College of Business Academic Advisors Felicia Zamora, Kathy Thornhill and
Katya Stewart-Sweeny
recently submitted a poem to the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) for publication
in the March E-newsletter. The prompt for the journal was to describe advising as an artistic
exploration. In their poem the advisors connected poetry and higher education to represent the
unique relationship between a student and advisor through a descriptive mechanism not
traditionally used in academic advising journals.
to advise you
an office blank and stagnant then you enter
we tote labels
in slouching shoulders in eyes our daily masks
to use/to not use we decide
we bare joy/discomfort/pride/shame/goals
on two sides of a desk
fluorescent lights/sunshine/one-bulb-lamp-glows
capture nothing of inner selves
here in an office on a campus suspended
in each other
we banter over days slept away
nights of Redbull juxtaposed
against differential equations and dreams
not idyllic REM realms instead you
barefoot in Mediterranean waters/
crossing the
Vltava in Praha /
petting elephants in Zimbabwe
(think bigger)
I tug on your feats
study abroad: only a phrase
we pendulum on all sides
swing to procure equilibrium
whisper (I’m homesick) furrowed brow (Tell me)
chuckle (I passed) smile (I’m proud of you)
shout (Dude, I’m going to graduate in May!)
we cope with eidolons and calamity
loss of a parent/sibling/friend
demands clawed from duty (military athlete single parent) and pain
not broken bones instead you
weighing life in A’s and D’s/
working three jobs to pay bills/
contemplating suicide
(value yourself)
tailor your path to you
four year plan: only a phrase
here in an office on a campus suspended
mold this environment to you (only you can) (I adjust with you)
we write us in instruments
words: advice schedule relationship
instruments to understand
to forge intimacy
communicative passages
let us explore the same tunnel
let us plan from a moment amass you
birth to child to high schooler to adult to graduate to find
I
support you: the you you think you are
the you you know
the you adorning cap and gown me eyes welling
new beginnings
