Name of department: UA Cares- Director: Andrea Allan
- Associate Director: Kaitlyn Riggin
- Case Managers: Ryan Neighbors; Melissa Flores
- GA: Carson Moore
- Number of staff members: 5
- Do you have student staff? 1 GA currently, working on hiring a second
Purpose of the department, what does your department do?
UA Cares strives to support students experiencing a barrier to their educational pursuit. That could be a personal, medical, or external barrier and can range from a minor impact to major disruptions. Our goal is to provide students resources and support as they navigate some of their most challenging circumstances and ensure they are in the best place to continue their education when the time is right for them.
Tell us about your programs and/or signature events:
UA Cares does a lot of outreach through in class presentations, tabling events with other departments, and presenting at New Student Orientation. One thing you’ll hear us say is “you don’t know you need to know about us…until you do!” We want all students and their support systems to know that we are here if they experience any kind of barrier to academic success and we will always do our best to provide timely, appropriate resources.
How are you contributing to the Advancing Student Affairs Strategic Plan:
We focus primarily on student success in our office. We have several students who have identified their work with UA Cares as being pivotal in their ability to persist and graduate—many who were on the fence of leaving the institution based on their circumstance and who found the resources and support they needed by connecting with UA Cares.
What do you want to brag about?
Our staff does hard work every day—but they all truly enjoy getting to connect with students and meet them wherever they are. I think the thing they would all brag about is seeing a student smile after a really hard meeting and knowing that student feels like there is a path forward where maybe it didn’t seem like it before. Not all paths are easy—but the UA Cares team is there to guide students along the way no matter how bumpy it may be!
