Helena Berry would not be the person she is today without her academic advisor.

SIUC changed admission policies this year for new students by changing the deadline for applications to May 1. SIU System President Randy Dunn said during a press conference last month that the decline in freshmen enrollment was in part because of that decision, which resulted in a loss of 140 enrollees. Dunn also said the university wanted to reduce the amount of enrollees who were not academically prepared for college.

Walter Davis, an academic advisor and instructor in the university’s department of exploratory student advisement, coordinated a student panel discussion held Tuesday, which aimed to educate exploratory students about what SIUC has to offer. Berry was one of 30 former provisional students invited to share their success stories.

Berry graduated from the university in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in foreign language and international trade. Now she’s a branch manager of CFA Staffing, where she manages thousands of people by providing organizations in the St. Louis area with employees. 

“[The event] basically helps a lot of the new freshman who are just now coming in that really don’t know SIU a lot,” Davis said.

That was Berry six years ago, when she came to Carbondale after graduating from Belleville East High School.

In 2014, 2,281 undergraduate students — or 17 percent — had undeclared majors. When Berry took Davis’ UCOL 101 course during her first semester, she was not sure what to expect.

“I automatically gained a mentor just from the class,” Berry said.

Davis became a somewhat of a role model for Berry. He became someone she felt comfortable to confide in — from disagreements with her roommate to which classes to enroll in.

The coursework Berry learned provided her with skills she relies on in current career. Some of her peers, she said, came from underfunded secondary schools where they had never been required to write a paper. 

Davis, a local native who graduated from Carbondale High School, earned his associate’s from John A. Logan and his undergraduate and graduate degrees from SIUC.

Davis said his job at the university resonates with him because he understands many students’ situations firsthand.

“When I went back to school at John A. Logan, I really considered myself an at-risk student, because I … didn’t really have the confidence to think that I could really get through college,” he said. “Sometimes I see myself in them.”

For six years, Davis has worked with at-risk and first-generation students, providing guidance and mentorship. Resources, he said, are critical to the success and development of provisional students. Davis said one reason he coordinated the panel for three years is because many resources are being stripped from the program.

Berry has been at CFA Staffing a year and is killing two birds with one stone by pursuing a second degree from Lindenwood University and obtaining a certification in human resources, which requires two years of on-the-job experience.

After that, she is considering an education in law.

“I feel like without that program, honestly, the school would be in a totally different direction than I feel that it needs to go,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t feel like I have a place on campus to go [or] to call home at that point.”

Berry attributes much of her success to the program and the guidance she received from Davis — she said she is a far cry from the anti-social teenager she was when she started college.

“It’s not like I wasn’t prepared for college,” Berry said, “I think that class gave me a lot more comfort to feel confident in being in college.”

Bill Lukitsch can be contacted at [email protected] or on Twitter @Bill_LukitschDE.