It takes a village and the support of guidance counselors and community based organizations (CBOS) is fundamental to student success. Your support and our guidance will help students achieve their academic and career goals.
Our goal is to help students self-advocate while preparing them for the next stage of their personal/professional development (i.e., workforce and/or transferring to a senior college/university). One way you can help us and your student is to encourage that they take the lead in communicating with us. If you want to be kept in the loop, you can ask them to copy you on the email.
Ways You Can Help Your Student
- Review the student’s major choice.
- Go over our student and advisor expectations to help them prepare for their first session.
- Help them draft a clear and thorough email, in which they identify themselves (if known, they should include EMPLID) and includes their specific request or concern, if they need to contact us.
- Assist student in learning how to navigate the BMCC website.
- Help students understand deadlines, referring to sources such as the academic calendar.
- Encourage students to act promptly and develop good time management skills.
- When assisting students with completing tasks, involve them and make them aware of the ones they will need to complete routinely, such as filing their FAFSA every academic year.
Access to Student Information/Records
FERPA is the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) (“FERPA”). This is a federal law that protects the privacy of student “Educational Records.” This law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. While the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides you access to your student’s record while in grades K-12, the access to their post-secondary record is limited to the student once they enroll in college. This means that you do not automatically have access to the student’s record, including, but not limited to, major of study, enrollment schedule, class attendance, and grades. If the student would like for you to have access, they would need to complete a FERPA Release Form.
Though all students are not advised by our office, this information applies to other advising units and academic departments.
Thank you for your partnership! We look forward to assisting your student.
Community Based Organization Partnerships
Students and staff who are part of the community based organizations (CBOs) below can reach out to the academic advisor listed for dedicated advisement. For a list of further resources to help your student, please visit the Student Hub.
Goddard Riverside Options Center and One Goal New York
Amina Halsey – ahalsey@bmcc.cuny.edu
If your organization is not listed above and you would like to partner with us to better assist your students, please contact Maketa Barber, Academic Testing Director, at mbarber@bmcc.cuny.edu.
