Is Your College Student on Academic Probation—or Dangerously Close?
When your student's academic future is at risk, understanding what's going wrong is the first step toward getting back on track.
My individualized academic intervention services help college students address the challenges interfering with their academic performance, take a more active role in their education, and develop the skills necessary for academic success.
Individualized academic intervention is available online to college students nationwide, with in-person sessions available in the Raleigh, NC area.
You've Tried Everything to Help Your College Student. Nothing Seems to Be Working.
Your student is on academic probation—or one bad semester away from it.
You've had countless conversations about what needs to change. You've offered advice, encouragement, reminders, and consequences.
You've laid out exactly what your student needs to do to turn things around. But they just won't follow through.
Does any of this sound familiar?
You're constantly checking up on your student, but you still don't know what's really happening. You've gained access to their online course portals and find yourself repeatedly checking assignments, deadlines, and grades. When you see missing work or poor grades, your student has an explanation—but you have no way of knowing whether it's accurate. You're spending hours trying to piece together what's happening, and you're no closer to understanding why your student is struggling or how to help them.
Your student isn't using the resources available to them. You've encouraged them to visit professors, attend tutoring, or seek academic support, but they don't follow through—even when their academic standing is at risk.
Every semester starts with promises that things will be different. Your student seems genuinely determined to turn things around, but before long, the same problems resurface.
Your relationship is suffering. Conversations about school have become arguments. Your student gets defensive, withdraws, or stops sharing information. You feel increasingly frustrated, helpless, and afraid.
You can't seem to make your student care, but you can't bring yourself to stop trying. Another unsuccessful semester could mean academic suspension, dismissal, or the loss of financial aid. You're exhausted from trying to motivate someone who doesn't seem nearly as worried about their future as you are.
You know your student is capable of succeeding. But nothing you've tried seems to be helping—and you're running out of time.
You Can't Solve a Problem Until You Understand What's Causing It.
When college students struggle academically, the problem often goes much deeper than poor time management, disorganization, or ineffective study habits.
For some students, academic demands have become associated with feelings of failure, inadequacy, or anxiety. Avoiding those demands provides temporary relief—even as the long-term consequences become increasingly serious.
Students may recognize that they're jeopardizing their academic future and still struggle to change their behavior.
When academic tasks have become associated with anxiety, frustration, or failure, teaching students what to do isn't enough. Effective intervention must also address what's making those tasks difficult to approach in the first place.
A Different Approach to Academic Intervention
Understanding what's really happening requires more than monitoring assignments and grades.
For some students, academic struggles threaten their sense of competence and self-worth. They may fear that trying their hardest and still failing would confirm their worst fears about themselves. Avoiding academic demands can feel safer than risking that possibility. Students may minimize their difficulties, withdraw from conversations about school, or offer explanations that don't accurately reflect what's happening.
My approach begins by establishing the trust necessary for students to talk honestly about their academic difficulties, allowing me to identify problems that grades, missing assignments, and parental monitoring alone can't reveal.
Rather than taking over responsibility for monitoring their academic work, I help students examine the patterns contributing to their struggles.
I don't just help students figure out what's going wrong. I help them learn what to do differently—and make those changes achievable.
Drawing on my expertise in learning, instructional practices, and behavior intervention, I work collaboratively with students to develop individualized strategies that address their specific needs. We begin with small, manageable steps designed to produce immediate benefits, then build on those early successes to develop more effective, sustainable patterns of behavior.
The goal isn't to create another person who manages the student's academic responsibilities—it's to help students become active participants in managing their education, with the individualized support they need to succeed.
Helping Your Student Get Back on Track—and Stay There
When a student is on academic probation or facing dismissal, there's little room for another semester of trial and error.
My individualized academic intervention services help college students:
Understand what's really getting in the way. Identify the learning, behavioral, emotional, and executive functioning challenges interfering with academic success.
Replace ineffective patterns with successful ones. Develop new ways of responding to academic challenges and build on early successes to create more sustainable patterns of behavior.
Take responsibility for their education. Become more actively engaged in managing academic responsibilities, recognizing difficulties, and seeking appropriate support.
Give parents a way to step back. Replace the exhausting cycle of reminders, monitoring, and conflict with an approach that engages students directly in addressing their academic difficulties.
Helping your student become more engaged in their education and develop the skills necessary for academic success means more than improving grades. It can also help break the cycle of frustration, conflict, and helplessness that academic struggles create for the entire family.
Ready to Help Your Student Get Back on Track?
Request a Free 15-Minute Phone Call
Meet Dr. Shannon Bellezza
When you choose to work with me, I'm the person who works with your student from start to finish—not a coach or interventionist assigned from a team.
I bring nearly 20 years of experience in education to my work, including 11 years running my own educational services practice, providing individualized academic and behavioral interventions, educational advocacy, and support for students with diverse learning and educational needs.
I hold a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in special education, as well as an M.Ed. in special education. My professional background also includes classroom special education teaching and university-level instruction, including teaching graduate students pursuing master's degrees in special education.
My expertise lies in understanding how students learn, identifying the factors that affect their academic performance, and developing individualized instructional and behavioral interventions that help them achieve their educational goals.
Don't Wait Until Another Semester Goes Wrong.
If your college student is on academic probation or at risk of dismissal, let's talk about what's happening and whether individualized academic intervention may help them get back on track.
The first step is a brief, complimentary phone call (up to 15 minutes) to discuss your student's situation and determine whether my services may be a good fit.
If we decide to move forward, we'll schedule a paid intake session to explore your student's needs in greater detail.
Request a Free 15-Minute Phone Call
Complete the brief form below, and I'll follow up by email to arrange a time to talk about your student's situation and whether my services may be a good fit.