Equipping Student Academic Coaches to Effectively Engage First-Year Students in Corequisite Math Support Labs

Over the past few years at Columbus State University, the learning support math faculty and director have focused on the importance of training academic coaches to effectively engage students in corequisite support math with key practices implemented in an emporium-based model for our corequisite support math labs. This model consists of experienced math faculty as instructional facilitators and coordinators and student peers as academic coaches to provide support in the areas of coaching, tutoring, and mentoring. The purpose of this implementation is to empower our students to acquire knowledge, to strengthen interpersonal and academic skills, and to create a sense of belonging at the institution in order to attain career goals. To effectively engage students in these efforts, the learning support math faculty and director have focused on the implementation of solid training for our academic coaches based on best practices in the areas of growth mindsets, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and motivational interviewing.