Long Beach State University Athletics
BIckerstaff Academic Center Provides Crucial Services For Student-Athletes
12/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | General
Long Beach, Calif. - Nestled next to the Horn Center in the Kinesiology Building is the Bickerstaff Academic Center for Student-Athlete Services.
The Bickerstaff Academic Center (BAC) serves as a resource for athletes to assist in a multitude of ways as they move closer to their academic goals. The center’s main objective is to assist the 350 Long Beach State student-athletes in maintaining the academic standards necessary for NCAA eligibility, graduation and achieving their educational goals.
While helping student-athletes maintain their academics, the center also focuses on mentoring them outside of the classroom as well.
With that in mind, the BAC has three pillars to success — academic advising, academic support services and major and career information.
Academic Advising
As one of the key objectives for the BAC, a group of advisors work with student-athletes and assist in identifying what their educational and professional goals are.
Along with that duty, advisors work tirelessly to insure that student-athletes maintain academic requirements, while also informing them of what the requirements are each semester.
“College has a lot more busy work,” freshman Denicia Dixon said. “So, the advising really helps add an extra reminder to make sure we stay on track.”
This also includes working with student-athletes on a semester-by-semester basis to make sure they are aware of the requirements are needed by the NCAA.
The journey to helping student-athletes begins when they come in as freshman. It’s a time where the staff is able to nurture and help them figure out what their goals are.
“We’re very vocal with freshmen,” BAC administrative assistant Sarah Buchanan said. “We help them understand that we’re here to support them, we’re here for them.”
Academic Support Services
The BAC also provides and coordinates academic support serves for student-athletes.
During the duration of a student-athletes time at Long Beach State, the BAC staff helps assess and determine what the needs are of each athlete.
After determining what each student-athlete needs, the BAC can develop in-house academic support assistance and programs that they can use.
This assistance can include study hall sessions, tutoring, academic mentoring and transitional programs. Student-athletes also have access to peer mentoring, these mentors can include upperclassmen, or students that are in a graduate or have graduated from a master’s program.
“The peer mentoring is an area to help our student-athletes throughout the semester. We teach them time management skills to stay on top of things and balance athletics with their classes,” Sandra Shirley, Director of the Bickerstaff Academic Center said. “We teach them how to physically create semester planners and utilizing the different online systems as well.”
Jake Pacheco is one of the mentors that graduated from Long Beach State.
“My job is to make our students, better students and better people,” mentor Jake Pacheco said. “It’s a two-prong job, we help them with their academics and we also help them take skills and apply them into their lives once they leave our program.”
The BAC puts mentors around student-athletes who maybe need that positive influence in their lives to make some adjustments to help them further achieve success.”
The difference between what Pacheco and a tutor would be that a tutor helps in one specific subject, while a mentor is an all-encompassing type of job.
“We don’t necessarily deal in tutoring,” Pacheco said. “What we deal with is more scheduling and time management. Also if we’re qualified to give a piece of advice — for example how can I plan out a project or how many hours of sleep I should be getting.”
Major and Career Information
Along with getting mentoring and semester-by-semester help making sure student-athletes stay on track, the BAC also provides guidance in helping them choose the most appropriate major — while also making sure that students find relevant vocational options.
By doing this, the staff assist in helping student-athletes develop their decision-making skills that are necessary for planning the future paths whether that is educational or occupational.
The BAC also works with the Career Development Center to assist student-athletes with issues that could anything from freshmen declaration or majors to resume writing. This collaboration can also help student with job interview skills and navigating job searches.
Lastly, the BAC can provide students with information to further their education or gain more experience in the work field.
“The BAC has mentors that are always checking up with us to make sure we are on track,” said freshman Deja Dames. “It’s nice because it helps me make sure that I am staying on track during season and when it’s the off season.”
