PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION PAPER 1

Practicum Final Reflection Paper

Julio A. Diaz

Higher Education Program, George Mason University

HE 685: Higher Education Practicum

Dr. Cherjanét Lenzy

May 3, 2021
PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION 2

Practicum Final Reflection

I knew I wanted to work in academic advising after working for several years in higher

education in the capacity of administrator. When I was ready to do my practicum, Mason had

gone into a model of success coaching to complement academic advising. I had to make a

decision of doing a practicum at a University Life office that offered success coaching or an

academic unit that offered academic advising. In the end, I decided to do my practicum

experience at an academic unit instead of a University Life unit because I already had ten years

of experience working in administration at University Life and I thought it was best for me to

learn more about the academic side of a university.

After finishing my practicum experience at the College of Health and Human Services

(CHHS), I am confident I made the right choice to pick an academic advising unit as my

practicum site. My experiences observing and leading advising sessions at CHHS Office of

Student Affairs made me feel more confident about my decision to pursue a position of academic

advising in the near future.

Experiences observing advising sessions

Folsom (2007) suggests new advisors become better by observing experienced advisors

who can inspire them to be as good as they are (as cited in Folsom et al., 2015). As Folsom

states, I became better by observing experienced advisors at CHHS. A total of five advisors took

care of all the four programs offered at CHHS: Community Health, Social Work, Health

Administration, and Nursing. They were all led by a very experienced advisor, Brian Gillette

whose title was Director of Student Success. I was assigned Maria Perez as a mentor, who had

been working as an academic advisor at CHHS for several years. At the beginning it was hard to

follow all the information she was giving to students because she was so knowledgeable and
PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION 3

thorough. She suggested I prepared advising program forms before and after each advising

appointment so I could learn more about the curriculum paths. She was right and I became more

comfortable following the advising sessions during my observations.

One big challenge during my time with CHHS was participating in this experience during

the COVID-19 pandemic. All advising appointments were conducted via videoconferencing and

as Feghali et al. (2011) states, technology tools cannot replace personal face to face advising

interactions. It was as difficult for advisors as for students to work remotely. Multiple technology

glitches in Zoom, DegreeWorks, Navigate Mason, and even wi-fi connectivity were frustrating

during advising times. Also, I did not see many of the students during advising sessions because

they opted to not turn on their video cameras.

MacMurtrie (2021) reported that students were maintaining their grades during the

pandemic, but their stress levels were higher than in normal circumstances. This was true for

students at CHHS. Many students had good grades in spite of studying remotely but many of

them seemed really depressed and stressed out on camera. We were all missing the personal

connection and the rhythm of going to class and working on campus on a regular basis. I learned

that the best candidates for academic advisors were the ones who understood the students’

challenges because advisors play a crucial role in the retention of students in college (Feghali et

al., 2011). Observing Maria, I became more aware of students’ struggles and learned to

strengthen my empathy skills. These skills were useful during advising sessions with students

who were making an appointment because they were not accepted into the Nursing program. I

learned that Pre-Nursing students value advisors who are knowledgeable, approachable,

nurturing, and good communicators (Harrison, 2009) and the best approach to handling these
PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION 4

appointments was to remain empathetic and focusing on guiding them to pick another academic

program path.

Experiences leading advising sessions

I witnessed an interesting discussion about the roles and responsibilities of academic

advisors during a CHHS advisors meeting. After that meeting, I began thinking about the kind of

advisor I would like to be. I found out there was a disciplinarian old school approach to advising

that put the academic advisor in a place of authority that needed to be respected by students

regardless of how the advisor behaved. The other academic advising style challenged the advisor

to be more understanding of the students’ struggles when they appear upset or disgruntled before

jumping into the conclusion that they are bad students who need to be disciplined. By the end of

my practicum experience, I knew that I did not want to be a disciplinarian and I decided to use

the most modern approach to advising.

By March, I was given the opportunity to lead a couple of advising sessions while a more

experienced advisor observed me. By April, I was given a vote of confidence to lead my own

advising sessions without supervision. As Argüello (2020) suggested, I began each of my

advising sessions by asking students how they were doing. A couple of advisors at CHHS

practice this in their advising sessions. The great majority of my advising sessions went

smoothly, and I felt less nervous after each student I talked to. I always kept in mind that

advisors guide students so they can learn how to “solve problems and make decisions, challenge

them[selves] to think in new ways, and create pathways to their educational goals.” (Folsom et

al., 2015, p. 3). Therefore, I tried to give students plenty of options so they can decide what was

best for them. I discussed this with Brian Gillette during one of our one on one meetings and he

gave me good strategies on how to become better at guiding students.

While leading my own advising sessions, I learned that advisors have to do extra work

outside advising students. I learned how to write notes summarizing each advising session and to

follow up with students via e-mail reminding them of important action items they needed to

follow after their advising sessions had concluded. I made sure to remind students who were

close to graduation about their graduation requirements including the application to graduation.

Like Fielstein (1989) and Tuttle (2000) stated, explaining graduation requirements to students is

a crucial function of effective academic advising (as cited in Harrison, 2009). Finally, I was

impressed on how much my higher education classes prepared me for this experience in

particular the contemporary college student and diversity in higher education courses. Overall, I

learned that advisors should use a holistic approach when advising students of color by learning

their sociocultural experiences in order to avoid assumptions when helping them navigate the

college experience (Roscoe, 2015, Folsom et al., 2015).

Conclusion

At the conclusion of my practicum experience with the CHHS office of student affairs, I

developed my own academic advising philosophy and identity. Observing advisors was crucial

in my learning experience and I had great conversations about advising philosophies with the

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Kim Holmes, who was my practicum site supervisor.

The holistic approach to advising fits best to my academic style which focuses on the student’s

whole experience in college and not only their academics.

I still have more to learn to be an effective advisor, but I know now that I can master my

advising skills by practicing and developing them on the job (Folsom, 2015). The COVID-19

pandemic contributed extra challenges to my practicum experience, but it gave me a good

understanding on the role of technology in higher education. As Feghali et al. (2011) concluded,
PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION 6

advising web-based tools should be used to address the prescriptive nature of advising in order to

give more time for advisors at their in-person appointments to address the developmental part of

advising. Therefore, I hope we can all get back to having in person interactions in higher

education institutions, but it is up to me as an advisor to keep the technology tools that have

worked during this semester and apply them to my advising work (Argüello, 2020).

In the future I hope to use tools such as questionnaires to gather data from first year

students prior to their advising session (Fox & Martin, 2017) so I can concentrate on establishing

an “advising relationship” with the student during the advising appointment (Folsom et al., 2015,

p. 6). Definitely, I do not think I learned everything I needed to know to be an effective advisor

during this practicum experience, but this experience gave me a good foundation. I used to be

scared of holding an academic advisor position prematurely, but as I was observing different

advisors, I realized I am ready to take the next step and learn on the job.
PRACTICUM FINAL REFLECTION 7

References

Argüello, G. (2020). Virtual academic advising in challenging times. In L. Naumovska (Ed.),

The Impact Of COVID19 On The International Education System (pp. 184–196). Proud

Pen. https://doi.org/10.51432/978-1-8381524-0-6_14

Feghali, T., Zbib, I., & Hallal, S. (2011). A web-based decision support tool for academic

advising. Journal of Educational Technology & Society; Palmerston North, 14(1), 82–84.

Folsom, P., Yoder, F. L., & Joslin, J. (Eds.). (2015). The new advisor guidebook: Mastering the

art of academic advising. Jossey-Bass.

Fox, J. R., & Martin, H. E. (Eds.). (2017). Academic advising and the first college year. National

Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition University of

South Carolina.

Harrison, E. (2009). What constitutes good academic advising? Nursing students’ perceptions of

academic advising. Journal of Nursing Education, 48(7), 361–366.

https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20090615-02

McMurtrie, B. (2021, March 17). Good grades, stressed students. The Chronicle of Higher

Education. https://www-chronicle-com.mutex.gmu.edu/article/good-grades-stressed-

students

Roscoe, J. L. (2015). Advising African American and Latino students. Research & Teaching in

Developmental Education, 31(2), 48–60.