IEAA Certificate

Inclusive Excellence in Academic Advising Certificate

Description and Goals: Academic advisors engage students in meaningful relationships designed to support and encourage a challenging and successful undergraduate education. Academic advising is a collaboration between each student and their advisor, and as such, advisors should be equipped to address the needs of a plethora of student populations from various backgrounds. The courses offered in this optional certificate provide opportunities to expand advising perspectives, knowledge, and skills around inclusive excellence to better facilitate student success. The certificate will also enhance advisors’ contributions to the creation of inclusive workspaces where differences are celebrated. In addition to the required classes, each advisor who chooses to participate will be required to complete a practicum that demonstrates application of certificate content in an immerse or reflective way.

Program Requirements: This program is completely optional and open to all faculty, advisors, and student affairs staff members. To qualify for the Inclusive Excellence Advising Certificate, candidates must complete a total of eighteen hours of coursework and a practicum. Part I consists of three required courses (nine hours), and Part II involves a minimum of three elective courses (nine hours). Additionally, completion of the certificate includes a practicum component, which can be fulfilled in various ways. See below for more details.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this certificate; however, to provide a solid foundation of knowledge, participants are strongly encouraged to complete both the Certificate in Academic Advising and the Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion prior to beginning this coursework.

Part I: Core Curriculum

Required Core Courses (9 Hours):

• Inclusive Advising: Understanding UGA’s Student Demographics and History to Enhance Academic Support  
  • This course will focus on the social and historical context of various milestones and integrations into the student and faculty / staff populace at UGA.
• Strengthen Your Core: Cultivate Respect and Appreciation for Differences
  • Utilizing NACADA’s core values (Professionalism and Commitment, Respect and Integrity, Caring and Inclusivity, Empowerment), this course will explore participants’ core values to cultivate respect and appreciation for others.
• ACAA/IEAA: Next Level Communication for Advisors: Managing Expectations and Boundaries through Reflection, Planning, and Resetting 
  • This course explores and examines various methods and styles of advisor communication in the context of inclusivity issues such as microaggressions, implicit bias, and representation. This course is designed to provide knowledge and strategies to make advisor communication practices more equitable and inclusive.

Part II: Electives

Choose 3 Courses from the Following (9 Hours):

• “I Don’t See Color, So What?” (Part 1)
  • When is it okay to see race? When is it okay to not see race? Understanding the importance of race and how it affects daily interactions with colleagues and students is vital to understanding why we are different and why that difference is important to holistic growth and development. In this guided discussion, participants will explore the impact of race and identity and examine the root causes of why conversations around these two areas is so difficult.
• “I Do See Color, Now What?” (Part 2)
  • This course is the second part of a guided discussion on race and identity. Participants will work together to develop a framework for dealing with common pitfalls around these two areas. The goal of this course is to equip advisors with tools to create an engaging culture where inclusive excellence is woven into the fabric of our daily interactions with colleagues and students.
• Cultural Competencies in Advising International Students
  • This course is designed to increase cultural competencies for and raise awareness about academic advising for international students, and put strategies into place that will enhance advisors’ support for this student population.
• Academic Advising & LGBTQIA+ Students: Why do anything differently for LGBTQIA+ students?
  • LGBTQIA+ students can experience academic difficulty due to identity development, homophobia, and transphobia, as well as difficulties in other aspects of their lives. This course aims to give you valuable information and tools to help you assist LGBTQIA+ students and to consider their needs in an academic advising context.
• Advising Hispanic and Latino Students
  • In the state of Georgia, the Hispanic / Latino population is the most rapidly-growing sector. These students face distinct barriers as they navigate the transition to higher education. This course will introduce advisors to the historical struggles and contemporary circumstance of Hispanic / Latino college students. You will leave this course with the knowledge to analyze unconscious biases and respect the historical and institutional racism that has circumscribed Hispanic / Latino college students.
• How Emotional Intelligence Impacts Inclusive Excellence 
  • Emotional Intelligence involves the ability to feel, understand, articulate, and apply the power of emotions to interactions across lines of difference, some of which often trigger powerful responses that require emotional intelligence to manage those responses. Advisors will discuss components of how listening, interviewing, rapport-building, and self-disclosure directly influence advisor-advisee interactions and the impact inclusive excellence has on those exchanges.

Part III: Practicum

Completion of the certificate will require completion of (at least) one of the options below:

• Attendance / participation in at least 4 Extend the Conversation seminars (which will be offered at least once per semester beginning in spring 2025). NOTE: A minimum of 2 core courses must be completed prior to enrolling in an Extended Conversation seminar.
• Completion of 15 hours of NEW involvement (volunteer or otherwise) that demonstrates intentional exposure to or immersion in a student population that was discussed in this program (or is known to be underrepresented / historically oppressed at UGA).
• Completion of 1000 words of NEW content (in writing) on the subject of inclusive excellence in your academic advising practice, including a description of how your practice has changed based on knowledge gained through the certificate experience.
• Completion of a Pinnacle Project that will deepen the conversation or further inclusive excellence in some way. This could be a grant proposal, video project, publication, or group project.