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Kelley Empowered by Academic Advisor

One-on-one Counseling Leads to Student’s Success
Kelley Empowered by Academic Advisor
Hunter Kelley, ’19, rings the 'Success Bell' indicating a job offer from Spreetail.
Hunter Kelley, ’19, knew the University of Nebraska–Lincoln would be the college of choice for him. However, he felt unsure about his major and future career choice until he embarked on a one-to-one advising relationship at the College of Business.

“I came into college as a finance and economics major because some of my parents’ friends thought that’s what I would be good at. But by the end of sophomore year, I was a little behind and found I didn’t like the classes I was taking, and I wasn’t having fun. You should enjoy and be invested in what you are taking, and so I realized I needed to switch majors,” explained the Lincoln, Nebraska, native.

Kelley explored different majors at the College of Business to find the right fit. He took general business courses with a goal in mind of finding two majors.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do. My transition from sophomore to junior year wasn’t meshing. I didn’t want to waste my time. I wanted to major in something I was passionate about,” he explained.

He decided to make an appointment with an academic advisor in the college. He met with Natasha Crawford, J.D., who looked further than the academic side of his issues to help him see the bigger picture.

“When I first met Hunter, we talked about how we were going to get him out of this situation. He was excited about school, but still figuring out how to go through that process. We started talking more and more, not just for academics but also about life. We checked in to see how classes were, but also what he had been up to or what was new. That's how I learned his vision was to do something broader,” explained Crawford.

After looking at the requirements for majors, Kelley saw he fulfilled a large amount of credits for the management major, which Crawford thought of as a good fit for his skillset. While the meetings helped Kelley transition into his new major, he asked to meet with her regularly to keep her up-to-date and himself accountable.

“I asked her if we had a check-in every month or month and a half, even if I did not need anything. Checking in and talking about how a class was going or whatever was happening in my life. Doing that felt like a reset and put things back into perspective,” explained Kelley.

He soon picked up international business as his second major. Crawford began to witness a change in Kelley and a shift in focus of their conversations. Kelley began looking toward his future, bringing up law school and careers. One day she felt it all appeared to click for him.

Kelley earned a position at Spreetail in a brand new role as a workforce management real-time analyst.
Kelley earned a position at Spreetail in a brand new role as a workforce management real-time analyst.
“All of a sudden, Hunter said, ‘I'm going to get this internship and I want my GPA to be this.’ He is telling me about things in his personal life that he has changed, pivoted 180 degrees,” said Crawford. “We were still talking about life in general, but our conversations changed from, ‘How do I stay in the college?’ to ‘How do I go to law school and do this with my law degree?’ and ‘How do I go abroad and get an internship? Do you think I can do that and take nine credit hours?’ We sat down and looked at how we make those things work for him.”

Kelley embraced the college and became a familiar face, growing his involvement on campus. He studied abroad and interned for Geo Sentinel in France. He also led the Student Ethics Board as president and served as a peer career coach for the Business Career Center.

“Hunter is a testament to students putting in 110 percent effort and dedicating their time to making sure they have the best opportunities post-college,” proclaimed Crawford.

Kelley reflects back on his time at the College of Business now as he sits at his desk at Spreetail working as a workforce management real-time analyst, a position first of its kind at the e-commerce company. He believes the time he spent reaching out for help to an academic advisor played a major role in getting his current job.

“The College of Business gave me the opportunities to take advantage of building relationships and becoming a leader. Hats off to the college for giving the students here the opportunity to do that. I believe that if I can do that, anyone can. My time here showed if you get involved and work hard, it will all eventually fall into place,” he said.

To learn more about the college’s academic advising, visit https://business.unl.edu/base.
Published: July 11, 2019