Student Ready Colleges, Success Coaches & Stigma with Erin Anglin

1 min read

Published: 10 Nov 2026

Emma Gange

Welcome to episode 015 of Learning Outcomes Leaders, the higher education podcast from Genio.

Colleges need to become student ready instead of expecting students to arrive college ready.

In this episode, Erin Anglin, Executive Director of Academic Support Services and Learning Center at East Central College in Missouri, shares how her team built a student retention model around success coaches, early alert software and a federal Title III grant.

As a former first-generation college student, she also explains how to remove the stigma of asking for help.

What will you learn from this episode?

How did success coaching help East Central College lift institutional retention by 5 to 9%?
How can a college start a retention program before it has new staff or budget?
How does early alert software help faculty refer struggling students?
How did a $2.1 million Title III grant cut success coach caseloads to about 200 students?
How can an optional intake survey flag food and housing insecurity?
How do you win faculty buy-in when retention work feels like "big brother"?

Listen to the full conversation below, or on your favorite podcast app.

Quick answers from the episode

What does a success coach do at a community college?

A success coach at a community college acts as a student's individual cheerleader, helping them fit college around jobs, families and other obligations. At East Central College, Erin Anglin's success coaches align with academic pathways, with one dedicated to online students, and each coach supports about 200 students.

How can a college start a student retention program with limited resources?

A college can start a student retention program with limited resources by starting small and letting the results make the case. Erin Anglin's team at East Central College added retention outreach to one specialist's role and trialed a free software add-on for faculty referrals. Within about a year, retention improved and the college created a dedicated retention coordinator position.

What does it mean for a college to be student ready?

Being a student ready college means adapting to students instead of expecting them to arrive college ready. Erin Anglin argues that students now bring different skills and life challenges, so colleges must meet those needs, from removing the stigma of asking for help to explaining jargon like "credit hour."