Office of Rural Promise

Advise NC at Appalachian State University is committed to supporting high school students throughout western North Carolina as they plan for their postsecondary pathways, including college enrollment, workforce employment, and military enlistment. By providing high-quality advising, the program works to ensure that all students are equipped to pursue the postsecondary pathway of their choosing and reach their highest potential.

Advise NC was established in 2025 as a statewide collective composed of high-quality and long-standing advising programs housed at Appalachian State University, NC State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of North Carolina at Wilmington. 

Next Step Advisers connect with the students they serve through their own lived experiences. Advisers are recent college graduates and are closer in age, or "near-peer," to the students they serve. Many Next Step Advisers return to their home communities to serve, often within the high schools or districts they attended as students. Because they recently embarked on their own post-high school journeys, they can serve as trusted mentors and provide first-hand knowledge of the postsecondary planning process to their students.