Meet the L&S Training Team: Shaping the Future of Student Support

The work of a training and onboarding team is crucial as it sets the tone for the entire team and influences the work that follows. How do you all ensure that the training process not only prepares new advisers but also fosters a positive and supportive team culture from the very beginning?

Hello, everyone! We are truly honored to be featured in this spotlight and extend our heartfelt thanks to L&S College Adviser Riri Shibata for the nomination. Our work is deeply meaningful to us, and we’re excited to share more about what we do.

Our team focuses on two key areas: onboarding training for new advisers and ongoing professional development for all L&S Office of Undergraduate Advising (OUA) staff. We emphasize creating a welcoming and psychologically attuned learning environment rooted in an equity-oriented, strengths-based, and scaffolded curriculum design.

Most notably, the Training Team is a tight-knit group who models kindness, humor, and dedication to one another’s wellbeing and to the mission and values of our office. The team is both uplifting and authentic, steadily striving to improve upon our work. Every day, we remain nimble as things can change at the drop of a hat on this campus! We keep one another smiling and pushing quality work forward during our weekly team meetings and daily interactions in our chat space. We truly feel as though we’ve built a brave space together.

Some aspects of the onboarding plan for new advisers include: 

• An informal buddy system that pairs continuing advisers with new staff; 

• Clear learning objectives and expectations for every phase of onboarding;

• Weekly group check-ins and 1:1 coaching sessions to build connection and confidence; 

• Community agreements that highlight OUA staff’s commitment to one another in the following ways: being aware of privilege and marginalization dynamics, practicing active listening, granting appropriate acknowledgment for contributions, creating space for discussion and repair; 

• A strong partnership with, and agreements from, supervisors about consistent, frequent communication with new staff; 

• An equity- and justice-driven lens that underpins a robust training manual; 

• Continuing staff from across the office as unit trainers (at times via pre-recorded videos and at other times live); 

• Bi-directional feedback mechanisms to gauge progress and learning needs in real time; and,

• A well-balanced mix of policy instruction, advising frameworks, student meeting observations, and practice. 

The continuing arm of our team builds upon the bedrock of the onboarding training curriculum as related to the five (5) campus-wide advising foundations of practice: conceptual, relational, personal, technological, and informational. We are fortunate to have senior leaders who understand the value of dedicated time for professional development– where we hone our skills, so that we can show up as our best selves for students. Moreover, our Continuing Training Lead and other members have built strong connections across campus. We leverage those relationships to create mutually beneficial programming with Advising Strategy + Training, major advisers, and other campus partners from departments, divisions, and colleges throughout UC Berkeley.

We believe it’s important to point out that we take feedback seriously and integrate it into our curriculum and programming while managing the reality and scope of those expectations. Finally, inclusive facilitation and project management styles are critical factors to much of the work that makes training a success, making room for all voices while keeping within manageable parameters and being responsive to multiple stakeholders.