This article explores the changing concept of mentorship through academic literature and conversations with colleagues. The author examines their past assumptions of mentorship and describes journey in reframing mentorship as "Thought Partners" (Anderson and Stanny, 2012). This reframe provided space to re-conceptualize mentorship as a productive partnership between equals and let go of past stereotypical assumptions of mentorship. Given the pressure that students may feel to find a mentor in their early career journeys, this article can provide an opportunity for advisors to think about how they talk about mentorship with students.
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This paper explores the integration of Positive Psychology principles into academic coaching practices to enhance student well-being, resilience, and academic success. Academic coaching has emerged as a valuable resource on college campuses, providing personalized support to help students navigate their academic journey. Positive Psychology, with its focus on optimal functioning and well-being, offers a complementary framework for promoting student success. The paper examines the application of Positive Psychology principles, particularly those outlined in the PERMA model –Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment – within the context of academic coaching. It discusses how academic coaches can foster positive emotions, promote engagement in challenging and rewarding activities, nurture meaningful relationships, facilitate a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and encourage goal-setting and a growth mindset. By embracing Positive Psychology principles, academic coaching becomes a transformative experience that empowers students to thrive academically and personally
This article demonstrates ways in which an advising office can benefit from a close working relationship with a registrar’s office. Building upon historical literature, and more recent interest in the connections between these areas, the authors utilize their own experiences from working in a combined registrar and advising office at Davidson College. Providing real world examples in the common areas of reporting, training and communication can bridge gaps and highlight potential collaborative ideas. The article provides suggestions that readers can use at their home institutions. By advising and registrar offices working together, time can be saved, redundancies can be reduced, consistent messaging can thrive, and students can receive quality service.
This paper explores the challenges of the registration process in higher education through the vantage point of a retired college administrator re-enrolling as a student. Despite extensive experience and knowledge, the author faced numerous obstacles from application to course registration, illustrating how systemic issues can impede student progress. The author highlights the critical role of academic advising in student retention and success, drawing on research and personal insights to identify a gap between institutional values and practices. This gap underscores the need for higher education institutions to align their operational processes with their commitment to student-centered advising and support. The author’s experience serves as a call to action to improve these processes to better serve all students.
Fear of failure and procrastination pose considerable barriers to students in higher education. Advisors can make a difference by recognizing the existence of these fears and understanding their consequences. This knowledge enables advisors to empower students to address their fears, promoting both academic and personal success.
Academic success can be hindered by the demands and responsibilities of everyday life. Students are often in the difficult position of deciding how to navigate multiple obligations. Use of the 'Yes, And...Rule" equips advisors to provide perspective and support. The growth oriented approach helps to create a path for students to attend to outside the classroom tasks as well as achieve academic success.
What does advising have to do with the board game Monopoly®? Students seek their academic wealth potential through their academic decisions to build skills, just as someone decides what to do to build wealth in Monopoly®. Empowering students to take control of their game play so they spend more time acquiring wealth and less time stuck in Jail is a powerful influence advisors can have on their success trajectory. Teaching a Get out of Jail Free Card mindset and a Park Place Focus can lead to multiple wins for our students.
NACADA’s Well-Being and Advisor Retention advising community frequently facilitates conversations with academic advisors on crafting sustainable workplace practices to safeguard advisor wellbeing and promote persistence in the advising profession. The authors’ participation in those conversations have led us to two conclusions: 1) advisors should engage in self-advocacy to achieve personalized workplace wellbeing and 2) little research or discussion is available on workplace self-advocacy in academic advising. Academic advising professionals must begin to discuss the importance and implementation of workplace self-advocacy in the advising field. Workplace self-advocacy is a critical skill for academic advisors given the demands of the advising profession and advisors’ positions within university systems. This article, sponsored by the Well-Being and Advisor Retention advising community, promotes conversation on advisor workplace self-advocacy to encourage advisors to engage in research, discussion, and personal reflection on the topic. More academic advisors should engage in workplace self-advocacy to benefit themselves, their students, their institutions, and the advising field.
The role of an academic advisor and some of the demands and challenges are emphasized in this study. There are four advisors in the Computer Science department of the College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University (GMU). The advisors meet the advising needs of more than 2600 Students each year, some of which display behaviors related to mental illnesses such as depression, autism, anxiety and more. This population has a plethora of resources to support the needs of the student. However, there does not seem to be the same number of resources or training available to the advisor. The importance of professional advising, the need for additional information, and training on how to best work with this population of students is essential. Student issues are documented based on advisor experience, and scenarios are shared. Key questions are asked of the advisors who will read this article. This article expresses the importance for advisors to self-educate and share their own experiences in lieu of the imbalance of training currently available to advisors.
Harford Community College (HCC) Advising, Career, and Transfer Services Department has undergone changes to transfer programming offered to students. In alignment with Community College Research Data and advising literature, the department added several group workshops and increased the presence of transfer admissions representatives on campus to assist students in building transfer student capital and successfully prepare for transfer. The advising literature and data show that academic advisors from Community Colleges are important in helping students successfully prepare for transfer.
