Rita Koenig

Helping Students Succeed

When Rita Koenig came to UConn’s Stamford campus in 1990, she arrived as a Licensed Professional Counselor with the State of Connecticut, prior experience at other Universities and an ongoing career counseling practice. Today as Assistant Director of the Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) and Non Degree Studies programs, her counseling skills help students plan their education.

“I work with the whole person,” Koenig said. “I’m a specialist in Adult Transition Counseling, so when I meet with students, I listen to their past experiences and future goals in mind; looking to see how the BGS program can benefit them.”

At the Stamford campus, where BGS and Non-Degree students comprise a significant percentage of the student population, Koenig, along with the rest of the BGS staff, oversee admissions into the BGS program and provide a wide-range of academic advising. On a typical day, it’s not uncommon for her to conduct initial interviews for potential BGS students, provide academic counseling to an at-risk student, select appropriate classes for a current BGS student and then attend a meeting for the Scholarship Committee, which she co-chairs.

Koenig finds Fairfield County’s ethnically rich heritage and demographics appealing. “The Stamford campus has immense diversity and many international students. I really like working with that kind of population,” she said. Students’ reasons to attend the Stamford campus are just as diverse as its population. For the BGS and Non-Degree student, it’s even more so. “It’s very varied, but what they have in common is that they want to come back and finish their degree…for a host of reasons,” said Koenig. “Some are personal; most of them want to do it for career advancement or career change.”

She feels that the BGS program at the Stamford campus offers more than the city’s reputation as a major Connecticut business hub might suggest. She points out that Stamford’s local commerce has ties to New York so it can be an asset to students. “Fairfield County is very New York-oriented,” she explained. “We have corporations here: Fortune 500 and 100 companies. With this proximity we have many student internships in business as well as human services, government, public service, non-profits and arts related environments.”

Regardless of a student’s ultimate goal, Koenig feels that internships can be a valuable test of how well-matched a student might be with a prospective change in direction. “We strongly encourage people to do internships as a way to ‘reality test’ other jobs or careers they might want to pursue,” she said. This is especially pertinent in our current economic climate where it helps to have an “edge” over other job seekers. “In today’s economy, some people return to education because they want to be more competitive; they want to get a recognized degree to increase their value in the marketplace,” she adds.

Returning to college after a long absence can be a challenge but a rewarding one. Helping students successfully navigate their way through unexpectedly complex academic pressures and personal issues are Koenig’s specialty. Potential problems as diverse as interpersonal relationships or increasing confidence about making academic progress can bring her counseling background into play. “It’s unique,” Koenig said. “… I really like helping adult students make the transition back to learning so they can earn their UConn BGS diploma.”

Koenig enjoys the working relationships that the BGS program can foster. “Some of our students are here a long time,” she said. “Although they may transfer in many credits, most attend classes on a part-time basis.” In the BGS program, a student is with the same advisor from the time they are admitted to the time they graduate. This allows the advisor to get to know their student on a level that most programs don’t provide. Yet for Koenig, their success is the ultimate payoff. “The most rewarding part of my job is to see students graduate,” she said.