This past Monday, November 15th, Jaz Grant and I conducted a program/community development in which we spent an hour advising our residents on their academics for the upcoming year.
The program was casual. Residents were allowed to come and go as they pleased and to get advice from the both of us.
One thing that surprised me (which, in all honesty, shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise) was how little the residents knew of the process.
What it told me is one thing: they haven’t been getting advisement from their advisors.
A lot of residents were unsure which classes they were supposed to take next.
Some were unsure how to withdraw from courses.
Others didn’t know if they should or shouldn’t withdraw because they had failed to meet with their professors to discuss their grade.
What I also found is that a lot of residents in the building don’t read the posters, fliers, or news bulletins posted in the building. Primarily because many seemed unaware of the recommendation we had made as a staff for them to see their advisor before coming to the session.
Overall, as long as the few students that did well got something out of the session, then in my opinion, it was a success.
Even still, after the program, I still had residents asking me for advisement as if they were unaware that Jaz and I had done that very thing the night before.
Seems as if we need to be encouraging not only academic excellence—-
—-but information awareness. #smh.
