Michael K. McDaniel, 2017 NACADA Summer Institute Scholarship Recipient
I am so thankful I attended the 2017 NACADA Summer Institute-Green Bay. I applied for and received a scholarship to attend at the urging of my colleague Julia Orloff, a previous participant. Julia’s sharing of her learning experience inspired me to apply for an opportunity to participate this summer. With the support of Northwest Indian College (NWIC) and my fellow members of NACADA, I was able to attend. I thank you all. Where I am from, when someone so graciously welcomes and supports your introduction into different communities of learning, we understand we have a responsibility to share our experience with others.
Returning to Wisconsin was like a homecoming to me. I earned my BA from UW-MIlwaukee in 1998 and worked again in Madison from 2007–2016. I had been to Green Bay before to play lacrosse at Oneida, but only on the outskirts of town. It was good to walk around this time, see the stadium, and enjoy a hometown breakfast. Wisconsin is a significant part of my life because today I rely so much on everything I have learned there over the years when working with students.
I arrived at the NACADA Summer Institute ready to map out the advising pathways students must navigate to successfully complete their first quarter at NWIC. But after having an opportunity to work closely with professional scholars, administrators, and practitioners from a broad representation of international institutions, I left with a means to develop advising outcomes that could be assessed to determine what we expect our students to learn, where we expect them to learn it, and whether or not they are learning anything. The time I spent in Green Bay in conversations with other attendees, presenters, and faculty provided me with a community of learners and experts to engage in conversations to help shape my ideas. I cannot thank Nancy Roadruck, the faculty leader of my learning community, enough for knowing just when to step in and offer some encouragement or advice.
We have recently begun discussing the development of advising outcomes at NWIC in alignment with other ongoing program and departmental outcome development across our tribal college on the Lummi Nation. What I learned at NACADA over the summer directly impacted the types of conversations we are having on our campus today regarding the intersections of advising and teaching.
Advising is relatively new to me; I learn something new every day. It is a joy to work with students in this particular role, and it fits with my pedagogical philosophies. I have been teaching literature, composition, and professional communication and advising students informally, and I had never thought of how much educational experiences rely on the subtlety of advice until I began formally advising students. When I read the phrase “advising is teaching” for the first time in Green Bay this summer, I understood my role in a completely different yet very familiar way. There was something about that connection, that shared understanding, that gave me a sense of belonging to the world of advising in a way that other professional development and training opportunities had not. I can think of very few international educational organizations who would welcome such a new practitioner into its ranks with as much openness and support as NACADA.
As a result of our ongoing engagement with the NACADA Summer Institute, advisors at NWIC have become active members of NACADA Region 8 and we look forward to building on our experiences together in service to students. Students benefit when we find ways to reach across our institutions in support and collaboration. Thank you again, and I look forward to working with you all through this wonderful organization.
Michael K. McDaniel Academic Advisor Northwest Indian College [email protected]
Cite this article using APA style as: McDaniel, M.K. (2018, March). Developing advising outcomes at the NACADA summer institute. Academic Advising Today, 41(1). Retrieved from [insert url here]
