There is a sweet spot in the Academic year, a time where things calm down and you can reflect on the year that was. It comes between the end of the spring term where grades have posted, students have graduated and continuing eligibility has been determined and the start of the second summer session. As a program, you can take a minute and catch your breath before the new students are onboarded and the cycle starts again. We had a great conversation about this process during our last #SAThleteDevChat that I would encourage you to take a few minutes to read.

For everyone in our business, I think it is important to realize that by saying it is a calm period, it just means the 🔥🔥 are slightly smaller and a little more spread out.

I am extremely excited about the progress our @FIU student-athletes continue to make in the classroom. It is amazing to look back over the past three years to see the growth of not only our students – but our Program and the development of our student-centered staff.

What impresses me the most is the consistency of success of our staff and our Program. We have come a long way in three years, posting a 3.0 or higher department GPA for 7 consecutive semesters as we strive to set a Department goal of 3.5. To see our staff pull through every unexpected challenge and continue to post such strong numbers is a true reflection of their work ethic, character and affirmation that we truly believe in a “We before Me” mentality.

“It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there” Mia Hamm

The Leadership Team at @FIU_SAAC devotes significant time to our #SAACares Program thinking of ways to Thank, or show appreciation to, our dedicated staff. I’ve talked about this before in my post on “The Modern Office”. If you missed that, I would encourage you to take a second and scroll down. I’d like to take this opportunity to quickly THANK Helen, Victor, Ron, Lisa, Donald, Ayssa, Cristina, Alison, Brenda, Denisse, Lyzbeth and Shirley for everything they bring to our program and to our student-athletes. We also have truly amazing student workers from our front desk staff to our content tutors. The http://www.FIU.edu Administration has provided the vision and the support to ensure our student-athletes are successful. From Dr. Rosenberg and Dr. Bejar to our partners in the academic community – THANK YOU – Dr. Markowitz, Dr. Andrews, Elizabeth Carrillo, Dr. Valdes, Dr. Himburg, Dr. Fain, Jody Glassman, Javier Marques and many – many more. I would like to single out the incredible work being done by (soon to be Dr.) Bridgette Cram and her Department of student success.

You might be asking yourself – What do we do during this small break in the storm that is Academic Support? Well, In our program, http://SAAC.FIU.edu, we take advantage of that time to evaluate our entire program – top to bottom. We understand this is a very fluid process – that much like technology – things will continue to change every year. We want to stay on top of the curve so that we can enhance the support provided to our student-athletes. We dedicate the first seven weeks of the summer to review the past academic year. Evaluation is 🔑.

The feedback from our student population is paramount to every conversation we have during this time period. We break each segment of our program out and evaluate it. Our Staff is given the opportunity to address and change anything and everything in our day to day. The only MUST STAY aspects of our program are our pillars: Student-Centered, Communication with Urgency, Investing in Our People. Everything else is on the table. I’m excited to see what aspects of our program we change to better fit the needs of our students as we aim to break another GPA record this upcoming academic year. We will be sending several staff members to @NfourA this summer in Orlando to continue our professional development and we hope to see many of you there.

To all of our FIU Students who graduated this year – CONGRATS, but please know this is not the end. You have our number, all you have to do is call if you need anything.

To all of our FIU Students joining our #PantherFamily this year – WELCOME. We are so excited you are here and can’t wait to get started.   #LiveMaas
* 📱307-223-6429
* 🐤@Wesdmaas
* 💻Wmaas@fiu.edu