How UVU's Student Success Specialists Build Connection Through Proactive Outreach

When students need support, it often makes all the difference when help feels personal, not procedural. At Utah Valley University, Ryan Bailey, Director of the Student Success Center, and Jamie Muhlestein, Associate Director of Student Success and Support, have helped build an innovative program that brings recent graduates and upperclassmen into part-time professional roles, focused on reaching out to students exactly when they need it most. Through consistent, genuine conversations mostly by text, the specialists are helping students stay connected, navigate challenges, and feel seen throughout their college journey. In this conversation, Ryan and Jamie share how UVU is transforming traditional student support by making relationship-building a core strategy. We explore how small but powerful changes, like removing unnecessary financial holds and assigning students a consistent point of contact, have had a measurable impact on retention and graduation rates. It is a reminder that sometimes the biggest difference comes from simply reaching out in a way that feels real, caring, and tailored to the individual. You will also hear how UVU is expanding its efforts to support juniors, seniors, and even students who left school just shy of graduating. By combining data, outreach, and human connection, Ryan and Jamie are showing what's possible when a university leads with empathy and action.   Show Notes: [01:43] We're talking about how UVU Student Success Center created student success specialist roles for recent graduates and upper-class students. [02:09] They are helping out with a number of initiatives through texting and calling from welcoming them to campus to seeing if a student has logged into a particular class. [02:35] They have had wild success with the Student Success Specialist roles. [05:08] UVU is in Orem, Utah with an enrollment of around 43,000 students. It's open enrollment.  [06:16] The Student Success Center supports students broadly. [06:42] Jamie is the Associate Director for Student Success and Support here in the Student Success Center. Her role is helping to manage the Student Success Center and the different programs within it. [06:54] They have a leave of absence program. There's also tuition waivers which helps with retention and completion. There's also coaching and Student Success programs. [07:43] Being able to help students with anything under the sun is one of the most sought after jobs in education. [08:28] Ryan talks about some of the top challenges that they face. [10:24] Jamie talks about the leave of absence program for people taking a religious mission. [12:45] Eliminating holds help them be more free and open with students when helping them with registration. They wanted to navigate the barriers that students would face. [14:33] They are working on a lot of cool projects and are trying everything. They have a centralized Success Center and want to be the main hub for any help students need.  [16:54] They have nine Student Success Specialists that are part-time employees. They are all recent or current students and that's where the peer mentorship comes in. [17:59] They use the Civitas system to house their early alerts. All of the faculty on campus have access to the platform through the learning management system which they use Canvas for. [18:36] Faculty can submit an early alert before the student drops. [19:19] The student will get a text within one business day. [20:23] Texting has been really beneficial for the students. [22:15] The messages are personalized, so they don't resend the same exact text again. [24:45] They also have three full-time members who are dedicated liaisons to other resources on campus. [30:35] Having the right people in the right positions makes all the difference. [33:23] Time to brag about the impact that these student programs are having at UVU. They've seen positive trends in retention with a 3% bump. [34:53] Retention Mentors begin in 2012. In 2020, they became a Success Specialist, and now they're the Student Success Center. [38:58] They just started having full-time success coaches called Student Success Coordinators. They've also done outreach for "some college, no degree".  [43:15] UVU is a great place to work!    Links and Resources: Jamie Muhlestein - Utah Valley University Jamie Muhlestein - LinkedIn Ryan Bailey - Utah Valley University Ryan Bailey - LinkedIn