Academic Advising Portfolio - Division of Continuing Education ...

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Case Study 1: Adrienne Mahan
“Confidence is the hinge on the door to success.”
‐ Mary O’Hare Dumas
It is around the middle of the fall semester and you are contacted by an introductory
chemistry professor who is concerned about several first‐year students who have not been
doing well on quizzes and exams. As is customary in your department, you call these students
in to discuss their grades, their study habits, and their transition to college. One of the
students, Adrienne Mahan, does not respond to your first outreach but responds to your
second. In her e‐mail response she says she hadn’t realized you were trying to contact her. She
makes an appointment with you for the following week.
When Adrienne first comes in to see you, she seems to have very little to say and you
must pull the information out of her. You learn that she is an 18‐year old student who comes
from a very small town in a rural area of your state. This is her first semester away at college
and her first time away from home. She describes her town as being very isolated and
desolate, where the nearest stores and jobs are about a one‐way forty‐five minute drive from
her home.
When Adrienne speaks her voice is so soft you have trouble hearing her, and she
appears nervous and extremely shy. You discover she is at risk of failing chemistry, but she is
also doing poorly in calculus and biology. She tells you that her older brother is away at
another college and doing well; since they were very close, she doesn’t understand why she’s
not doing well. She also comments that her parents do not understand why she’s not doing