Better Together: How Appreciative Advising Transformed a Campus Culture

Written by: Anne Fennimore, Ph.D.

Researchers in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology are shaping national conversations about student success through groundbreaking work in appreciative advising. Developed by Professor Jennifer Bloom, Ed.D., and colleagues, appreciative advising is a six-phase, theory-to-practice framework rooted in Appreciative Inquiry and positive psychology that centers on the belief that every student possesses strengths and dreams that can be leveraged to optimize their academic journey.

Receiving an opportunity to evaluate the framework’s implementation, Bloom, along with Amanda Propst Cuevas, Ph.D., director of student physician coaching at Texas Christian University’s Burnett School of Medicine, Bryan Hursh, graduate of the Ed.D. program in Educational Leadership and Research Methodology at Florida Atlantic, and Jarrett Warshaw, Ph.D., assistant director for research and grants at the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, explored the benefits and challenges of appreciative advising’s campus-wide adoption. Their study, published in the Journal of Appreciative Education, focused on Mountain West University (MWU), a pseudonym for a Research I institution with 28,000 students located in the Western United States.

MWU began using Appreciative Advising in 2016, with a pilot in its Exploratory Advising Office before expanding across colleges through voluntary adoption and professional development. Using the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, the research team conducted interviews with academic advisors and analyzed institutional documents to understand the perceived impact of the initiative.

Advisors consistently cited the value of a common framework and language, which fostered greater alignment between faculty and staff and clarified the role of academic advisors.

“It just defines things for us a little bit better, and so we can refer back to it to make sure we’re giving a good comprehensive advising program for our students here…It’s natural, organic, for the most part,” said Ava, an academic advisor and completion coordinator.

Appreciative Advising not only improved organizational coherence but also enhanced individual advisors’ skills and sense of agency. Advisors reported that the framework helped them build relationships with students more effectively and provided practical resources for day-to-day advising.

Evelyn, a student success advisor, reflected, “I learned how to build relationships with my students in 30 minutes, which is always one of those things that is scary and seems impossible, but absolutely possible.”

Bloom emphasized why this matters for higher education. “When advisors approach students from a strengths-based perspective, it changes the dynamic. Students feel seen and supported, and advisors feel empowered to help them achieve their goals.”

However, the transition also presented challenges. Advisors described feeling overloaded by their existing responsibilities, and some initially resisted what they perceived as another institutional mandate. Rather than employing a top-down approach, the authors encourage voluntary adoption and ongoing training to increase participation and sustainability.

The study also revealed the appreciative advising framework’s ability to extend beyond advising offices, reaching faculty, peer mentors, and student affairs professionals. By underscoring the power of shared frameworks, higher education institutions can shape the future of student success strategies. As one advisor aptly stated, “We’re just better together.”