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 “I have spent over fifteen years in this area of student advisement (in the U.S., Korea, and, now, Canada), and I can still get excited about seeing students for the first time and wondering what concerns will be expressed, how I'll be able to help. Even the second, third, or final time I see that person, I'm thrilled to discover the changes, the progress ... even the regress. Watching – and, perhaps, even playing a small part in – the development and growth of a person is a rare and wonderful opportunity. I am daily grateful.The other side of that coin (why must that be?) is the often arbitrary nature of the business, the constantly changing field, markers and guide posts, even goals. As an academic adviser, I often find myself negotiating with those who have gotten trapped in some past watershed, insisting that some long-gone progress marker has been overlooked by a student. The student, riding way out in front on a still-as-yet-undefined wave of new thinking makes an equally valid case to be allowed to progress. It is then I glimmer the real delight of being an academic adviser. Like life itself, the educational process is forever in flux, forever changing, forever responding to new technology, new fields of knowledge, new ways of thinking. What lucky people we are, we academic advisers!” ~ Thomas G. Fairbairn, Ontario College of Art & Design, May 8 “I've been an adviser for two years now and I still feel like a beginner at times. I really like being able to help students sort through their interests, academic and career goals. It means that I also help the student realize their strengths and weaknesses and help direct them toward the appropriate major. The hard part for me, is to see students struggle toward career goals that are not the best fit for them.”~ Roynja Lattimore, Shawnee State University, May 18 The Mentor is published by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |
