Advise TX places exceptional recent college graduates from all fields of study on high school campuses as near-peer college advisers to lead low-income and first-generation students to college. Advise TX advisers receive intensive training before serving in a high school, completing a six-week practical curriculum that focuses on college access, college admissions, financial aid, student services, diversity, community service, and professionalism. Advisors live within their service areas, involving themselves in the communities that they serve.
Among the attributes that distinguish the Advise TX model are:
- Advise TX is a near-peer model; advisers are close in age to the students that they serve;
- Advise TX works in partnership with colleges and universities across the state, drawing on their infrastructure and resources;
- Advise TX advisers serve the whole school, rather than a cohort of particular students, to foster a school-wide college-going culture;
- Advise TX participates in a national external evaluation to quantitatively measure outcomes and qualitative results; and
- Advise TX focuses on best-fit colleges, encouraging students to attend schools that will serve them well both academically and socially.
The Advise TX College Advising Corps is sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and private foundations and business. The program started in 2009 when The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Public School Initiatives placed fifteen recent graduates of UT Austin into service. The Institute received a grant from the THECB to expand the program to 120 advisers in 2011, and Advise TX now has chapters at The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, and Trinity University.
Meet the UT Austin 2017-2018 Advise TX Advisers
Rio Grande Valley
Dallas
Houston
Central Texas
El Paso
About the UT Austin Chapter
The UT Austin chapter of Advise TX is housed at the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE). The first Advising Corps in Texas, the UT Austin chapter began in 2010-11 with 15 advisers serving in Houston, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley. The UT Austin expanded its program in 2011-2012 with 64 advisers serving in Central Texas, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley. With the addition of the four university chapters, UT Austin currently serves in 21 high schools in the following regions: Central Texas, El Paso, Dallas, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. The program has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Texas Tribune, the San Antonio News Express, the Valley Monitor, and UT Austin’s alumni magazine, The Alcalde.
Chapter Leadership
Cheryl Sawyer, Program Director
Service regions: Central Texas, El Paso, Houston, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley
cheryls@austin.utexas.edu
Contact Information
Mailing address:
Advise TX – UT Austin 505 E. Huntland Dr., Suite 270
Austin, TX 78752
Office Location:
Centennial Towers, Suite 270
UT Austin Chapter Facebook: facebook.com/adviseTXutaustin
UT Austin Chapter Twitter: twitter.com/@AdviseTXUT