The Daily Bulletin Archive

COMPASS, the College Opportunity Mentoring Program Achieving Student Success, is designed to assist students as they transition through their first year at Buffalo State.

The college’s COMPASS program was moved to the Academic Success area during the 2017 Academic Affairs reorganization and, as a result, has been repositioned to better connect COMPASS students with academic resources and enhanced high-impact practices.

The fall 2017 COMPASS class included 146 entering students. COMPASS students are expected to attend mandatory scheduled meetings with the COMPASS coordinator or graduate interns and meet regularly with student success associates (SSA) as part of the COMPASS Peer Mentoring Program. COMPASS students are also expected to attend mandatory success and transition workshops on topics such as maintaining financial aid eligibility, improving study skills, and goal setting. Students who access the COMPASS support network have higher grade point averages than those who do not. The program recently celebrated high-achieving COMPASS students in an event attended by President Conway-Turner. 

As Ke-Nijah Holloman-Wilson, a sophomore COMPASS student on track to graduate with honors, reflects:

“To me, the COMPASS program means having a support system away from home that helps you meet your long-term and short-term goals while attending college. These can be personal and academic. It means having someone guiding me along my college journey and believing in me. I would tell an incoming COMPASS student to take advantage of being in the program...having a mentor, access to resources on campus. Attend the workshops and pay attention to the information provided. Take advantage of the support that’s available to help adjust from high school to college; excel academically; be more confident in themselves and their studies; be professional, responsible, and independent.”

New this academic year, COMPASS students whose cumulative GPAs are below 2.25 have been encouraged to enroll in coursework specifically designed to improve their grade point average, further their engagement with the college, and move them closer to graduation. Plans are under way to expand the one-and-a-half-day COMPASS Early Start program to a week-long summer bridge program to better serve the college transition needs of COMPASS students. The expanded summer bridge program will allow COMPASS staff to make early face-to-face connections with students and their parents, as well as allow students to acclimate to their new lives as college students before the semester begins.

For more information about the COMPASS program or to get involved, please contact Shelly Inniss-Jackson, COMPASS coordinator, or visit the program’s website.