to advise you

Jill posted on March 01, 2007 01:11

Felicia Zamora, Kathy Thornhill, and Katya Stewart-Sweeney, Colorado State University

How does one describe advising in and as an artistic exploration? The following collaborative effort aims to connect poetry and higher education to represent the unique relationship between a student and advisor through a descriptive mechanism not traditionally used in academic advising journals. The relationship is depicted through the eyes of the advisor

to advise you

an office blank and stagnant then you enter

we tote labels
in slouching shoulders in eyes our daily masks
to use/to not use we decide

we bare joy/discomfort/pride/shame/goals
on two sides of a desk
fluorescent lights/sunshine/one-bulb-lamp-glows
capture nothing of inner selves
here in an office on a campus suspended
in each other

we banter       over days slept away
nights of Redbull juxtaposed
against differential equations       and dreams
not idyllic REM realms       instead you

barefoot in Mediterranean waters/

crossing the Vltava in Praha /

petting elephants in Zimbabwe

(think bigger)
I tug on your feats study abroad : only a phrase

we pendulum on all sides
swing to procure equilibrium

whisper (I'm homesick) furrowed brow (Tell me)

chuckle (I passed) smile (I'm proud of you)

shout (Dude, I'm going to graduate in May!)

we cope                      with eidolons and calamity
loss       of a parent/sibling/friend
demands clawed from duty (military athlete single parent) and pain
not broken bones                      instead you

weighing life in A's and D's/

working three jobs to pay bills/

contemplating suicide

(value yourself)
tailor your path to you four year plan: only a phrase

here in an office on a campus suspended
mold this environment to you (only you can) (I adjust with you)

we write us in instruments
words: advice schedule relationship
instruments to understand
to forge intimacy

communicative passages

let us explore the same tunnel
let us plan from a moment       amass you
birth to child to high schooler to adult to graduate            to find
  I support you: the you you think you are
the you you know
the you adorning cap and gown me eyes welling
new beginnings

an office blank and stagnant then you enter

Cite this article using APA style as: Zamora, F., Thornhill, K. & Stewart-Sweeney, K. (2007, March). to advise you . Academic Advising Today, 30(1). Retrieved from [insert url here]

Posted in: 2007 March 30:1

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