Supporting Online Learners: Kristy Simpkins Leads Student Success and Well-Being at UVA Data Science
Navigating a rigorous online graduate program can be challenging, but students in the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Data Science’s Online M.S. in Data Science (MSDS) program don’t have to do it alone. Kristy Simpkins, Assistant Director of Online Student Success and Engagement, is dedicated to ensuring students feel supported academically, professionally, and personally.
With a background in counseling, student success programming, and wellness coaching, Simpkins brings a holistic approach to her role. Her own experience as a first-generation college student informs her deep understanding of the challenges students face and the importance of building a strong sense of community. In this Q&A, Simpkins shares insights on fostering connection in an online environment, the resources available to students, and the strategies she employs to help students thrive.
Background and Role
Q: Can you share your journey to becoming the Assistant Director of Online Student Success and Engagement at the UVA School of Data Science?
I started college uncertain about my path, exploring various fields before focusing on Sociology with a minor in Philosophy and Religious Studies. I developed a strong interest in understanding people, cultures, and social impact, and originally considered a career in research. However, I discovered my true passion was helping others, which led me to earn a Master of Education in Mental Health Counseling. I realized that people I had just met at the grocery store or on the bus would just talk to me about their lives, their fears, real stuff, and I understood them, and we both left those conversations feeling better, laughing even. I thought to myself, if I find a way to do that for a living, I will never be bored, I will always feel fulfilled. I also thought, can people really get paid to talk to other people? Turns out, that was a real job, and I’ve been doing it now for about 15 years.
As a first-generation college student, I faced challenges navigating college and finding my community and there was a gap in support, which inspired me to support other students facing similar struggles. My first internship involved creating a program for students with low GPAs, which proved successful and helped me connect with many of them and help them stay in school. I continued working on student success initiatives at four-year colleges and community colleges in Virginia, eventually joining Piedmont Virginia Community College for five years before moving to UVA. At UVA, I had the pleasure of becoming a certified well-being coach and creating WahooWell, a program supporting student well-being.
After leading WahooWell through the pandemic, I transitioned to the School of Data Science to work with online master's students, where I was the first person in my role. This position allows me to use my skills in student support and program development to create impactful initiatives. With my student support background and project management experience building large-scale initiatives, I’m able to design systems that better support students and their success while also supporting them individually as they move through the program.
Student success was not a position that existed when I was in college, there also were no well-being positions, and there was a gap in support that many students fell through. It’s been my great pleasure to use my skills to contribute to the growth of this field of student support at so many different institutions over the years. I like to make things make sense for people, make them achievable, simpler, and even fun if I’m able, whether that’s by encouraging someone to get involved or by asking “Why do we do it that way, is there a better way?” and then making positive action.
Q: How does your background shape your approach to supporting online students?
A degree in counseling is wonderful to have for any job where you work with people, and I find myself bringing the basics of a client-centered approach into my work supporting online students. I have unconditional positive regard for my students and any human that I speak to, as I strongly believe that without that base acceptance, we cannot enter a helpful conversation together or truly connect. I've always been an empathetic person but living a lot of life and doing a lot of learning has helped me expand that empathy and I am able to sit with people no matter where they are emotionally and convey that empathy virtually or in person. I feel I get better at this with every conversation.
There is very little I haven’t either heard or experienced before, which helps me provide a safe, accepting, and genuine approach. I’ve also worked in a lot of colleges and universities, helping me to understand what practices work best.
I’m trained in Motivational Interviewing, positive psychology, and other coaching strategies that I employ to help people move along the spectrum of change to adopt new behaviors in support of their goals. Change is hard, and I’m always in awe of our online MSDS students and their perseverance. From my background, I understand the pressures of being a working professional getting a master's degree and I try to simplify things as much as possible and create and recommend the most streamlined, helpful approach.
I’m also trained in group facilitation and appreciative inquiry which helps me to lead teams and initiatives in support of online education at UVA, like the Online Education Working Group that I created and co-led for the broader university. My background in leadership and building communities helps me with the work I’ve done to increase a sense of community in the online MSDS program through engagement initiatives. I’m a conduit, always thinking of who I’ve talked to and what they’ve shared, and who else they might benefit from connecting with. Plus, I really love to throw events and get people talking to each other!
Outside of work, I have a very full life: I’m a musician, and I love to explore and adventure; I like to learn new things, garden, hike, try new foods, and cook. I feel that those extra things that make me who I am help me too in my work with students. Life is for living and experiencing, living a full vibrant life allows us to connect with each other as well. Music helps me to understand the human experience, and it’s something we can all connect over. I’m not sure how to explain it best, but I know these parts of my background play a big role in how I show up. People need to be free to be who they are, I try to create that space for them.
Q: What does student success and engagement look like in an online graduate program, and what are some unique challenges and opportunities?
Online students are often busy working professionals or adult learners balancing careers and families. Many of us at the School of Data Science can relate to these challenges. I encourage colleagues that want to know about what it’s like to be an online student to consider the demands of adding a 20+ hour weekly school commitment while maintaining a full-time job. Time is a major challenge for these students, who typically work on schoolwork during evenings and weekends. Additionally, if something happens in life, with such limited time to begin with it can be disruptive to academics.
All challenges are opportunities, so it’s also a unique opportunity for us to get creative. To support them, we focus on flexibility, clear expectations, and support resources. My role is to be a consistent point of contact, providing efficient and effective support. I prioritize quick responses and maintain regular availability through email and Teams, my virtual door is always open. I also offer easy scheduling for one-on-one meetings and proactively share important dates and opportunities.
For engagement, we focus on offering valuable in-person events, like networking opportunities that bring together students, alumni, faculty, and staff. These events, including those in Northern Virginia at companies like Mastercard and Amazon, are well attended as you get the benefit of networking with the full community at one time in a fun location. We also host signature events like Datapalooza and WiDS in Charlottesville, where we offer free food and travel assistance to ensure online students can attend. Online students are also invited to attend any of our school events, we’re one community!
The cohort support model and peer to peer nature of the program is a huge benefit to students. We have an Online Student Advisory Board that just formed as well, to provide peer to peer support and engagement. Additionally, many online students are already working in Data Science, so we connect them with faculty for research opportunities to further enrich their experience.
Supporting Online MSDS Students
Q: As someone who was a first-generation college student, how does that experience influence the way you support online MSDS students?
I walked around most of undergrad feeling different, which I ultimately learned to embrace. I then went to grad school and took every opportunity I had to educate others on what it’s like to be different. There’s a lot of vulnerability in being fully yourself, especially as a first-gen student, but it’s so very important to have that if you want to make a change. I do everything in my power to help people understand that no matter where you find yourself, you are right where you need to be at that moment. If we are open to continuously growing and taking lessons from life with a healthy dose of self-compassion and some humor and humility, we will organically become.
We also need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable as that is when we know we’ve reached a growth edge and are going to learn or accomplish something great. We all have strengths and sometimes those of us with a first-generation background have unique strengths that are lacking in the academic or professional setting that we should bravely bring to the forefront and take pride in. At least, this is the philosophy that I bring into the experiences I have with others.
I try to encourage every student I engage with to bring their unique strengths to the program and not let the virtual environment put them on an island. Our online students are going to leave here and go do great things, they will do great things while they are here too. It takes all kinds in this world, and we need people to bring their authentic selves. That’s also the great thing about Data Science, it doesn’t matter your background, data science is for you.
Q: You’re also a Certified Health and Wellness Coach. How does well-being factor into student success, especially in a rigorous program like the MSDS?
You are the one common denominator in your life, if you are well then everything else will flow. If not, things will be much harder. We are raised in a society that encourages us to sacrifice ourselves for our jobs and responsibilities. And yet, there is a positive correlation between well-being and productivity. Well-being factors into everything in life, not just student success.
I encourage students to put themselves first, always, even if they only have time for short brain breaks and making sure they eat and sleep regularly. Have self-compassion and let go where you can, focus on effort over outcome, progress over perfection. It sounds cliche but when you put it into practice, it works to reduce stress and put you in a flow state that inspires motivation as opposed to overwhelm, which can be paralyzing. There’s a lot to learn in this program, it helps to focus on the things that matter most as opposed to trying to learn everything. Learning doesn’t end when you complete the degree, more learning happens on the job later as well.
In a rigorous program like the online MSDS, students sometimes must make temporary sacrifices like reducing time with others, protecting their energy at work, or missing a little sleep, and those things are ok. If students find themselves experiencing larger effects, then I want to support them in finding a different approach to the program, we can flex things to fit individual needs. Our office, the Office of Student Affairs, encourages students to reflect on their well-being through our semesterly well-being survey and meet with me as soon as they are able if they are feeling any impact to their well-being. I also offer welcome meetings for new students where we discuss time management and the realities of the program as it meets their own plan for work/life balance. Our alumni tutors are a great resource as well, they have been there before! Being proactive is always better.
It’s not all on the individual either, we encourage students to lean on their cohort and community. We consider student feedback regarding how much time they’re putting in and the level of challenge when we evaluate the program and our support resources so we can make positive changes on our end. We’ve found this holistic and flexible approach to work well for our students and help the program as well!
Q: How do you create a supportive environment where students feel comfortable reaching out for help—whether it’s academic, career-related, or personal?
I build rapport in small ways anytime I’m meeting someone through my natural curiosity and unconditional positive regard. I genuinely want to get to know the people I meet, hear about their lives, their pets, the jewelry they’re wearing, maybe the books I see on their shelves in the background, or something that makes them smile. Language is important, and especially important when many of our interactions are in text where tone can easily be misinterpreted. Every written message that comes from me, I’ve carefully crafted, and I always put “Take care” or “Kind Regards” on my email signatures. That’s not the most common UVA sign off, but I truly mean it and think it matters. When reaching out because we haven’t seen any activity from someone in a while I often ask if everything is ok and if there’s anything at all I can do to support, person first and academics second. I want to know that you’re ok, then we can talk about how things are going in the classes. It’s important that we treat each other with empathy and kindness no matter what. Just that at a base level creates a supportive environment for learning.
I also am a big fan of the SCARF model for psychological safety by David Rock and try to keep that in mind. Status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness are all important for us to create an environment people want to be a part of. Students need to have their autonomy respected, things need to be fair, and there needs to be a relatedness that they feel. We need to provide certainty by being clear when we know the answer and honest when we don’t. Status is important, people need to feel respected and that our practices are respectful to them as human beings. I think being consistent, caring, and honest is how people know they can trust and rely on me. I’m always going to encourage the people I talk to as well, sometimes we just need a little boost when things are hard. A reminder that we’ve got this.
Building Community & Resources
Q: What strategies do you use to foster a strong sense of community among students who may never meet in person?
I’m not sure we’ve cracked this code fully, but we are working on building community with consideration to the unique opportunities the virtual setting creates. A few successful strategies I’ve found are connecting students into groups at orientation by something they have in common. They then can take that group through the full program with them if they like. We encourage them right from day one to connect with each other. We also bring our current students and alumni tutors on the call so they can begin to get introduced to the folks supporting them and those who came before them. Anything we can do to get students talking to each other early and often. A huge part of community building also happens in classes where they get to interact through working groups. We try to hire our Instructional Assistant’s from current students in the program, which is a unique way to encourage cross collaboration.
Another successful initiative was forming the Online Student Advisory Board, a group of students from all cohorts who get together monthly to talk peer to peer about ways to improve success, engagement, and the program as a whole. We’re very thankful to the students that donate their valuable time to support their fellow students and the program.
We offer virtual engagement opportunities outside of the classroom like meeting with Dean Bourne or our upcoming professional development series. We also have a weekly study group that has been working well. Each term/cohort has their own group that they can attend weekly supported by Instructional Assistants to help them with assignments for that week. We’ve done other unique events in the past like virtual fantasy basketball or a shared Spotify playlist. One of our students even created a Board Game Club that meets weekly on Sundays! The biggest waves have been made in person and a good portion of students have been able to meet in person through our networking events in Charlottesville and Northern Virginia, as well as our invitations to flagship events here at the School of Data Science. It adds an extra layer to the virtual engagement piece when you’ve also connected in person.
Q: Peer tutoring is a key resource for online MSDS students. What makes this program unique, and how does it contribute to student success?
This program is unique because our peer tutors are alumni of the program and super available, there has been no shortage of tutor availability since I started back in 2022. They have close knowledge of what each class is like as they’ve been there themselves. Meeting with our peer tutors is free to students, we cover that cost, and they are virtual and offer meetings at convenient times for evening learners. The tutoring program is really a win-win-win. Having access to quick support from someone who has been there whenever you need it, even multiple times a week if you want, is invaluable to student success for many of our students.
Q: What professional development and career support resources are available to online MSDS students, and how can they best take advantage of them?
We have wonderful career and professional development resources from both Central Career Services and our amazing in-house career team in the Office of Student Affairs at the School of Data Science. I very often refer students to our Career Services team for one-on-one meetings and to explore the other resources available to them.
Students have access to Handshake where they can set up a profile, see available jobs and internships, upcoming virtual and in person career fairs, and other events. Students can schedule to meet one on one with our career advisor to talk about their career goals, resume, and professional development strategies. They can also use VMock for resume review. Our career team created a Career Launchpad, which is a course with a great deal of information students need to know about career options and resources in Data Science, including resume templates, industry hiring timelines, and all kinds of resources. Students also receive a weekly curated career newsletter from our team that includes upcoming events, job postings, resources, and tips.
Our team works hard to connect with industry partners as well, providing unique connections and opportunities with those working in the Data Science industry. For example, we partner with the career team when we do our networking events, the more networking and community building around career, the better. Students can best take advantage by starting early and meeting with the career advisor while they’re in the program so that they’re prepared to apply before graduation and can move into the next chapter close to their intended timeline, whether that’s a new position or promotion with their current employer.
Personal Insights & Looking Ahead
Q: What do you enjoy most about working with online students?
I find it exciting to get the opportunity to work with such a diverse, talented group of people from all over the United States and sometimes other places in the world. I am constantly so impressed by how talented, humble, and grateful our online students are. I learn so much from our students on a regular basis, and meeting with them is the highlight of my days. Our students want to change the world in positive ways and it’s a great gift to be a part of their journey and watch them flourish. I’m passionate about people and helping them leverage their unique gifts to help the world.
Q: What’s a common misconception about online graduate programs, and how does the UVA School of Data Science challenge that perception?
A common misconception is that it’s not the same education or experience as what you would get in a residential setting. We combat that in a couple of ways. Firstly, our program is the same as the residential MSDS program at UVA, just in the online setting. At graduation the diploma does not say “online”, it just says Masters of Science in Data Science, it’s the same degree whether you took it online or residential.
Secondly, by focusing on a “One School of Data Science” approach to engagement and support, we offer all the same resources and more to our online students. Just my role focusing on community building and engagement in addition to student support and success and carrying so many initiatives towards both of those aims is a unique approach to creating as much of a residential experience as we can but within the convenience of the online environment. You won’t find that in other online programs out there.
Finally, I think it’s important to note that we don’t just offer options, we actively promote online involvement. My office, the Office of Student Affairs, is always interested in how to coordinate initiatives to best serve all our students including our online students. That takes an extra level of collaboration on our end, but we think that investment is worth it for our online students.
Q: Are there any upcoming initiatives or new resources you’re excited to introduce?
I’m really excited to introduce our Career Connect series. We’re kicking it off on March 19 with a session for current online students that covers how to leverage our career resources. That’s especially important in the current job market. We will follow with two virtual alumni panels through April, one to hear from alumni who were early career professionals and career switchers when they started the program and the other focused on experienced career professionals who did this program to grow their skills or promote. The conversations should be incredible.
I’m also excited to continue building out our Online Day of Community that we’ve tied with our two flagship events, Datapalooza and WiDS, by welcoming online students to the area to participate in WiDS on March 28th. It’s so powerful to bring the community together in person and we have students traveling from hundreds of miles away to join us. In the Fall we ended up with about 40 online students here in the building connecting with faculty, staff, and others. It’s a great professional development experience.
