, four guests join The Authority File to discuss how libraries, faculty, and publishers can support student success. Our speakers include: Ceceilia Parnther, assistant professor in the Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership at St. John’s University; María Evelia Emerson, Student Success Librarian at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Amber Eakin, Instructional Librarian at Strayer University; and Andrew Boney, executive editor in Sage’s Learning Resources Division. Diving into the evolution of content delivery and partnership strategies across campus, our guests explain their own unique strategies to connect with and aid students. Further, they highlight how “traditional” approaches to student success have become outdated or inefficient, thereby reflecting on the characteristics and challenges of today’s learning environment and championing the versatility of the library to underpin this work.
The first episode of this four-part series provides key context on our guests’ roles and institutions—each demands distinct approaches to online learning, digital tools, and fulfilling administrative goals. In addition, they offer their own definitions for student success, such as completing a degree, achieving economic mobility, becoming media literate, or receiving the equitable support needed to attain their goals. They also summarize how technology has impacted content, as shorter, more flexible, and more interactive resources become the new norm.
About the guests:

Ceceilia Parnther
Assistant Professor, Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership
St. John’s University
Dr. Ceceilia Parnther is an assistant professor in the Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership at St. John’s University. In her work, Parnther develops and implements qualitatively dominate research designs to explore equity in higher education leadership and practice. Her research agenda centers culture and equity and includes mentorship, student success, academic integrity education, and knowledge acquisition/dissemination in higher education. Dr. Parnther’s career path as a scholar-practitioner includes roles in academic and student affairs; prior to her current position she served in leadership and teaching roles in higher education administration for 15 years. Additional recent scholarship can be found in the Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Higher Education, The Journal of College and Character, and Innovative Higher Education.

María Evelia Emerson
Student Success Librarian
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
María Evelia Emerson is the Student Success Librarian at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her BA in Spanish and International Studies at Hope College, and her MLIS at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research grows out of her work at small colleges and now a Big 10 school on how academic libraries can support a sense of belonging in students.

Amber Eakin
Instructional Librarian
Strayer University
Amber Eakin is the Instructional Librarian for Strayer University. She reinvigorated the library’s 100% virtual instruction strategy with inspiration from Malcolm’s assumptions of andragogy and Grow’s Staged Self-Directed Learning. After completing her Master of Science in Library Science in 2011, she earned a Master of Education in Adult Education and Development in 2018. She and her husband live in wild and wonderful West Virginia with their menagerie of pets.

Andrew Boney
Executive Editor
Sage
Andrew Boney is an executive editor in Sage’s Learning Resources Division. He oversees a team of editors expanding Sage’s academic and professional skill resources (Student Success and Business Skills) and creating new digital library resources in business and management.

We are pleased to announce that The Authority File won Best B2B Podcast at the 2023 Publisher Podcast Awards. The TAF team is thrilled to be honored with this award and extends congratulations to the fellow nominees.
Are you a new listener to TAF? Take a look back at our most popular episodes and staff picks in celebration of reaching our 300th episode.
Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:
- The Library’s Role
- Creating and Maintaining Partnerships
- Pandemic Impacts and Strategies for the Future
Check out our previous series with Sage:
– Understanding the Undergraduate Workflow
– Spotlighting Academic Library Innovation
– The Myth of the COVID-Transformed Workplace
– Preparing Diverse Students for Success in the Academic and Private Sectors
– Academic Librarianship in the Age of COVID
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