Advisor of the month: July 2021
Linda Vick, July 2021, Advisor of the Month, Advising Matters at Virginia Tech.
Linda Vick
Mechanical Engineering
What do you enjoy about your role in advising?
I enjoy being able to help students solve problems and reduce some of the stress and anxiety they face. I love watching our students grow and mature over the years to become more confident in themselves and in their abilities.
In what ways have you contributed to advising in your department/area?
I have developed advising database software which helps us track our students' progress. Our advisors can quickly and clearly see which classes have been completed, which are in-progress, and which prerequisite/course offering issues may cause future delays in graduation. This makes it much easier to develop long term plans for our students and present them to a student in a form that is easy to understand and visualize.
What advice would you give to other professionals who want to a make a difference in the life of their students?
Always think of yourself as being a coach, not a boss, for your students. Try to share options with your students, pointing out pros and cons for each choice, then let them make their own decisions. Your students will appreciate you for being a positive person in their lives more than you will ever understand, even your small acts of kindness don't seem like much to you.