Celebrating Global Advising Week
The first week of May marks Global Advising Week, a celebration honoring academic advisors at 西瓜视频 College and across the globe. Advisors play a valuable role in each of our student’s experiences, and their dedication supports student success. Each student’s journey is unique, and whether guidance is provided by an advisor, tutor, counselor or coach, our students benefit from their dedication and commitment. Advisors both anchor and elevate their advisees, and their services are integral to the student experience.
We spoke with some of our faculty advisors and asked them to reflect on this important role; continue reading to hear their insight.
Julie Calzini, Director of Field Based Experiences and Director of 西瓜视频 Teaching Fellows
To advise students is a joy. I love to get to know each student and figure out what they really want to do in education and then provide them with all the possibilities that exist within the field. I think the best part of advising is when my advisee recognizes the right path to take and they leave my office knowing they are going to positively impact their future. Experiences inform us, some in positive ways, some in negative ways. To help someone forge ahead and pursue what they were meant to pursue is a gift. That's why we are here, for the students.
Hugo Burnham, Assistant Professor of Experiential Learning & Internship Coordinator, Visual & Performing Arts
My most effective advising tactic is to listen first. Our students have multiple goals that are often changing, and that don't fit neatly into a single silo of guidance strategies. We are adaptable, effectively modeling that very skill we hope to infuse in our students. With each year, even each semester, students’ hearts, minds, and eyes are exposed to new skills and experiences both on campus and at their internships that can change their ideas and career goals. Always being available, both in or out of the classroom, is essential to stay connected to, and be supportive of, their journeys.
Kevin Rooney, Program Director, Exercise Science
Advising to me is about developing a connection or partnership with my students. Navigating college isn't always as simple, and it’s often packed with numerous first times, social obstacles, academic decisions, and more. During this time, students may feel pressured to make decisions about the rest of their life with regards to their choice of major, their professional goal(s), how, when, and where to secure their internships and much more. Over a student’s four-year experience, it is important to have someone in your corner to help you navigate these potentially murky waters. An advisor serves as a coach to their students.
Marisa Mickey, Assistant Professor, Exercise Science
Advising can be thought of as an alternative way of listening to your student. Many times, we have students who meet with us and are unsure of what career path they want to pursue or who need guidance because they are unable to decide on just one path. By listening to the student and taking the time to get to know them, we are able to provide advice designed to help them as an individual. We help them create a plan from their first day on campus to when they walk across the stage at Commencement.
Sang-Kyu Lee, Professor, Accounting
I think advising starts with listening to students and understanding their needs and future goals. In this sense, advising is "a conversation" between advisors and advisees and can take place at any place including classrooms and hallways. Advising gives me unique and fun opportunities to personally connect with students and positively engage in the lives of students. I think teaching is a process of constantly nurturing students so that they can make positive impacts on all the people around them. Delivering knowledge in a classroom is certainly one important element of this process, but without personal engagement of advising, teaching can never be complete.
Cindy Caruso, Associate Professor, Accounting
Navigating all the new aspects of the college experience can be overwhelming. Advising plays an essential role in first helping students acclimate and maximize their college experience here at 西瓜视频. Over time the goal is to help empower them in charting their course to achieving their personal, academic, and professional goals. I love that being an advisor helps me build connections with students outside the classroom. The most fulfilling part of my job is to see students—over the course of their four years—develop a deeper understanding of themselves, embrace their opportunities here at 西瓜视频 and pursue their chosen academic path with intention and enthusiasm. I am always amazed at how fast the time passes in those four years and am grateful that I continue to have so many lasting connections after they graduate and leave the Nest!
Alefiya Albers, Professor, Psychology
Advising is a great way to get to know my students outside the classroom. Although these uniquely one-on-one interactions are guided by goals like choosing classes or discussing internships, they are also open-ended enough to talk about bigger things like career goals or the reverse culture shock and disconnectedness that sometimes accompanies the readjustment back to life on campus after a semester abroad. I love learning things about my advisees' intellectual and creative interests through these meetings. In all cases, it is a privilege as an advisor to be an involved mentor (and a bystander at the ready, when required) to my students' college experience.
Kaitlin Bresnahan, Academic Advisor & Adjunct Faculty, Nursing
To me, advising means being a student’s advocate. As an advisor, I help students determine their college experience through course registration, discussing internship and study abroad options and academic guidance. It is a role I enjoy being in because college students need someone in their corner. College can be a challenging time and advisors are there to guide them through those challenges in addition to the day-to-day needs of being a student.
Karen Crosby, Assistant Professor, Nursing
Advising means providing a unique level of support for students that is less formal than the student-faculty relationship, and on some levels, more important. Academic advisors create a constant presence in the ever-changing environment of the college experience. Academic advisors can be cheerleaders or task masters as the occasion requires, but the students know that the advisors will always act in their best interests. In the summer of 2017, as part of my part-time teaching workload, I was assigned as the Academic Advisor for 40 freshmen. This month we are celebrating the success of those students as the Class of 2021!
Explore the resources available to our students and learn more about the Advising Services Center and the Division of Academic Success.