The College of Education and Human Development’s (COEHD) Student Success Center is excited to welcome new director Cassie Lopez. The new COEHD Student Success Center, located in the Multidisciplinary Studies Building (MS 2.03.14B), is holding a virtual grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, Jan. 26, and will allow staff and students a glimpse of how the center continues to develop.
Originally launched in 2019 to promote the academic success of COEHD students, the Center was part of a larger UTSA initiative to prioritize overall student success throughout the university’s colleges.
“The goal of the Student Success Center is to provide COEHD undergraduate students with academic assistance, well-being and belonging assistance, assistance with career-engaged experiential learning and digital fluency – really help them with any academic need they may have from entry to graduation,” Lopez explained. She also expects the Center to provide a variety of other resources and serve as a convenient meetup space for COEHD students and groups.
Lopez has worked at UTSA since 2009, primarily in student affairs. But with both of her parents being high school teachers, and having earned her M.Ed. from UTSA’s department of educational leadership and policy studies, Lopez says she’s had her eye on the College of Education as well.
“I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to showcase everything I’ve learned at UTSA so far,” Lopez said. “I feel like I’ve learned so much in all of my roles, in different leadership styles, supervision, working with students, large- and small-scale event planning, and so I feel like that’s kind of culminated in this role, in this position, where I’m able to use everything I’ve learned to really get behind the Center and make it the best that it can be.”
Despite continuing to face the various pandemic-related challenges that have slowed the Center’s growth in the last two years, Lopez is excited to begin hosting students and events.
“Those are going to vary between wellbeing, student activities, scholarships, so if students want to learn a little bit about what the center has, they’re more than welcome to attend some of our sessions.”
“We’re hoping to host two to three events per month,” she said. “Those are going to vary between wellbeing, student activities, scholarships, so if students want to learn a little bit about what the center has, they’re more than welcome to attend some of our sessions.”
Once the Center is up and running, Lopez says she would like to see it expand in size and scope from incorporating additional spaces to implementing services such as peer mentoring, to recruiting additional staff and students. But for now, the job of truly getting the COEHD Student Success Center depends on Lopez and one work-study assistant. In the meantime, students can stop by when Main Campus opens, check out or donate materials to their lending library, or reach out to Lopez via email.
“Somebody who’s interested in getting involved is someone I foresee being a leader, a go-getter, and really wanting to give back to the college,” Lopez said.
Sign up for the Virtual Grand Opening here:
https://rowdylink.utsa.edu/event/7708914