Maria Chomina: Finding paths to student success

Academic success specialist Maria Chomina has “uncanny insight into a person’s personality, background and current state of thinking – an innate understanding of where a student is coming from,” says information systems department chairman Michael Goul. These qualities set her apart, and this spring she was honored by her peers with the Experienced Professional Advisor award from ASU’s Council of Academic Advisors. In his nomination letter, Goul wrote that Maria “lights a fire in students.”

Maria Chomina advises Yonathan Vivas, who will graduate in December after majoring in Computer Information Systems and Supply Chain Management. September 27, 2013 - Maria Chomina sometimes tells students about “the Target example” to get them interested in the role of data in business. New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg writes in his book "The Power of Habit” that Target and other retailers can customize marketing to individual customers based on what they have learned through transaction and courtesy cards records. Computer Information Systems (CIS) students learn about the technologies that make this kind of targeted marketing possible, Chomina says. Chomina is the academic success specialist assigned to the approximately 400 CIS and 200 economics undergraduate students at the W. P. Carey School. It’s her job to help students move through the program to graduation, and eventually into a satisfying career. She is one of the first people first-year students meet at ASU, because she helps them with course selection during orientation prior to their arrival on campus. Once they start classes, Chomina helps them track their progress in meeting graduation requirements. She helps students think through their selection of a major or minor, and she makes sure they are aware of her colleagues in W. P. Carey’s Business Career Center when it’s time to look for an internship or a job. Chomina has “uncanny insight into a person’s personality, background and current state of thinking — an innate understanding of where a student is coming from,” says information systems department chairman Michael Goul. These qualities set her apart, and this spring she was honored by her peers with the Experienced Professional Advisor award from ASU’s Council of Academic Advisors. In his nomination letter, Goul wrote that Maria “lights a fire in students, and for that, she deserves this recognition.” Sparkler Meet Chomina just once and it’s apparent why Goul chose fire-lighting as a metaphor for her success. One student described her as “the advisor who drank one too many Red Bulls.” She radiates energy, from her smile and laugh, and her mile-a-minute speech pattern: her enthusiastic embrace of the possible would be hard for a student to resist. Goul mentioned one such student in his letter. Robert McKay was on campus recruiting students with colleagues from American Express when Goul bumped into him and asked him about Chomina. “He told me things that are similar to what I hear from all students I talk with about Maria and the importance of her role in their lives,” Goul wrote. McKay said he had been unsure about his major and about what a corporate career would be like. “He told me Maria convinced him that the constraints he felt were only those he was creating,” Goul continued. Chomina advised him to double major, and to compete in the Avnet Tech Games — as a way of getting to know more about corporate life. McKay excelled – in fact he was the information systems department’s Outstanding Graduating Senior in December, 2011, and went on to a coveted position at American Express. Perhaps the reason Chomina reads students so well is that she’s a student at heart herself. She’s an avid reader, “averaging” 43 books a year. She knows the average because she can see the record of the books she borrowed at the Phoenix Public Library’s South Mountain Community branch. She reads mostly nonfiction — typically self-development and business books, such as “The Power of Habit.” She’ll get a copy of the reading list for WPC 301 — the required class taught by Business Career Center advisors — and read everything on it. She also sits in on classes from time to time, and she keeps an open channel of communication with the department chairs and key staffers. “I make it a point to get to know my students individually even though they are part of a large business school and university — we are able to laugh at college mishaps, rejoice in class triumphs and build dreams for the future,” she said. “My relationship with students is both professional and peer-like and this balance allows students to not only see me as a resource, but to see me as a partner in their education. I invest as much of my time as they invest their trust in me to get them through to graduation.” Chomina also talks with parents. “My role with parents is to make them confident in the guidance, help and support given to their son or daughter while at ASU,” she said. “After my conversations with parents, students have been allowed to study abroad, complete an out-of-state internship, or have found comfort and relief in having someone to talk to regarding alternative options to succeed in college.” The payoff is seeing students graduate and then succeed. Many keep in touch – and some will ask what she thinks when they hit a bump or face a decision. Others pass along news of promotions, marriages and children. And that’s Chomina’s favorite part of her job: seeing her students achieving their goals.