Academic Advising’s Words of Welcome and Advice

Hello, I’m Joyce Stern, and I’m the dean for student success and academic advising. I’m also a Grinnell College alumna.

I’m Kate Ferraro ’12, and I am the assistant dean of academic success.

Joyce: Engaging with advising is something every Grinnell student does, and it begins with your faculty adviser, whom you’ll meet during New Student Orientation (NSO). At Grinnell, we’re distinct from other colleges because your adviser is the person who teaches your First-Year Tutorial. Thus, they will get to know you very well as a student and as a whole person.

Kate: The Academic Advising office functions like a learning or student success center. While your adviser will help you pick classes, we are here to help you manage your academic lives. We’ll talk with you about evidence-based study strategies, time management, and all the other aspects of your academic transition to Grinnell. We get to meet about half of the student body every year, so we’re likely to get to know you.

Joyce: We’d each like to share a bit of advice with you. Mine relates to advising. Be prepared to engage actively in planning your educational journey. In high school, the guidance you received was likely formulaic, with the goal of getting you to take the classes that would best prepare you for college. Now you’re in! At Grinnell, you’ll be in charge of this planning. Your adviser is your guide – YOU get to choose the direction of your studies.

Kate: My advice would be to realize that College is inevitably more challenging than high school, and I bet that’s part of what’s exciting about this next chapter.  Remember that Grinnell offers many resources like the Math Lab, peer tutoring, and the Writing, Reading, and Speaking center to name a few. And you are supposed to use them. College is a whole new game, and you’ll need to learn new strategies. This is totally appropriate and part of good learning!

We look forward to welcoming you to campus and your next academic journey!