Hello, my name is Kiana Wilson, and this is my first blog post as a contributing editor. Let me start by saying that I have been in the academic success world for almost two years, and I’ve been out of law school for almost five years. And though I consider myself still new to this area, I am happy to have the opportunity to share what I’ve learned so far and I hope that my post will encourage and challenge you, no matter how long you’ve been doing this work.
As I was preparing to write, I decided to celebrate this accomplishment by sharing a few things I’ve learned along the way…
- “I support learning objectives; I do not control student outcomes.”
The first time I heard this, I felt so seen. Let me take you back there… I was four months into this role, sitting in the first plenary session at AASE in 2025. I felt discouraged because grades were being released and some students that I supported during the spring semester did not do as well as we had hoped. But in one moment, someone wise shared this with the group and changed my entire perspective. It became my motto! I do what I can to support, but I cannot let my students’ performance weigh me down. This is such a great reminder as bar results start to come out.
- “It takes a village.”
Collaboration is key for this role, especially if you’re new to academic support and have a smaller team. One way this helped me was connecting with other administrators in the building who have relationships with our students as I tried to find a trend for those who were not passing the bar. This insight allowed me not to just see the numbers of unsuccessful examinees but gave me context. It allowed me to see the bigger picture. And we were able to work together to implement programming to minimize our problem areas. By identifying those trends and targeting our programming, we saw real results. Our first year of being intentional led us from being ranked 30th in the nation for first-time bar passage in 2024 to 10th in 2025 (91.4% to 95.2%). I do not say this to brag, but to acknowledge that the success was a team effort.
Also, connecting with other ASP and Bar Support professionals at other schools has made a huge difference in how I show up because we encourage each other and are willing to share helpful information. Colleagues I connected with last year joined me on a panel for this year’s AASE conference. And I keep meeting people in this world who encourage me to keep showing up and giving it my best. I am thankful for that.
- “Remember my ‘why.'”
This is something that I have to revisit more times than I would like to acknowledge. When I went to law school, giving back to the next generation of attorneys in this way wasn’t on my Bingo card. Some days I’ve felt like a lunch lady, and other days I’ve felt like my efforts were unappreciated. And on the days when pride wants to settle in and remind me that I could be practicing law or quite literally anything else, I must decide to remember my “why.” In these almost two years, my “why” has changed but it still gives me the strength to show up every day ready to serve my students in any way that I can.
If you’re feeling burnt out, overlooked, unappreciated, revisit your “why.” And if you don’t have a “why” then this is the perfect time for you to honor yourself by giving yourself time to reflect on what keeps you coming back each day.
(Kiana Wilson)
