The Compassionate Advocates for Retention and Student Success (CARSS) team has received the Collaborative Excellence in Advising Award, a university honor recognizing teams that demonstrate outstanding partnership and impact in student advising.
The CARSS team — Allison Z. Shaw, Jennifer Chesney, Tami Madden and Nicole Acker — was recognized for its collaborative approach to supporting students through complex academic and personal challenges. The award, presented through MSU’s advising community, highlights teams whose work exemplifies the power of cross-campus collaboration in helping students succeed.
CARSS operates using a case-management model of advising, coordinating support for students across multiple university offices to address both academic and personal needs.
“The Compassionate Advocates for Retention and Student Success takes a case management approach to ensuring robust, holistic academic advising by engaging with other campus units to provide wrap-around care for students’ personal lives in addition to academic life,” said Allison Z. Shaw, director of student success and retention.
The team regularly partners with units such as Residence Education and Housing Services, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, the Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance, and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Student Life to ensure students receive the support they need.
“We then work closely with those units to ensure that the student’s basic needs are met first, and with consideration for impacts on academics,” Shaw said. “The collaboration between all units that may need to be relied upon has allowed students to feel more support by MSU as a whole and ensured that students are able to progress through these complex situations with minimal disruption to their academic progress.”
For the team, the award reflects a deeply personal commitment to the students they support.
“It always feels wonderful for one’s work to be recognized, but an award such as this is especially meaningful because the team is invested in each and every one of our students,” Shaw said. “Each member of CARSS has worked with students who truly could have been any one of us when we were students. Receiving this award feels very full circle.”