Personal Branding as an Academic Support Professional
In the world of legal education, academic support professionals often serve as a quiet engine behind student academic and bar success. We offer guidance through the rigors of doctrinal courses, help students navigate the stress of bar prep, and champion student growth as critical thinkers and future practitioners. Yet, as we pour into our students, many of us overlook one key element of long-term impact and career satisfaction, our personal brand.
Academic Support Educators are safety nets for struggling students, centers for emergency intervention, tutors, and coaches. We meaningfully contribute to the retention, persistence, and success of students at every stage of their legal education journey. We support students as they determine how to manage time, stress, motivation, and setbacks. We curate environments where first generation and nontraditional students feel seen and supported. We lead early intervention and support strategies by monitoring processes and providing scaffolding, especially for students at risk of academic dismissal. We participate in skills-based curriculum but also integrate skills into the curriculum by collaboration with faculty who embed skills in their teaching. All while addressing the mental and emotional toll of bar preparation on our graduates, test anxiety on our students, and burnout felt by us. So Academic Support Educator, why aren’t you a brand?
Personal branding is not about self-promotion, it is crafting professional reputation and identity for clarity. Personal branding is intentionally shaping how you are known at your institution, in the legal education community, and beyond. As social media influencers say, your personal brand is the story you tell about yourself, shaping how others perceive your skills, values, and overall impact. I am by no means a personal brand expert but I do believe it is important to consider it particularly if you have certain professional goals in mind. Here are a few things to consider:
What do you want to be known for? Really! Are you the curriculum whisperer who bridges together doctrinal learning and skill development? Are you the data-driven innovator who transforms bar outcomes? Are you the compassionate individual who advocates for first generation law students because you were one as well? Identify what makes you unique but also what makes your work unique and impactful; name it and own it!
At the heart of personal branding is purpose. Academic support educators are advocates, educators, and mentors. Your personal brand should reflect those things that make you, you. When you lead with integrity and the heart of a servant leader, people will remember how you made them feel and how you made them better.
You do not need to be on every social media platform or publish weekly to be visible. A few well-placed contributions can go a long way. Present at a conference, maybe present with a friend to establish yourself. Write one or multiple guest blog posts on this platform! You can do that. Contribute to panels that reflect your expertise, you will shine. Join or start national academic support or bar support conversations about issues pertinent to your profession. Mentor emerging academic support educators. By imparting your wisdom, you are also developing your community. These are avenues that help your work ripple beyond your office and institutional walls.
A strong personal brand flows naturally from your values and your voice. You embody your unique style through the emails you send, your social media presence, your workshop style, and how you show up in meetings will reflect your professional identity. It is not about branding jargon and what is popular, it is about you and your consistency. The same care and attention to detail you use to help students present themselves professionally should apply to your own career.
As legal education evolves so does your role within it. The more academic success professionals claim space for themselves as educators and thought leaders, the more we strengthen the legitimacy of academic and bar support work. Personal branding is not about ego. Have you considered that this might be the time for you to model the professional presence your students will one day carry with them wherever they go, courtroom, boardroom, classroom, and beyond.
Let us all consider one to two things we will commit to this academic year to establish or advance our personal brand.
(Goldie Pritchard)
