The Ideal Student Journey To and Through College

Published: January 30, 2023

We are proud to publish the student journey map, developed by Advising Success Network Fellows Callan Drake, Renee Rivera Restivo, and Ariel Ventura-Lazo.

Over the last few months the Advising Success Network had the opportunity to work with a team of undergraduate and graduate students attending different institutions as part of the very first cohort of ASN Student Fellows. As part of the student fellows’ experiences, they worked on group research projects related to racial equity and advising, and developed student-facing overviews of their final papers about their studies.

This journey map was developed by 3 students from different institutions with different intersecting identities and college experiences. The reason we developed this map is because through our different and shared experiences we believe that higher education advising needs to be reevaluated. The current state of higher education advising is falling short of students’ needs. Through collaboration, we created the ideal advising experience model. This journey map may not represent all students and their needs, but it was designed to be adapted to the individual.

Download their overview to learn more about the themes that emerged and reflections on how higher education institutions can redesign to center students’ well being and experiences as they strive to achieve their goals.

About the Authors:

  • Callan “Call” Drake (she/her) grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and attends Northern Arizona University where she majors in Art Education. She plans on teaching elementary school art and hopes to go to graduate school to become and art therapist.
  • Renee “Nea” Rivera Restivo (she/her) is a first-generation multi-cultural, non-traditional student and mother of three. She is in her last semester of an Associates in Health Information Management which works on the policy side of healthcare. Nea will be pursuing her Bachelors degree next.
  • Ariel Ventura-Lazo (he/him) was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. He is in his final year at George Mason University, where he majors in Management. He previously earned his Associate in Business ADministration at Northern Virginia Community College before transferring to George Mason University.