Colleen Kenney

Colleen Kenney joined BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences in 2022 as the Senior Undergraduate Academic Advisor. In this role, Colleen supports undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Data Science. Broadly, her support comes in the form of helping students explore their academic interests, developing course plans that align with academic requirements, referring students to resources that position them to graduate, and creating community programming.

Colleen plans on expanding her influence on students beyond those parameters, as she notes that “I focus on appreciative advising and developmental advising practices with my students to create an environment where I can teach all of the critical life skills they need outside of their academics.”

Colleen’s own undergraduate experience was untraditional, something students can find comfort in. “I use my experience [initially] failing out of college to my advantage by connecting to, establishing connections with, and creating programming with campus partners that are key to helping struggling students out of their funk,” she explains. This position will mark nearly a decade of working in higher education for Colleen, who previously advised undergraduates at the University of Mississippi, and most recently at the University of Utah School of Computing.

According to Colleen, students can expect an “eccentric” advising style that keeps “different learning styles in mind.” Her ultimate goal is to “really help bring students out of their shells and begin to feel comfortable with me much sooner than otherwise,” she says.

Above all, Colleen is “thrilled to be able to continue working in such an important discipline and assist CDS and Spark! with making sure our programs demonstrate that anyone can code – and everyone should have access and opportunities to do so,” she says.

Colleen holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of Mississippi. Her academic preparation and training also included study abroad in Osaka, Japan, as a participant in Ole Miss’s Japanese Initiative Language Program.