In the year since receiving the prestigious 2024 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization, the College of Arts and Sciences' | Maxwell School's Office of Student Success continues to raise the bar.

That award recognized their academic advising initiative that provides intentional, targeted programming to help international students navigate their first-year transition and beyond. Next came NACADA's 2024 Outstanding Advising Program Certificate of Merit Award, the University's first such recognition. It recognized the office’s innovative programming, particularly highlighting the stocks and finance immersion trip, which connects liberal arts students with financial sector careers through NYC-based alumni and employers.

Since then, the office has rolled out a major new initiative—CareerReady—a program that deliberately leads students through career preparedness objectives, from their first year to graduation.

“CareerReady is a comprehensive initiative through which our office enables students to gain experiential learning in career sectors or areas of interest,” Ryan Howlett, lead advisor at A&S | Maxwell, says. “I’ve been fortunate to have accompanied students on several immersion trips. They’re an amazing way for students to engage with the local Syracuse community (and beyond) and meet professionals engaged in careers our students are interested in. Students also get to meet with Alumni during the trip and get a head start in building their network as undergraduate students.”

Though new to the profession, Howlett has emerged as a driving force behind the Office of Student Success' transformation of the advising process, earning him the prestigious NACADA Region 1 "Excellence in Advising - New Advisor" award for 2025.

“It means I’m part of an amazing advising team,” Howlett says of the honor. “I feel privileged to work daily with a cohort of caring and accomplished educators who work collaboratively to support students. Our office has recently been acknowledged nationally for the work we do, and I believe we have one of the most innovative advising approaches in the country.”

“In my nearly 20 years of higher education and advising practice Ryan Howlett represents the top one percent of advisors I’ve met or led in that time,” notes Steven Schaffling, assistant dean of student success. “Ryan has shown his capacity to advance excellence in advising for his students, his institutional peers, and his national colleagues.”

Howlett has quickly established himself as a thought leader in academic advising through various professional contributions. He and colleague Molly Clock co-authored an article titled "Building a Mirror Space: How Advisors Can Better Align In-Person and Virtual Spaces for Students" for Academic Advising Today, about how advisors and educators who use video conference platforms like zoom can utilize whiteboard functionality to create a virtual space that increases engagement, accessibility and relational outcomes in meetings. He and Clock additionally presented at the NACADA Regional Conference, the Syracuse University Annual Advising Conference and the NACADA Annual Conference.

Howlett joined the student success team from an educational background, which he says shaped his advising philosophy in myriad ways, but most significantly by underscoring the importance of trust and relationship building with students.

“This is the foundation on which classroom and advising success is made,” he explains. “I’m grateful to meet with students every day and get to hear their stories. Every student has unique goals and unique stories, and we, as advisors, want to learn as much as we can from our students’ stories to best support them in accomplishing those unique goals.”

Beyond his advising role, Howlett serves as a Holocaust Educator at the Epstein School and was previously named a Spector Warren Fellow for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.