Making a Difference - Day 7

Being an Academic Advisor is more than just knowing a degree plan, it's more than knowing how to fill out a petition or substitution request, and it's more than knowing how to read a catalog. Being an advisor is about making a difference; it's about helping students find a way when they think there isn't one. It's about being the bearer of bad news, but then turning around and finding a way to make it better. It's listening to your student talk about everything they want to be when they grow up, listening to them talk about med school, and then looking at their 2.11 GPA and realizing you're going to have to help them find another way to reach their goals. It's about sitting across from a student who just got back from a tour in Iraq, not knowing the anxiety flowing through his body at that moment, and only when he sends you an email saying, "I wonder if she knows, I wonder if she understands, the difference in a life resides in the kindness of another. A weight is lifted, it was a good morning" that you realize you are exactly where you're supposed to be. 

I interviewed for three different positions before UTSA took a chance on me. I started as an Administrative Assistant in a large advising center, answering the phone, making appointments, supervising work study students, ordering supplies and "other duties as assigned." To many, it wasn't the most glamorous job, but to me it was where I wanted to be and while I may not have realized it at the time, I was actually preparing myself for where I am today. In my first five years at UTSA, I worked with first year students, including their parents. I saw tears at the sight of the dreadful words "Academic Dismissal"; I heard screams and shouts when we couldn't "just tell the professor to fix the grade"; I watched helicopter parents hover and roam all around their student and before I let them irritate me, I reminded myself that I may be in their shoes one day. I was the front-line for our office; I protected my advisors, prepared them for what was coming and defended them when parents thought it was ludicrous that they should take a whole hour for lunch during orientation. While I may not have known their job, I knew what they had to deal with. 

After that time, I moved to a different office that gave me the opportunity to work more with the administration and to have some influence in day to day operations and future plans for advising. I was still within the advising family, but I was now a Senior Administrative Associate and I had the privilege of working in an area that afforded me the opportunity to work with students and offer some guidance and direction. It was during this time that I started my graduate program and while my job was demanding, it did give me the flexibility I needed to accomplish my goal. My time as an administrative associate was both rewarding and challenging. I knew there was more I wanted to do with my life, but the job of the admin is never ending. However, for me, there was only so many ways to tweak a spreadsheet, or clever ways of re-organizing and planning meetings and trips. I had hit a ceiling that I knew I didn't want to break through. Admin work was not a part of my long term goal, BUT, it was exactly what I needed to better prepare me for the next chapter in my professional career and I will always have the utmost respect for the adminstrative assistant profession. 

I became an Academic Advisor just a few shorts months ago and in that time I have learned SO many different things, but the learning never stops. Change is inevitable. Policies are updated. Department's change their processes. Dean's get more demanding. It's a never-ending cycle of change and it takes more than just reading a degree plan to keep up with it all. Advisors are held responsible for the success or failure of a college student. It's our job to provide them with all the resources they need, to keep them abreast of changes to their catalog or major, to alert them when they are on the verge of being dismissed, to being there when they need a signature for the VA office, or a petition to waive their excess fees. It's our job, and our responsibility, to know when to say, "I can take care of that for you" and when to say, "You need to take care of this yourself", because we're not just advising on a degree plan, we're teaching them what it is to be responsible for what they choose to do, whether that means dropping a class, changing majors, or failing a semester. Advisors are so much more than a degree plan.

Today we had an All Advisor training, learning more about policies and procedures from the College of Business and hearing about updates from our Advising Council. It isn't often that all advisors from across campus, including our downtown campus, can all be together at the same time. When I was an admin, I never understood the excitement I would see on the face of some of the advisors when they would walk in and see friends and co-advisors from other centers; until today. I'm an advisor now, and while I'm still in the business of serving our students, I now carry the same weight on my shoulders as the other 90+ advisors in the room. I'm not alone in this. Shortly after I became an advisor I worried that I had made the wrong decision. I stressed over the fact that I felt I would never remember everything, that I would forget something, or, God forbid, give out the wrong information. I feverishly worked at making myself all kinds of guides and handouts; tools to have at my fingertips to ensure I didn't mess up. It didn't take long for me to learn that even our most seasoned advisors still use cheat sheets and handouts, because we're not robots, or advising machines; we're human, and mistakes happen. I find myself eager to get to work now, to see what student I can help, what situation I can remedy, or what difference I can make in the life of another. The email I mentioned earlier from the veteran is true, he did send me that. I had no idea what was going on with him, because when he spoke of the war, he spoke as if it happened a few years ago. I had no idea that it had taken him three tries just to get to our front door, because his anxiety would consume him. I had no idea that by sharing my insecurities about grad school and my fears of being the oldest one in the program, because it had been ten years since I completed my bachelor's, was enough to put him at ease...."Margaret, there's something familiar about her kindness, like coming home." It was an unexpected email, but a defining moment for me and an affirmation that I am exactly where God wants me to be.

We do more than just read through a catalog or a degree plan....we make all the difference in the world. 

Till next time...