My motivation for working in student affairs, and specifically in academic advising, came into sharper focus for me during a recent visit to the newest Smithsonian, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. I spent significant time in a part of the exhibit for the Jim Crow era because it was a significant gap in my knowledge. The museum did an excellent job of showing the rise and resurgence of white violence in response to the achievements of newly-freed African-Americans. Throughout history, they showed that every time African-Americans gained political power, education, and/or achieved excellence, a backlash occurred. I realized that the racist backslashes for which I saw evidence occurred because racist whites rightly perceived African-American achievement as a threat to their segregationist order. Yet the trajectory from the slave pens of the West African coast, through the slave ships, the auction block, the plantation field, the sharecropper shack, and beyond, showed the resilience and upward progress of African-Americans. Having just come from my internship at the University of Massachusetts – Boston a couple of days earlier, I realized that even today, helping people of color achieve academically is legitimate work in dismantling white supremacy. Devoting significant time and energy to this endeavor is important to me, as is cultivating the resilience observed throughout history in the next generation of young people.

As I share in my SJI competency essay, I prioritize justice work in my life. It is important to me to be considerate of advocacy as a student affairs professional. My previous work in admissions left me alternately disappointed and disquieted by what I saw unfolding in the college experiences of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Regardless of race, if students faced challenges with funding, health, or safety, I noticed common themes: difficulty balancing work and family responsibilities with challenging course loads, overloading out of haste or necessity, and splitting up labs and lectures. Good academic advising, delivered early, could have changed these students’ outcomes. Witnessing the ways in which the results of poor academic choices affected the outcomes of medical admissions spurred me to seek a career where I could use this knowledge to help others. Academic advising does just that. I aim to help students overcome systemic barriers to success by thinking creatively about students’ challenges and helping them think through the consequences of decisions before they make them.

My philosophy of educational practice draws heavily from resources from the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), now known as NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. NACADA’s Concept of Academic Advising, Core Competencies, and Core Values of Academic Advising set forth a framework for the practice of academic advising. These documents are a lodestone for all academic advisors— they instruct and guide our work. Two of the NACADA Core Competencies, the Relational and Conceptual components (NACADA, 2017), apply to a personal philosophy of advising, and are addressed in this statement of philosophy. As NACADA sets international standards for the quality of academic advising, it behooves me to find points of congruence between its values and philosophy, and my values and philosophy.

The best model of the advising relationship for my practice is the academic life coach: part-cheerleader, part-mentor, part-counselor, and part-problem solver. This model is seen as a logical outgrowth of holistic advising theory. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, “Coaches will speak with [students] about any reason- academic, financial, psychological- that might keep them from completing college.” (Anft, 2018). Thinking back on my own experiences with coaches, whether on the soccer field or in the vocal studio, I am impressed with how my coaches have learned from me and I from them. They met me where I was, helping me identify next steps to improve. My coaches were companions on my journey, toward competitions, college, and beyond. As the life coach model emerges as the next wave in advising innovation, I am eager to broaden my training to help students with multivalent challenges. I want to be a companion on the way to my students’ goals. Like the coaches in my past, I hope to encourage them, help them to think and plan, connect them with resources, and let them keep me curious.

Although I want to learn how to help students with more than academic challenges, it is important to distinguish this work from simply doing things for them. As an advisor, my role is not to serve a consumer but to empower persons to accept agency in their own lives. I will be helping them learn to make their own decisions, and learn to cope with the consequences of their decisions. My students will be responsible for their own learning. My responsibilities will be to support them as they think through their choices, help them engage with their courses of study (NACADA, 2006), ensure they have all the correct information needed to make good decisions, refer them to resources, and to meet them where they are— listen deeply to their needs and adjust my approach accordingly. Above all, I hope that they experience my presence in their lives as “characterized by mutual respect, trust, and ethical behavior.” (NACADA, 2006). While I wish to embody all of the NACADA Core Values (2017), I most want to communicate caring, empowerment, and respect. I believe that exemplifying these values will help my students to trust me, which is the foundation necessary to fulfill my responsibilities to them. As the Core Values illustrate, taking on the role of academic advisor does not mean only “doing” (instructing, referring, ect.); it means that I begin by “being”, that is, showing up in my sessions as the kind of person that it takes to coach my students toward their goals.

NACADA maintains that good advising teaches a student how to conceptualize their school’s curriculum and make the most of it (NACADA, 2006). I agree. However, I am also familiar with the inner work necessary to realize one’s identity, explore career and life options, and begin to make one’s own decisions. Career decision self-efficacy and life decision self-efficacy are important learning outcomes for students at all institutions of higher education. Helping students transform into engaged citizens who think critically and creatively, and who step up to lead their communities has long been a goal of American higher education. I intend to engage in the work necessary to help students achieve these goals, along with their career and life goals. I hope students will leave my institution feeling equipped and empowered to take on the challenges of an imperfect community. Growing up, I was taught to leave a place better than I found it. I believe my contribution to the world— my way of leaving it better than I found it— is to help my students prepare to better their communities long after I am gone.

Nothing compares to helping someone else discover their passion and find their way. Walking with others on their journey of self-discovery is a privilege and a great joy. I searched for a career that combines the skills and experience I gained with the process of empowering and encouraging others as they grow into their best selves. In academic advising, I have found it.