Mastering the Art of Advising through the First Year of Advising and Beyond

Mastering the art of advising is a developmental journey. Advisors develop excellence experientially. As they work with students over time, they gradually synthesize their conceptual, informational, and relational skills. This 84 minute, slidecast presentation is for new advisors at the beginning of this journey and the people responsible for the training and development these advisors will need along the way. The presentation's focus is on managing the first year of new advisor development, whether that development is self-managed or provided through a formal advisor development program. In this 2008 presentation, Pat Folsom and Jennifer Joslin (University of Iowa) share a New Advisor Growth Chart that sets clear, reasonable expectations for new advisor development; use the chart to demonstrate how to set developmental goals; address issues to consider in creating a road map and offer examples for self-managed development plans and formal advisor development plans. The presenters demonstrate that advisors new to the profession need extended, ongoing developmental support to master the art of advising; developmental support should extend past initial training to address issues that arise as new advisors begin working with students and experience seasonal advising issues (e.g. registration periods, drop/add periods); to grow, new advisors must know where they are going and must have clear expectations/learning outcomes for what they should know and be able to do by certain points in their careers.