Lorna Hofer and Kerry Stager aren’t just instructors in business and accounting at Lake Area Technical College; they’re also highly involved advisors. Between them, Hofer and Stager keep close tabs on 80 students at the South Dakota college—not just academically, but personally. It’s a dual role embraced by every faculty member at Lake Area Tech.
After sailing through high school, Daniela Figueroa almost ran aground during her first year at Miami Dade College. She was overwhelmed by the school’s size and the wide range of choices it presented. Fortunately, the college’s “appreciative advising” program—and the personal bond she forged with her advisor—put her back on course.
Jean Rienzo is something of an anomaly at Eastern Connecticut State University. She’s a 32-year-old single mother who lives off campus and has a demanding full-time job—certainly not the typical student at a public liberal arts university in New England. Still, Rienzo found her place—and succeeded—with the help of a caring, kindred spirit: her advisor.
On a bitterly cold January day, close to 20 junior-year students perform a monthly ritual, filing into a third-floor conference room at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School on Malcolm X Boulevard in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood.
When a young woman returns to a place of painful experience — bullying, debilitating shyness, financial problems and low self-esteem — there are bound to be strong emotions. For Erica Elder, who came home to Bassett High School in southern Virginia last fall to be a college adviser and mentor, the first day back was, well …
You’re from Long Island, the son of a man in the apparel business and a mother who didn’t work outside the home until you were 10. Having attended junior college, your parents insist—without ever really saying so—that you will go further.
Santa Ana, Calif. - Time will tell if Shayleene Barrera actually launched a career in science on the morning she arrived for orientation at Santa Ana College — 40 minutes south of Los Angeles. Early indicators certainly point in that direction.
Buffalo, N.Y. - When he heard that every student in Buffalo Public Schools might soon qualify for a no-strings-attached college scholarship, Sam Radford’s reaction was predictable. “No way,” thought Radford, president of the school district’s Parenting Coordinating Council.
Columbus, Ind. - Marwan Wafa thought he knew what lay ahead four years ago, when he was installed as vice chancellor and dean of Indiana University Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC).
To reach the apartment Damaris Ortiz shares with her boyfriend and their young son, you drive partway up a mountainous road, then trudge up four flights of stairs. The steep ascent could well be a metaphor for the climb Ortiz has faced daily since moving to California from Chiapas, Mexico, in search of educational advancement and a better life.