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Critical student/adviser relationship maintained virtually during pandemic
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By Jim Carlson
erhaps a manner in which to encapsulate at least one of the many pandemic-related whirlwinds of activity in Penn State’s College of Education the past year and a half is simply this: When COVID-19 came, the students went but their academic advisers were there for them when needed. They were needed then and they’re especially needed now, according to Greg Mason, director of the Advising and Certification Center. Topics between students and advisers — with meetings conducted virtually before shifting to in-person this fall if that’s what the student prefers — range from keeping up with their educational plan to fallout from alternative grading to adjusting to virtual instruction and now adapting back to in-residence, and many more. “I think one of the biggest challenges was getting to know a whole class — hundreds of new Photo: Annemarie Mountz College of Education students — and The advising team in the College of Education Advising and Certification Center includes (back, not having the in-person contact,” from left) , Elijah Ferguson, Greg Mason, Suzanne Brokloff, and (front, from left) Alyssa Adams, Stephanie Hopkins and Tiffany Benner. Not pictured are Sam Roan and Megan Schrock. said Mason, who oversees six advisers and three administrative that anxiety of being around a lot of people and many assistants and steps into the adviser’s role himself of our students haven’t had a large-group experience when necessary. or sat down in an office. They may be second-year “That fall (2020) class, the class that entered their second year this fall, are second-year students on their transcript, but in terms of their adjustment to college life — at a place like this that has such a strong kind of entrenched residential experience to it — they’re almost having a second first year. They are a lot like first-year students in terms of feet on the ground.” Mason said he likes to ask students how they feel about not only being back on campus but about inperson meetings with their adviser. “A common response has been kind of a mix of emotions — happy to be back on campus, happy to see all these people walking around and there’s the energy of starting a new semester,” he said. “But there’s still
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students but it’s the first time they’ve actually walked into our office to see someone.” Advising is a significant part of all students’ academic odyssey. David Smith, associate dean for advising and executive director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies at Penn State, believes that advising is about building a relationship between the student and somebody at the University who can challenge their assumptions and help them recognize that there are multiple gateways to the things they might eventually want to do. “The pandemic created all that much more uncertainty for our students about what the future would look like, how they were going to get through
